5 JANUARY 1940, Page 24

MR. HENRY HALL'S SIGNATURE TUNE

SIR,—Your printing of Mr. P. A. Shaw's letter on that ghastly machine, the cinema organ, encourages me to hope that you will allow me to protest about Mr. Henry Hall's signature tune.

The nauseous vulgarity of this masterpiece so horrifies me and my friends that we rush to our wireless sets at the first signs of its syrupy strains, turn off the machine—and probably miss the first part of the 12 o'clock news.

Of the brilliance of the maestro's performance in his other numbers I am not in a position to judge, as all jazz bands sound the same to me, but the repulsion caused by his theme- song devastates. I almost wish it were his swan-song.-