JAZZ DEFIES GALE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4459, 19 October 1933, Page 3

JAZZ DEFIES GALE

While the Ward liner Morro Castle (11,300 tons) was in danger of being pounded to pieces in the hurricane which killed 80 people in Mexico, Gwen Taylor, went to the piano, which was fastened to the floor, and played “Happy Days Are Here Again.” The liner’s saloon presented a strange scene. Some women knelt in prayer while others wept in terror. A man who lurched toward the piano to join in Miss Taylor’s song was hurled 30ft. to a corner of the saloon. Twenty passengers were injured while the vessel was hove-to for 48 hours. “I played and sang only cheerful things,” said Miss Taylor. “Some of the women wanted me to play hymns, but I thought jazz better for them. An odd one joined in the songs, but most continued to pray.” The incident recalls the bravery of the young Australian matron who put her two children to bed in the saloon and then played “Show Me the Way. to Go Home,” when the Kanowna was wrecked while on the way from Sydney to Melbourne, five years ago.