Today in Music History for Nov. 29: In 1880, the 1,100-seat Grand Opera House opened in Hamilton, Ont. It gave the city a proper auditorium for theatrical and musical presentations, and attracted top North American touring companies.
In 1917, Merle Travis, equally influential as both a country songwriter and a guitarist, was born in Muhlenberg County, Ky. Travis’s guitar style had a great influence on Chet Atkins, a debt Atkins acknowledged when the two recorded the Grammy Award-winning LP "The Atkins-Travis Travelling Show" in 1974. Travis’ best-known song is "Sixteen Tons," which Tennessee Ernie Ford turned into a million-seller in 1955.
Travis also wrote "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" with Tex Williams, and had hits of his own in the late 1940s with "Divorce Me C.O.D.
" and "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed." Travis died in October 1983. In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels at the age of 66 before he could complete his final opera, "Turandot.
" It was finished by Franco Alfano, and produced in 1926. Puccini composed some of the most popular operas of all time, among them "La Boheme," "La Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly." In 1937, Quebec singer-songwriter Marc Gelinas was born in Montreal.
He won prizes for several songs written to mark Expo 67, and is the composer of the theme song for the Montreal Expos. He died Oct. 2, 2001.
In 1940, Denny Doherty of "The Mamas and Papas" was born in Halifax. He performed with several pop-folk groups, includi.