Plot
Youngster Frankie (Gene Reynolds) and his small gang commit petty crimes in their New York City tenement neighborhood, such as stealing bicycles and taking money from other boys. One of those boys, Willy (Tommy Kelly), complains to his father about this, who takes the matter to Frankie's mother (Marjorie Main) and stepfather (Arthur Hohl). Frankie finds an old violin in his basement which he used to play when his father was around. He then pawns it to get some money to put in the gang's treasury.
One day, Frankie and his friend "Limey" (Terry Kilburn) hide from the police in the lobby of a concert hall. When a couple has an argument, the man disgustedly throws away his tickets. Unable to scalp them, the boys decide to attend the concert. Frankie is entranced by the virtuoso performance of Jascha Heifetz. Later, he sees his violin in the window of a local pawn shop, and decides he wants it back. Frankie steals his little gang's stash of spare change to buy the violin, which he handles with aplomb back in his mother's kitchen. His stepfather comes home and believes Frankie stole it, smashes the instrument, and decides to pack him off to reform school. Frankie immediately runs away, putting his shoe shine gear into the empty violin case as his only possession.
He stumbles upon a music school for the poor, founded by Professor Lawson (Walter Brennan). Lawson discovers that Frankie has perfect pitch and instantly enrolls the boy. That night, Frankie sneaks into the basement to sleep, but Lawson finds him. After hearing his story, he lets Frankie stay.
Unbeknownst to Lawson, the school (which does not require tuition fees) is in financial trouble. The school's sponsor has died, and bills have gone unpaid for months. All of the musical instruments are rented from a stingy music store owner ironically named Mr. Flower (Porter Hall). Flower assigns one of his clerks, Peter (Joel McCrea), to collect payment, but Peter's girlfriend is Lawson's daughter, Ann (Andrea Leeds), so he does nothing. When Flower finds out, he fires Peter and goes to confront Ann.
Frankie overhears Peter and Ann discussing the situation, and organizes a street band with some of the other students to raise money. They set up right next to a concert hall where, according to clever Frankie, "people will like us." When Jascha Heifetz comes out of the hall, Frankie recognizes him and tells him about the school and the fund raising concert they have scheduled. Heifetz is impressed with Frankie and the story and offers to send a film of himself playing. Later, when Flower and the other creditors show up to collect payment, they get the mistaken impression that Heifetz is the school's new sponsor. Peter plays along to buy time, and even claims that the violinist will perform at the school's upcoming concert.
Suspicious, Flower goes to see Heifetz and discovers the truth. Limey and the rest of Frankie's old gang try to persuade Heifetz to come, but they are turned away without seeing him. Limey steals Heifetz's Stradivarius violin as a present for Frankie, unaware of its great value. When Frankie tries to return it, he is detained by the police but refuses to talk to anyone but Heifetz. When Heifetz shows up at the police station to collect his instrument, Frankie is able to persuade him to perform at the concert. Heifetz plays to Flower and a rapt audience of the parents of the children, and it appears that the school will now be sponsored by Heifetz.
Leopold von Auer was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers.
Jascha Heifetz was a Lithuanian-American violinist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso from childhood. Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees." He had a long and successful performing career; however, after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he switched his focus to teaching.
William Steinberg was a German-American conductor.
Josef Hassid was a Polish violinist.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, in 1945.
Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron was a Russian-born Jewish composer and violinist, who settled in the United States. His preoccupation with Jewish elements and his desire to develop a "Jewish" harmonic and contrapuntal idiom, underscored and informed much of his work. His friend, the composer Arnold Schoenberg, described Achron in his obituary as "one of the most underrated modern composers".
The Colburn School is a private performing arts school in Los Angeles with a focus on music and dance. It consists of four divisions: the Conservatory of Music, Music Academy, Community School of Performing Arts and the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. It is located adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art and across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Glenn Dicterow, is an American violinist and former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where he holds the Jascha Heifetz Chair in Violin as well as serving as a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West.
The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a state-supported conservatory that trains students in music, theatre, and multimedia arts.
Remo Lauricella was a British composer and concert violinist.
Erick Friedman was an American violinist. He performed around the world as guest soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He collaborated with conductors such as Karajan, Stokowski, Steinberg, Leinsdorf, Previn, and Ozawa. He won a Grammy Award in 1996.
Ani Batikian is an Armenian violinist currently living in England.
Koh Gabriel Kameda is a German and Japanese concert violinist and violin teacher.
Ayke Agus is an Indonesian classical violinist and pianist, known primarily through her longtime collaboration with the violinist Jascha Heifetz. She is one of the rare classical music performers who has performed as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra as a Multi-instrumentalist.
Rudolph Polk was an American concert violinist based in New York City during his early years and, during his later years, a Hollywood film director, film industry executive, and artist manager for Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, José Iturbi, and Gregor Piatigorsky. In Hollywood, Polk was the assistant musical director to Morris Stoloff at Columbia Pictures. After World War II, Polk was musical director for Enterprise Studios.
Isidor Yulyevich Achron was a pianist, composer and music teacher.
Claire Hodgkins was a notable American violin virtuoso, a student of Jascha Heifetz, and founder of Jascha Heifetz society.
Miklós Rózsa composed his Violin Concerto, Op. 24, in 1953, following a request from the renowned violinist Jascha Heifetz. It premiered on January 15, 1956, in Dallas, Texas, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Hendl, with Heifetz as soloist.
Daniel Alan Heifetz is an American concert violinist and pedagogue best known as the Founder of the Heifetz International Music Institute. His career has been focused on education and the art of communication through performance.
The Chaconne in G minor is a Baroque composition for violin and continuo, traditionally attributed to the Italian composer Tomaso Antonio Vitali. A Dresden manuscript that may have been transcribed in the early 18th century is the earliest known version of the chaconne, but it was not published until 1867 when Ferdinand David arranged it for violin and piano. The origin of its composition has been debated, with some musicologists hypothesizing that the work is a musical hoax composed by David rather than Vitali. Léopold Charlier made significant alterations to the chaconne in the early 20th century, transforming it into a virtuosic, Romantic-style showpiece. It has been arranged by numerous other composers, including Hans Werner Henze, who used it as the basis for his work Il Vitalino raddoppiato (1977).
