Word: fortissimo
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Since the old Hellzapoppin was played fortissimo, no term exists to express the racket made by the new one. It is all the panics in Wall Street, all the riots in lunatic asylums, all the election nights in Times Square, all the Fourths of July in history, and all the alarm clocks in the world going off at once. But aside from its lustier detonations, it is pretty much the same show. Lena still wanders up & down the aisles calling for Oscar, the little flowerpot whose owner won't claim it still grows by stages into a gigantic tree...
...Nazi Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels made a screaming oration to Party officials in which he flayed former U. S. Ambassador to Germany Dr. William E. Dodd and climaxed "President Benes of Czechoslovakia owes his election to the Communist vote!" Then, Der Führer signaled fortissimo, and beefy, bull-voiced No. 2 Nazi Hermann Wilhelm Göring tore into a two-hour speech of such exhausting fury that afterwards his doctors rushed him out of Nürnberg suffering from what they said was acute sore throat and inflamed lymph glands in his right leg. The General, the doctors...
There follows a terrific fortissimo "Jersualem" in all voices, which is followed by a gradual diminuendo as the tenors continue their nervous melody, the baritones subside down the scale, and the basses chant repeatedly an ever-quieter "Jerusalem." This structure is typical of the whole piece-rapid crescendos, gradual diminuendos, sudden shouts, and nervous bits of melody...
...indoor stadium, not to be confused with Soldier Field, occupies a full city block on West Madison Street, two miles from the "Loop." Its seating capacity is 25,000. Its organ, strong as 25 brass bands, smashes electric light bulbs by its vibration when played fortissimo. Delegates will not have to sweat disgustingly in their shirtsleeves, because the huge building is equipped with an airicing machine to maintain...