James Zehm wrote:

>In this topic I remember Arturo Toscanini "didn't allow women in his
>orchestra", and on the question why he replied: "Because if they are
>beautiful, they distract my musicians, and if they are ugly they irritate
>me!" *LOL!* But my question: Which was this orchestra? It could never have
>been the NBC, uh?

And I once read that when Sir Thomas Beecham discovered that the
Philadelphia Symphony had female players, he asked Ormandy it it didn't
give rise to complications.  When Ormandy replied, "No", Beecham said,
"What a pity."

Walter Meyer