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PodcastsDocumentaryAll Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Joe Lex
All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories
Latest episode

265 episodes

  • All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

    Jáni Szántó: Violins, Exile, and Hope

    08/18/2026 | 21 mins.
    BBB 059, part 3    Jáni Szántó...

    ...was a masterful violinist and instructor who escaped the Nazis with the help of Pope Pius XII and settled in Philadelphia as instructor. One of his old instruments was the "Lord Borwick" Stradivarius, built in 1702.
  • All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

    Wilhelm von Wymetal: Opera for Everyone

    08/17/2026 | 28 mins.
    BBB:LHWS 059-2    Wilhelm von Wymetal ...

    ... was an Austrian emigree with a dueling scar who took his expertise with opera to Hollywood, where he directed stars like Nelson Eddy & Jeannette McDonald, and to Pittsburgh, where he shepherded the Civic Light Opera through its early days of success.
  • All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

    Oscar “Papa” Schwar: Kettledrum Virtuoso

    08/16/2026 | 35 mins.
    BBB:LHWS 059-1    Oscar "Papa" Schwar ...

    ... was a German timpanist whom Leopold Stokowski praised as the best in the business. His rumblings and poundings on kettle drums kept the Philadelphia Orchestra on its toes for more than 40 years. You'll hear lots of drumming in this one.
  • All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

    Saving Music from the Nazis

    08/14/2026 | 1h 37 mins.
    BBB:LHWS 059    An estimated 1500 musicians ...

    ...fled central Europe's political turmoil in the 1930s and 1940s. 

    Tympani player Oscar “Papa” Schwar came from Germany; Leopold Stokowski considered him the best kettledrum player he had ever heard.

    Wilhelm von Wymetal came from Austro-Hungary, dueling scar and all, to New York City, where he introduced and produced more than a dozen new operas at the Metropolitan, and traveled to Hollywood to direct operatic scenes in movies starring Nelson Eddy & Jeannette McDonald.

    Jani Szántó was a Hungarian violinist who made it to Philadelphia with the help of his friend Pope Pius XII; along the way, he briefly owned the 1702 Stradivarius violin known as “Lord Borwick.”
  • All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

    OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL: USA without Slavery & Immigration

    08/07/2026 | 23 mins.
    ABC:LHS #089-6 OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL...

    ...history of the United States when I asked CoPilot to create a country that abolished slavery at its beginning and then limited immigration. It gave me a startling picture of an unrecognizable country. 

     

    This section is almost exclusively generated by CoPilot.
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About All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories
Hundreds of brief biographies of permanent residents of Laurel Hill East in Philadelphia and Laurel Hill West in Bala Cywnyd, Pennsylvania. Often educational, always entertaining. 
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