1924: E. Kálmán - Foxtrot "Brunetka z puszty" (Nut-Brown Maiden From the Pushta) - Orkiestra Bohème

Bohème Orkiestra - Brunetka z Puszty (Braunes Mädchen von der Puszta) [English title: Nut-Brown Maiden From the Pushta] (E. Kálmán) shimmy /foxtrot z operetki „Hrabina Marica” (from the Operette ”Countess Maritza”), Beka 1924 (recorded in Berlin, Polish release) NOTE: In 1923, Wilhelm Karczag, director of the renowned Theater an den Wien, died in Vienna. He was succeeded by his daughter's husband, the actor and singer Hubert Marischka. An avid traveler and international personality, he decided to reshape the theater's profile into a modern music hall-style stage and needed a powerful musical production to launch the new line. Composer Emmerich Kálmán , who had enjoyed enormous success in Vienna two years earlier with the premiere of his operetta "La Bayadère," presented Marischka with his new operetta, "Countess Maritza," which perfectly met the director's expectations. A light and entertaining comedy, harking back to the glorious past of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it featured rich sets and charming Hungarian folklore, and above all, plenty of captivating music not only for fans of the czardas and Viennese waltz, but also of the latest American rhythms, such as the slow fox, foxtrot, and shimmy. The premiere took place at the Theater an der Wien in February 1924 and was a huge success, and a few months later, filming began in Berlin for the film "Gräfin Maritza." The Polish premiere of the operetta took place in October 1924 at Warsaw's Teatr Nowości. It featured beloved Polish operetta singers: Kazimiera Niewiarowska, Józef Redo, and Wacław Szczawiński. In New York it was staged relatively late, in the Shubert Theatre in Broadway on Sep 18, 1926 and played through Jun 25, 1927 (321 performances). Mr. Ludwik Sempoliński, a star of Polish prewar cabaret, recalls in his memoirs (1968) the Warsaw premiere of "Countess Mariza" in 1924. He describes the amount spent on the staging as "far exceeding the financial capabilities of Polish theater." Two enormous spotlights were imported from Vienna and an authentic Gypsy orchestra from Budapest. The faithful period costumes, made by Lanvin in Paris, cost a fortune, and the customs duties alone on the thousands of peacock feathers imported from abroad amounted to 5,000 złoty (then the price of a new luxury car). Dazzling sets, a chorus and ballet in authentic costumes, and first-rate performers all contributed to the event's exorbitant cost – approximately half a million złoty (about $200,000 at the time). However, crowds poured in through the doors and windows, and as it turns out, they managed to get everything back and even make a good profit, as the theater manager soon bought himself a new Mercedes. The instrumental version uploaded here, is performed in the shimmy/foxtrot rythm by the Bohème Orchestra, considered an early version of the Otto Dobrindt's dance band. Later, it adopted various names in the era of electric recording, such as the Saxophon-Orchester Dobbri, Odeon-Tanz-Orchester, or Eric Harden Tanz-Orchester.