Notes

When the Academy of Music in Philadelphia was taken under lease, in the autumn of 1920, for a term of years by a group of public-spirited citizens, it was for the purpose of acquiring the building so as to dedicate it to the public good. Its sixty-three years of service had given the Academy a wonderful history in which every President of the United States since Franklin Pierce had figured: practically every great orator, artist, and distinguished publicist in the United States and every illustrious visitor from foreign lands had appeared on its stage.

It was determined to recreate the Foyer in the building into a beautiful auditorium of intimate size which would serve as a Public Forum. In discussing this project with Colonel Edward M. House, he expressed his conviction that the time had come to tell the American public, for the first time, the inside story of the Peace Conference at Paris. It was decided that instead of following the customary method of publishing the material, it should be first spoken in a series of talks to be given in the Academy Foyer and thus the idea of dedicating the room as a public forum would be launched. Fifteen of the most salient subjects of the Conference were selected, and fifteen of the most authoritative speakers chosen, and a series of fifteen weekly talks explaining "What Really Happened at Paris" was announced. Tickets were sold only for the entire series, and when the first talk was delivered every seat in the auditorium was sold to the most intellectually distinguished audience ever brought together in Philadelphia.

The series was given under the auspices of The Philadelphia Public Ledger, and it was arranged that each talk should be sent out in advance of delivery to the subscribing newspapers of the United States and Europe of its syndicate for simultaneous publication the morning after its delivery in the Academy Foyer. By this method, the word spoken in Philadelphia reached, the following morning, a world audience.

On Friday evening, December 10, 1920, the first talk was delivered and the series was continued for fifteen consecutive weeks. Each talk was limited to one hour; and was followed by a half-hour questionnaire, giving those in the audience who desired the opportunity to ask any relevant question not covered in the speaker's talk. Each talk began promptly at half after eight o'clock, when the doors were closed and no late-comers were admitted, insuring uninterrupted attention for the speakers. By this method the sessions never exceeded, in time, an hour and a half.

The talks were successful from the first. No series of such length on one subject extending for fifteen weeks had ever been attempted in Philadelphia, and some misgivings were felt as to the sustaining public interest; the result proved that never in the history of Philadelphia had a series been given in which not only had the interest been sustained, but had constantly deepened.

Edward W. Bok
President The Academy of Music Corporation.
Philadelphia, March, 1921.