Music's Moneybags

At least 50 musicians of the 20th Century have earned a million dollars or more in the course of their careers. So reported Variety last week. Tops of them all--in fact, the greatest musical earner of all times--is the late great Polish pianist, Ignace Jan Paderewski, whose money-making record embraces three firsts: 1) grandest grand total: close to $5,000,000; 2) biggest single season's earnings: $500,000 (for 1922-23); 3) alltime record for a single concert: $33,000 (in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden). Only two other pianists, Rachmaninoff and Hofmann, have topped the million mark, and only five violinists: Kreisler, Heifetz, Elman, Menuhin, Zimbalist. All the rest are singers.

The list:

$5,000,000

Pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski.

$4,000,000

Tenor John McCormack; Violinist Fritz Kreisler.

$3,500,000

Soprano Amelita Galli-Curci; Tenor Enrico Caruso; Baritones Nelson Eddy, Lawrence Tibbett.

$3,000,000

Sopranos Geraldine Farrar, Mary Garden, Grace Moore; Violinists Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz.

$2,500,000

Contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink; Tenor Giovanni Martinelli; Pianist Sergei Rachmarinoff.

$2,000,000

Sopranos Lucrezia Bori, Alma Gluck, Lily Pons, Rosa Ponselle, Luisa Tetrazzini; Tenors Richard Crooks, Tito Schipa; Baritone Antonio Scotti; Basso Feodor Chaliapin; Pianist Josef Hofmann.

$1,750,000

Sopranos Margaret Matzenauer, Elisabeth Rethberg; Tenor Beniamino Gigli; Baritone Titta Ruffo.

$1,500,000

Sopranos Frances Alda, Lillian Nordica; Tenors Alessandro Bonci, Charles Hackett, Edward Johnson.

$1,250,000

Sopranos Frieda Hempel, Maria Jeritza; Contraltos Gladys Swarthout, Marian Anderson, Louise Homer; Baritone Reinald Werrenrath; Violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

$1,000,000

Sopranos Emma Calve, Emmy Destinn, Olive Fremstad, Marcella Sembrich, Marion Talley; Tenors Nino Martini, Lauritz Melchior; Baritone Pasquale Amato; Violinist Efrem Zimbalist.

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