From Kelly Jane Torrance's review [subscriber-only link] of a history of classical music in America:
"As many Americans know that Toscanini conducts an orchestra as know that Joe DiMaggio plays center field," Life reported in 1939. One wonders how many know the name of the current Philharmonic music director (Lorin Maazel) and that of, say, Kobe Bryant. Neither can one imagine today's cities in as much grief as Chicago was on the death of its beloved orchestra founder, Theodore Thomas: "Chicago's telephone operators were instructed to tell callers, 'Theodore Thomas is dead' before asking, 'Number, please.'"
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