An Excerpt From

Morton Gould: American Salute

By Peter W. Goodman
Foreword by Tim Page

Married to his true love. His star rising. Links with powerful musicians. Financial security. By the end of 1936 until 1945, he was on the air at least once a week presenting a remarkable variety of music and performers coast to coast.

Except for Gershwin, no composer of the period -- not Copland, Harris, Thomson, Barber, or others in art music, nor Kern, Berlin, Rodgers, Lerner -- had Gould’s reach across genres. It was a grand time for radio musicians, who knew they were involved in something new and unusual. There was a strong sense of camaraderie; the top players were in demand and took every job they could get -- with Gould, with Kostelanetz, with Mark Warnow at CBS or Frank Black at NBC. The New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera could not compete with radio for wages.

When Gershwin died in the summer of 1937, Down Beat, in a full-page article by Carl Cons, prominently nominated Gould his successor. This motion was seconded late in 1938 by Jerald Mannin in the magazine Radio Stars; Mannin offered Gould as one of four heirs to the throne (the others were composer Ferde Grofe, Gershwin's arranger; Gould’s friend Raymond Scott; and Duke Ellington). No one but Gould matched Gershwin until Bernstein came along.