Philippa's Day at the Fair

At the New York World's Fair nearly every day is dedicated to something or somebody. Noel Coward and Tallulah Bankhead have lately had their days; soon Rudy Vallee, Superman, Mrs. Hearst's Milk Fund will have theirs. One day last week it was Philippa Duke Schuyler Day. Dayspring was a bright-eyed, coffee-colored child, not quite nine, who for four years has been an egregious U. S. prodigy (TIME, June 22, 1936).

George Schuyler, a coal-black Negro, was a day laborer before he turned journalist and novelist (Black-No-More, Slaves Today). His white wife, Josephine Schuyler, a Texas-born painter and journalist, prepared for the birth of their child by eating nothing but raw food for three years.

Philippa was brought up on the same diet.

(The Schuylers now broil their meat lightly, instead of eating the raw, bloody, buttered beef and liver they used to.) Her parents were not surprised at Philippa's precocity, which began when she crawled 18 inches at the age of a month, read, wrote her name, spelled 150 long words at two. At four she could, and persistently did, spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoniosis.* A pianist since she was a little over three, Philippa Schuyler has repeatedly won prizes in tournaments of the National Guild of Piano Teachers, and in competitions of young listeners to the New York Philharmonic-Symphony. She now studies at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan, has an I. Q. of 185 (showing a mental age of 16). One of her two piano teachers is an assistant of Pianist Josef Hofmann. Able Conductor Antonia Brico drills Philippa in conducting, score reading.

Pianist Schuyler has given concerts in auditoriums and theatres since she was six, has engagements this summer in Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Atlantic City. Her mother, whom she calls "Jody," sold the idea of Philippa Schuyler Day to the World's Fair. With five gardenias in her black curls, Philippa gave two free concerts in a little theatre. She rattled off classics, played some of the 63 pieces she has made up since she was four: The Goldfish, The Jolly Pig, Manhattan Silhouettes. Self-confident but not brash, Philippa explained her Cockroach Ballet:

"The little roaches are feasting in somebody's kitchen when the human beings surprise them and there is tragedy. The humans go away in triumph, thinking they have killed every little cockroach. But one little roach peeps out and another and another. Because cockroaches will go on forever . . . unfortunately."

* Inflammation of the lungs caused by inhaling sandy dust, e.g., silicosis.

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