Available on line at 3. All the 1961 outings are led by Alfred Wallenstein, who turned to conducting at Toscaninis suggestion after serving as his principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic for seven years. The chief characters are the members of the Simon family8211;the grandfather is a blacksmith, the grandson will be the founder of a precision optical company8211;and the shape of the plot is dictated by the century8217;s constantly changing economic and political conditions, driving some members of the family to emigrate, others to form alliances with the Nazis. Has no collar and very friendly. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized.