New Deal Accomplishment: Over 412,000 free or low-cost musical performances - for audiences totaling over 220,000,000
Above: This photo comes from Henry Alsberg's book, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration (New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934). Alsberg reports that "Musicians were probably worse hit by the depression than any other class of white collar workers... The deflation of 1929 came only as a final knockout blow; canned music in the picture houses, and radio had already considerably reduced the number of available jobs... [But] By March 31st [1934] there were several dozen flourishing orchestras and bands throughout the country, whose members were paid by the Civil Works Administration, and which gave free concerts for the enjoyment of the general public" (p. 89). Photo from America Fights the Depression; used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA, 1934-1935) picked up where CWA left off. In New York state, for example, FERA helped maintain or put together "five symphony orchestras, 4 dance orchestras, three concert bands, 7 chamber music units and two choral groups" (FERA Work Division's final report, p. 107). Photo from the FERA Work Division's final report.
Above: A WPA Tipica Orchestra in San Antonio, Texas, June 1936. Tipica bands play Spanish folk and dance music. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: WPA singers perform at the Hollywood Bowl, March 28, 1937. The following day, the Los Angeles Times described one of the songs: "With the composer [Gastone Usigli] at the piano, 'The Lord's Prayer,' set to music by Josephine Forsyth Myers, was inspirationally rendered by the Los Angeles Federal Music Project Choir, Ruben Ricketts directing, and with Julie Kellar at the harp. Elusively sweet as the music a nightingale hears in its dreams, the soft 'Amen' echoed among the hills and melted into the morning" ("Thousands Greet Dawn in Worship," March 29, 1937, pp. 1 and 6). Photo from the National Archives.
Above: The description for this photograph reads, "Orchestra and ballet, Starlight Symphonic Revue 'The Dance,' July 19, 1938, Taft Stadium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Federal Symphony Orchestra." Photo from the National Archives.
Above: A WPA dance band in Detroit, Michigan, September, 1938. From 1935 to 1939, WPA dance orchestras gave over 42,000 performances across the U.S. ("Federal Music Project's Audience Totals More Than 134 Millions," Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio), June 25, 1939). Photo from the National Archives.
Above: Members of Maryland's WPA orchestra perform for recuperating patients at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, ca. 1942. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.
Above: A National Youth Administration (NYA) orchestra, at the African American YMCA Community Center in Mobile, Alabama, September 1937. The NYA's final report explains that "NYA orchestras and choral groups were formed in a number of states... Performances were given at municipal parks and halls. In the fiscal years 1941 and 1942, NYA orchestras gave 3,976 performances... a series of NYA musical [radio] broadcasts was given, featuring musical contributions of various racial groups" (pp. 173-174). Photo from the National Archives.
Above: A National Youth Administration dance band in Los Angeles, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: The description for this photograph, taken between 1935 and 1943, reads: "Commonwealth Women's Orchestra - Solomon G. Braslavsky conducting. 25 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass." Photo from the National Archives.
Above: "WPA Hungarian Band. Detroit, 1938." Photo and caption from the National Archives.
Above: A benefit dance in Ola'a, Hawaii, on the Big Island, supported by a WPA Orchestra (the community of Ola'a is now called Kea'au). Rose Kuamoo (1903-1958) was a popular dancer and musician on the Big Island who taught "hula, piano, organ, ukelele and voice" ("Rose Kuamoo, Exponent of Island Songs, Dies," Hilo Tribune-Herald (Hilo, Hawaii), September 11, 1958, pp. 1 and 4). Image from the Hilo Tribune-Herald, June 18, 1937, and newspapers.com. Used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: A WPA band in Memphis, Tennessee, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: The description for this photograph, taken in August 1938, reads, "Humboldt Park. Part of audience listening to [the WPA's] Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra with Dr. Sigfrid Prager conducting. Soloists: Katherine Meisle, John Carter." Photo from the National Archives.
Above: "Concert," an artwork by Elizabeth Olds (1896-1991), created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Above: A WPA poster, promoting a WPA concert on Long Island, New York, between 1936 and 1941. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
A very large, very gargantuan number of WPA music-goers
In his book, All of This Music Belongs to the Nation: The WPA's Federal Music Project and American Society (University of Tennessee Press, 1996), Professor of History Kenneth Bindas reports similar statistics for the Federal Music Project's 4-year existence: 224,698 performances, 148,159,699 attending (see book review).
Of course, attendance at WPA music performances goes far beyond those numbers because after the Federal Music Project ended--i.e., after fiscal year 1939--the WPA Music Program began (the reincarnation was required to have local sponsors).
Total attendance at WPA music performances after the termination of the Federal Music Project--in other words, from mid-1939 to mid-1943--is not well-reported. However, we can make a pretty good estimate, based on three surveyed periods in 1940, 1941, and 1942. And it is important to note that WPA music performances remained popular during the pre- and early war years because soldiers sought out respite and the public sought out patriotic boosts. Many newspaper articles indicate that WPA concerts and related performances remained highly-attended and vibrant through the end of 1942, before painfully disappearing during the WPA's wind-down period (January to June, 1943).
The surveys: In a two-week period during January 1940, 1,100,000 people attended about 2,500 WPA performances. During the whole of April 1941, 2,812,364 attended 6,213 performances. In all of January 1942, 2,423,217 attended 5,974 performances.
This gives us a monthly average of 2.4 million people attending 5,724 musical performances. Multiplied by 36 months (fiscal years 1940, 41, and 42; we'll leave out FY 1943, to be conservative), we get 86,400,000 people attending 206,064 musical performances.
If we add up (a) the four years of the Federal Music Project, using Florence Kerr's lower numbers (again, to be conservative), and (b) our three (out of 4) WPA Music Program years, we get a little over 220,000,000 people attending over 412,000 performances.
We could attempt to add in audiences and musical performances by the Civil Works Administration, Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and National Youth Administration, but those numbers are not as well-reported or as easily-accessible. We certainly know that their audiences were in the millions (see, e.g., the final report of the FERA Work Division, here), but adding them in probably wouldn't make the totals any more impressive than they already are, and leaving them out ensures a very conservative estimate for the total amount of New Deal performances and audiences - that is: over 412,000 and 220,000,000 respectively.
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