1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony

www.olympicceremony.org
1928 St. Moritz - Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936

III Olympic Winter Games

Lake Placid, New York
1932

Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt opens the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid

Olympic Ceremony Records
italics indicate records at the time

• First Winter Games in North America
• First Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony to Use Loudspeakers
• Fewest Events (tied 1928 St. Moritz) - 14

Opening Ceremony

Olympic Stadium (7,475)
February 4, 1932

Video

Opening Ceremony Highlights

The Opening Ceremony of the third Winter Olympics were held on a bright and sunny morning.  Notably, this was the first Winter Olympic ceremony to use loudspeakers and the Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt opened the games.  Roosevelt would later win the 1932 Presidential Election.  This brief ceremony lasted less than 30 minutes in length.

• Officials Enter Stadium
• National Anthem of the United States performed by military band
• Parade of Nations
• Games opened by FDR
• Olympic Flag raised
• Althete's Oath

Photos

Gold Medal of the1932 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid

Olympic Poster of the 1932 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid

1932 Olympic Stadium in Lake Placid

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The Top 10 of P.D.Q. Bach

Happy New Year to the opera world!  I apologize for my absence as I have been waist deep in applications for college positions.  The paperwork is ridiculous in some cases, but I am a fierce and dedicated worker - hopefully I will have some exciting details to announce in the future!

In other news, exciting football games have engulfed my life recently, along with uniquely horrible national anthem performances.  All the while, I am about to overdose on J.S. Bach.  I originally intended to perform a lecture recital on a Bach cantata, but I have since decided to throw in some Vaughan Williams into a semester consumed with preparing Bach's B Minor Mass, where I will be the tenor soloist at a performance at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City on my birthday - April 28, and a couple weeks prior to that I will act as the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion.

But with that said, and since it is still my vacation for a couple more weeks, I would like to write about another famous Bach other than J.S. and C.P.E. Bach or any of the J.C.'s - but rather, the great P.D.Q. Bach.

P.D.Q. Bach is known as one of the most prolific plagiarists in music history. Here's a look at the genius of P.D.Q. Bach with these top ten compositions.  I have to say, moments of this will be funny to music nerds and not very funny if you don't know much about classical music - but for the music freaks and geeks out there, here you go:

10. Tocatta et Fuga Obnoxia

9. "The Farmer on the Dole" from Four Folksong Upsettings

8. Sonata for 4 Hand Viola

7. Bach Portrait

6. 1712 Overture

 5. "Eine Kleine Nichtmusik" (with theme subtitles!)

 4. The Seasonings an Oratorio

3. The Abduction of Figaro - click here for the full opera

2. "Erotica" Variations, for banned instruments and piano

• Theme: Windbreaker
• Variation I: Balloons
• Variation II: Slide Whistle
• Variation III: Slide Windbreaker
• Variation IV: Lasso D'Amore 
• Variation V: Foghorn, Bell, Kazoo, Gargle

 1. New Horizons in Music Appreciation (although not a composition of P.D.Q. Bach, this was his attempt to make classical music exciting)