University Daily Kansan, September 26, 1980
Page 11
Spotlight KU prof's old friend
By ELIZABETH MORGAN Staff Reporter
His fingers eased over the keys of the piano, and jazz music filled the night club. It was the 1940s, and the musician was picking up some cash while waiting for a chance to sing opera in concerts. A stranger cried shed him.
"My girlfriend here says you're interested in singing—want to make it big. I can't tell. Are you really that good?" the stranger asked.
The musician, William Wartfield, told him he had indeed had training and was waiting for a chance to make a formal concert debut.
The stranger said he would sponsor Warfield's debut.
"Oh, sure. fine," Warfield said,
expecting nothing to materialize.
BUT THE STRANGER meant it. Warfield made his debut and got favorable reviews. He went on to do concerts, Broadway shows and a movie, "Showboat," in which he sang "Old Man River."
Warfield, the Langston Hughes Visiting Professor at KU this fall, spoke at the "Tea and Talk" lecture yesterday.
The man who sponsored Warfield's debut explained to him that someone had helped him during a pivotal point in his career, and he became a financial success. He wanted to return the favor after the failure of his career after Warfield's debut, the man died.
However, Warfield later met a student in Australia who was playing with a band, and he advised him on his career. In a few years, the student was successful in England. Both Warfield's own sponsor and the student were of Scottish-Irish descent, and both were named Walter Carr.
Warfield toked. "It put the fear of
God into me. I decided I wasn't going to help anyone."
WARFIELD SAID THAT from his childhood to the time he entered college, he really wanted to be a college professor. Instead, he became a perennial Broadway star because of his show, "Call Me Mister," which was on tour for a year.
"The bug bit me," he said of that period.
He called the cast, which included
Buddy Hackett, Carl Reiner and Bob Fosse, "a company of young hopefuls."
He already had auditioned for the part of Joe in "Showboat" but had mistakenly assumed that the part had been taken. Then he read in a gossip column that the role of Joe had not been filled.
Warfield was in Australia at the time, working at the Australian Broadcasting Company. ABC made a recording of his voice and sent it to MGM, his manager sent a package with pictures and a video of him to his friend Louis Mayer of MGM about the baritone. Warfield was cabled the news of his hiring.
young. His music education began in the church where his father was minister. He sang in the choir and took piano lessons.
Warfield was born in Arkansas but moved to Rochester, N.Y., when he was
When he entered the Eastman School of Music on a scholarship, he was already qualified for a piano degree but continued to study because he liked it.
WORLD WAR II HAD begun when he graduated. HE was stationed at Camp Richey in Maryland, where many immigrants arrived, because there he could use his knowledge of French, German and Italian.
Warfield is teaching voice and will give a concert in November before returning to the University of Illinois at St. Louis, where he is a professor of music.
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Thursday Initiation night
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For me, the Air Force and my service in the Air Force represented an expression of patriotism and service to a country that I'm proud of.
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That's what Air Force ROTC is doing for me. See what it can do for you.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: AFROTC
108 Military Science    Phone 864-4676
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