Jerome Karle

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Inherit the Wind (1955), a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee [National Theatre, 806 perf.] When Bertram Cates ( Karl Light) is brought to trial for violating his state's law against teaching Darwinian evolution, the great liberal, flamboyant lawyer Henry Drummond ( Paul Muni) leads his defense. Heading the prosecution is the equally flamboyant orator and politician Matthew Harrison Brady ( Ed Begley). The appearance of these men brings the press en masse, led by the famed curmudgeon from Baltimore, E. K. Hornbeck ( Tony Randall). The trial quickly becomes a circus, in which Drummond devastates Brady. But when it is over, with Cates found guilty and given a token fine, and with Brady dead, Drummond surprises Hornbeck by coming to the defense of Brady and the Bible. “You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow something up,” he says, insisting every man has the right to be wrong and that Brady's fault was that “he was looking for God too high up and far away.” Closely following the events of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial in Tennessee, the authors made little attempt to hide the fact that Drummond was Clarence Darrow; Brady, William Jennings Bryan; and Hornbeck, H. L. Mencken. Writing in the Daily News, John Chapman hailed the Herman Shumlin–Margo Jones production as “one of the most exciting dramas of the last decade.” A Broadway revival in 1996 with George C. Scott and Charles Durning as Drummond and Brady was very popular but closed prematurely because of Scott's health. It was his last Broadway appearance.

Music in the Air (1932), an operetta by Oscar Hammerstein II (book, lyrics), Jerome Kern (music). [Alvin Theatre, 342 perf.] When Karl Reder ( Walter Slezak) writes a song called “I've Told Ev'ry Little Star,” he and his fellow Bavarian villagers trek to Munich to have it published. But once there, Karl is pursued by a flirtatious prima donna, Frieda Hatzfeld ( Natalie Hall), while a composer, Bruno Mahler ( Tullio Carminati), falls in love with Karl's sweetheart, Sieglinde ( Katherine Carrington) and he writes an operetta especially for her. But the romances and high hopes come to naught, so Karl, Sieglinde, and the villagers head home. Notable songs: There's a Hill Beyond a Hill; The Song Is You; We Belong Together; When Spring Is in the Air. Like The Cat and the Fiddle before it, the musical was Kern's attempt to write a modern operetta without resorting to excessive European mannerisms. Many critics consider this his finest, most unified work, citing not only the beauty of the melodies but also their prevailing appropriateness of tone.

Jerome Karle , 1918–, American physicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Project before beginning a career at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. There, with Herbert Hauptman , he concentrated his studies on crystalline matter. They were awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a mathematical model known as the "direct method." Devised in the 1950s and 60s, the innovation greatly improved on existing X-ray crystallography methods for analyzing three-dimensional molecular structures. The more detailed knowledge that resulted from the method led to a better understanding of body chemistry and to the development of new drugs.