Headaches, But Fun

LEONARD (BONES) JOY '16 says of his Job: "It's all headaches, double strength headaches, too, and of no interest to people in general." To most of us, being manager of artists and repertoire for Victor records spells interest and excitement. But Bones's life is not all symphonies, jazz, and blonde soloists. There's a technical side of the business with "balance, blend, pressings, repressings, and what-not" haunting the recordings he supervises.

"I'll tell you one thing, though, you've got to have patience, lots of it," Bones says. "You can't get nervous in this racket or that nervousness will leap over to the artists and make extra work for you."

Helen Morgan, Fannie Brice, Eddie Cantor, Nelson Eddy, Libby Holman, and Sophie Tucker are just a few of the stars of the musical world that Bones has conducted onto wax and on whom he's had to practice the art of assuaging ruffled temperament. Cheerfully he chalks it all up to experience, however, along with his conducting house orchestras through Swedish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and other foreign songs and pieces when he first went with Victor. "I didn't learn any of the languages," he admits, "but I got a good deal of experience in talking with gestures."