USC Rare Books and Manuscripts
Collection 34

BRUNO DAVID USSHER COLLECTION

Provenance: Given by Bruno David Ussher, February, 1962.

Scope and Content: Music celebrity photographs autographed to Ussher in the 1920s-30s.

Biography:

Bruno David Ussher was born in Germany, and studied musicology with Arnold Schering and Hugo Riemann and philosophy with Oswald Spengler.  He spent some years in England, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1910.  He received a D.Mus. from USC in 1934.

Ussher was a Los Angeles music critic for many years for different Los Angeles newspapers (Evening Express, Examiner), magazines, and scholarly journals into the 1950s. During the years 1938-1941, his column appearing in the Los Angeles Daily News (not connected with the current Los Angeles Daily News) regularly covered film music.

Ussher was a lecturer in Aesthetics and the Criticism of Music and symphonic literature at the University of Southern California from 1931-1944, and also taught at Cal Tech.  He was production manager of Hollywood Bowl concerts from February 1935 to the summer of 1936 and wrote program notes for the concerts.  He was project chief for eleven western states of the Federal Music Project from 1936-39.

Inventory

Folder No. 1
 I.   Photographs of Musicians
     A.  Small photographs

(1)  Coates, Albert (1928), autographed & inscribed
(2)  Harty, Sir Hamilton (1934), autographed & inscribed
(3)  London String Quartet
(4)  Paderewski, I. J.
(5)  Stock, Frederick A., autographed & inscribed
(6)  Wood, Sir Henry & family
(7)  Wood, Sir Henry (1934), autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 2
     B.  Medium photographs

1)  Alsciz, Elsa, autographed & inscribed
2) Alsciz, Elsa (1928), autographed & inscribed
3) Bloch, Ernest (1926), autographed & inscribed
4) Chamblee, Mario, autographed & inscribed
5)  De Luca, Guiseppe (1924), autographed & inscribe
6)  Fenner, Beatrice, autographed & inscribed
7)  Gabrilowitsch, Ossip (1927). autographed & inscribed
8)  Giannini, Dusolina (1935), autographed & inscribe
9)  Gretchaninoff, Alexandre (1931), autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 3

(1) Harris, Roy (1932), autographed & inscribed
(2) Harty, Sir Hamilton (1934), autographed & inscribed
(3)  Heifetz, Jascha
(4)  Heifetz, Jascha (with Guarnerius violin)
(5) Hess, Myra, autographed & inscribed
(6) Hess, Myra
(7) Hess, Myra
(8) Hess, Myra

Folder No. 4

(1)  Klemperer, Otto (1933-34), autographed & inscribed
(2)  Koshetz, Prof.  A. (1926), autographed & inscribed
(3)  Leginska, Ethel (1925), autographed & inscribed
(4)  Leginska, Ethel, autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 5

(1)  MacDowell, Marian (1928), autographed & inscribed
(2)  Marmoulian, Ruben (1957), autographed & inscribed
(3)   Milhaud, Darius, autographed & inscribed
(4)  Monteux, Pierre (1935), autographed & inscribed
(5)  Paderewski, I. J., autographed & inscribed
(6)  Ponselle, Rona (1930), autographed & inscribed
(7)  Prokofieff, Serge (1930), autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 6

   (1)  Roma, Lisa (1929), autographed & inscribed
   (2)  Sagalli-Curey, Ameli (1924), autographed & inscribed
   (3)  Stock, Frederick A. (1937), autographed & inscribed
   (4)  Stravinsky, Igor (1935), autographed & inscribed
   (5)  Strom-Granger, Ella-Viola, autographed & inscribed
   (6)  Wood, Sir Henry (1934), autographed & inscribed
   (7)  Zimbalist, Efrem (1925), autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 7

  (1)  Los Angeles Philharmonic Asst. Director Henry Svertofsky, Conductor Otto Klemperer, Mrs. Klemperer, Personnel Manager Fred Ruphal, Concertmaster Sylvain Norcho, (December 22, 1934)
  (2)  Ussher, Kingsley, Jack L.Warner, Oscar Straus, Mrs. Straus (1930)

Folder No. 8
    C. Large photographs

(1)  Goossens, Eugene (original deBru caricature)
(2) Goossens, Eugene (1931), autographed & inscribed
(3)  Schumann-Heink, Ernestine (1922), autographed & inscribed
also a separate note (in French) to Ussher
(4)  Hertz, Alfred (1926), autographed & inscribed
(5)  Oberhoffer, Emil (1923), autographed & inscribed
(6)  Respighi, Ottorino (1929), autographed & inscribed
(7)  Sibelius, Jean, autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 9
          (1)  Molinari, Bernadino (1935), autographed & inscribed

Folder No. 10
    Manuscript Material

           (1)  MacDowell, Edward, Original manuscript of Finale of "Sonata Tragica" opus 44, no. 3, signed and dated 1892. (3 leaves)
           (2) Mailing label

Folder No. 11

Poster with picture:  Russian Art Club advertisement (1926), Altschuler, Modest picture