Jim Tobin responds to me:

>I do recall his saying that something like 60% of New Yorkers,
>especially, knew who Toscanini was in the 1930s, and you would be
>hard-pressed to get that kind of survey result now about any classical
>musician.

I suspect this had more to do with the kind of media coverage figures
like Toscanini got than a larger fraction of the population's interest
in classical music.  I think this applies as well to playwrights like
Arthur Miller.

len.