Subversity Press Release for March 16, 1999 Show Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 11:17:18 -0800 (PST)

The Comedian Harmonists: An Orange County Connection

Irvine -- Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, this evening features a look back at the German singing group, The Comedian Harmonists, which was broken up by the Nazis. Our guest is Marc Alexander, a grandson of one of the singers. Subversity airs from 5-6 p.m. Pacific Time this evening on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, and on the Internet live at kuci.org:8080 for folks whose computers have sound cards.

Alexander, an attorney in private practice in Irvine, has been researching the group since he learned about his grandfather, Erich Collin, a Jewish member of the Comedian Harmonists. Collin's participation in the group, as well as for several others, abruptly ended when the Nazis broke the original group up in an anti-Semitic move.

The group, featured in an earlier documentary, is now the subject of a play, "Band in Berlin" on Broadway and also featured in a movie that opened nationwide last Friday. Local viewers can see the movie, "The Harmonists", this Sunday at UCI's Film and Video Center at 12:30 p.m. as part of the Jewish Film Festival. Alexander will also speak there.

To chat with the guest, call (949) 824-5824 during the show. Or e-mail questions to subversity@kuci.org.

Alexander is featured in an interview in the current edition of the Jewish Journal: Interview.

A decent Web-site for more information on the Comedian Harmonists is at Jim Lowe's Popular Culture Excavation Site: Harmony.

Alexander is a long-time friend of Subversity, having defended -- pro bono -- show host Dan Tsang against a subpoena from a lawyer representing a teenager in a civil case involving the gay bashing of Loc Minh Truong, who was almost killed. Alexander argued that state's shield law protects reporters' notes from being supbpoenaed; and the lawyer withdrew the subpoena for all of Tsang's notes and photographs. See: Subversity Fights Subpoena, Article

This show will be available on RealAudio later this week on Subversity's Web site. Recent shows are also available there: RealAudio Archive.

URL: kuci.org/~dtsang.
E-mail: subversity@kuci.org.