Beef for Japan

Not even the appearance of Marilyn Monroe made such a hit in Japan. The new, triumphant visitor: New York City's Symphony of the Air, Arturo Toscanini's former orchestra, which has been looking for a job ever since the maestro's retirement. Occupation for the next six weeks: U.S. cultural ambassador abroad.

As the first Western symphony orchestra to tour the Far East (sponsored by the U.S. State Department, ANTA and Japan's Mainichi newspapers), the Symphony of the Air packed Tokyo's 2,600-seat Hibiya Hall for the opening concert. Scalpers were collecting $22 for $5 tickets. Conductor Walter Hendl of the Dallas Symphony led a program of Berlioz, Gershwin, Richard Strauss and Brahms, got a six-minute ovation from an audience which included Crown Prince Akihito. Twenty-four hours before tickets went on sale for a special student concert, crowds began to line up at the box office, and students patiently went to sleep on the sidewalk. Three thousand who could not get into the hall petitioned the orchestra for another concert. (They will get it, at about 25-c- a seat.)

Seoul, Okinawa, Formosa, Hong Kong and the Philippines were still unknown quantities, but eight other Japanese cities were already showing signs of matching Tokyo's enthusiasm. As one Tokyo critic explained it: "My eyes were blurred with tears of my deep feeling. We have been waiting these many years just for this night." Said another enthusiast: "I feel as if I had eaten a big beefsteak of music."

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