Billboard advertising (Oct 1910)

•n THE BILLBOARDi derrOBER I , 1910 n—nu- THE ENGLISH MUSIC HALL The Home of Popular Music in England MUSIC PUBLiSHiNG IN ENGLAND. I The pobllsbiae ot popular music In England Is a atraoge game. Not that I mean tbat It l» in any sense unsuccessful, or that any one is entitled to iieave briclcs at those engaged in It. Yet, all • the same, it Is carried but on aucb carious lines and with such an extraor- dinary dlTergeaee of method and opinion that ta the outsider It appears the most hopeless tangle of interests that the brain of man ever Isrented. As a question ot - analf sis. the trade divides itself into two sections: the one dealing with the publication of the music ball-Tariety song, the other the concert or drawing room ballad. Not only is there a great guU fixed iMtween tile methods of exploitation of these two Tari- etles of songs, bat la the case of either, each pabllaher Is a law auto bimself in the manner In wtaicb be presents his wares to the public eiye. ■ Dealing with the variety song first, one finds CD - extraotdlnaty dlTetsity of opinion between pnbllshers tegaiding the methods which should be nsed to ensure the popularity of a particular item. But In' this connection one great prin- ciple has to be laid down, which is at the bot- tom of every device which a publisher may use. ' It Is that a song, in order to be popular, should be **attacbed" to some singer of resog- 'nlxed merit. And, as a necessary corollary to this proposition, it follows that a song must be written to suit the personality of .a partic- nlar singer, and that the composer, from the .commencement, must have this particular per- ■ aonalityv in mind. * . • Tbenr again, as a natural cofiseqnence ot tills. It Isr st once apparent that every singer ■ ■of prominence, once be lays hands on a sang • likely to suit him. Insists, If be can, of hav- ing; tbe exclusive rigbt of singing it. In fact, ■ in most cases, if be is at the top of the tree, he regards bimself as granting a favor to the composer by singing the song in question. But on this point I shall have something to say later on. . .. Let us follow oat.tbe conseqnences of this practice. A composer starts out with a cor- taln artist In mind. It may be Harry lAuder. WUkle Bard, ot a light comedian of the type ot Cbarles Whittle, or a straight cliaraeter comedian, like George Lashwood. Harry Lauder's methods and mannerisms you are all.' of course, acquainted with. Wilkie Bard Is a great natural comedian with some- thing of the lugubrious manner. But with both of tbem the majority of their songs depend en- tirely on tlie singer's personality. For instance, what man In a thousand could make anything ot Lander^) I'm the Saftest of the Family? 'Apart from the singer, that particular song ' wonld be as of no account. The same thing - bapoens with tbe majority of the songs sung by Wlikle Bard; they simply represent the tri- umpbs ot Individual method and personality. Of course, both singers occasionally sing num- bers that would suit many other artists. I<and- er's She's My Daisy, or Bard's Sea Shells, could both be attempted with success by num- erous other singers. But songs of this typr are rarities la their, repertoire. Taking tbe case, however, of Lashwood or WbHtle, we find that both these artists deal In songs of a type that not only are sung and whistled everywhere, bat can be attempted, not only by amatenrs, bnt by-any Indlvidaal who labors under tbe belief tbat be possesses a slug- WITMARK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. I MAURICE SHAPIRO, Tbi 'main office of the Wltmark & Sons Hosle Pdbllshlng Co. 1 a y •3 of the Shapiro Music Publishing Co., New Tork City. Ing voice. They are not attempting Intricate character studies; they merely place before tbe public a straightforward comic -song. This leads np to tbe point I wish to make with regard to the exploitation and sale of songs of this type. It la that the cherished be- lief that only a great star artist can make a commercial success of a song. Is largely a delusion. If yon are putting a song on tbe market.: yonr sole-Interest lies In tbe fact whether people plank down tiielr money and buy it or not. ^ It doesn't matter two straws that half of tbe population has got the num- ber on the brain, and are jarring the nerves of tbe other balf by Its perpetual repetition. If tbe public popDlarlty Is not leading yon Into the direction of. mshuig extra editions on to the market, then your efforts have largely been wasted. . And so I consider tbls fetish that a gre-it star necessarily :"make8^' a song—from tbe publlsber's standpoint—Is very largely a mis- take. Some of the publishers are already com- ing around to tbls view. But the futnit.v of the general principle is shown by the manner In which nearly all tbe Kreat commercial success are brought about. The great vehicle for this end Is pantomime. As you know, pantomimes run from atwut Christmas to Easter. Without going into the manner of this particular form of entertain- ment, I need only mention that the vaudeville song constitutes its most Important feature. Now I suppose there are loO or more panto- mimes pat on ever>' year. And these constitute the basis of the successful exploitation of pop- ular songs. - ■ Tlie method employed is this: The leading variety song publishers, Messrs. Francis, Iisy and Hunter,, have perhaps balf a dozen songs which are bound to be great popular successes: the songs of the year. In fact. Now those songs may have been banded over to various slnsers, with the exclusive risht of singing them in the music halls, but the firm retains the entire pantomime rights. So it comes aliout tbat for pantomimes these numbers become "free .■sooks," and any artist can sing incm, after having obtained the firm's permission. Tbe consequence Is that these half dozen fongs are sung at each of these 150 paQtomi:nns. Simultaneously they reach the entire ponul irl.-)n of Groat Britain and for weeks nothing else Is heard from wblstling errand boys, asplr-int amateurs or organ grindtn;: artists. Xfm can't get away from them ttiouRli you shoalO wish. And naturally tbe firm tikn care that tbe songs are of tbe type that everyone can slug. For Instance, take several recent panto nime successes—I Want You to Be My Olrl. S«. Su. Su, or Let's All Go Down the Strand. Ev- eryone could, and did, sing Hiem, .and; •wis*!, qiientl.v hundreds and hundreds of thousands of copies were sold. I would just like to Incorporate a remark here with regard to tbe position of tbe singer who had the exclusive music ball * right, lu reference to what 1 have said on this point, above. Now, it is a curious fact that the singing of a popular song in pantomime nas tho effect of enhancing enormously the reputallun of the singer who originally sang It. Tjfee, for Instance, George Elliott's The Chocoltte Colored Coon song, 1 Used to SIgb for the Silvery Moon—that song went Into pantomldui and was sung everywhere. And tbere was a kind of reflex action. Everyone, wbo beard It said. "Thafs George Elliott's song." Con- sequently, so far from lis ubiquity lujuring the singer when he came to the town again, evcrj-- one would give the number a more upro::ri<'U8 welcome than ever, tiecause they were coiDg to bear It from tbe Hps of its original expos- itor. So pantomime constitutes the great means of song exploitation In this country. Of cnuse. all the year round publlsbers are banding out songs which become popular and . these, of course, are frequently great commercial suc- cesses. But speaking broadly, every in, .i: tr song either comes out of, or goes Into, p.iijto- mime. ^ Turning now to the ordinary ballad, we fiud there Is little diflference in the uietlioils em- ployed. Just as Francis, Day and Hunter, Witmarks, Sheards constitute the great -pub- lishers of the music hnll ballad, so do Boosey's, Cbappells', Mctzlern' lead in the direction. of the song sung at tlin ordinary concert room. Iii the latter cases, tlic methods of exploitation have txwome practically stereotyped, and Eng- lish publishers in this business seem more than conservative In method. The main way, of course, to place a song before the -public Is to pay a well-known singer to sing it. The fee for this varies, as a rule, from one to ten guineas Taken alto- gether, this methoil. although expensive when done on a big scale, is fairly successful, pro- vided the singer suits the song. Very little advertising In the newspapers Is done by the publishers. Anything In the wsy of real, live, attractive advertising seems un- beard of by them, and would. I believe, bo rcgatdHl as distinctly below Ibclr dignity. In fact, the "dignity" of tbe older school of mu- sic publishers here—whose chief claim to re. spect lies la their antiquity—Is something be- yond 'belief. For Instance, I recently applied to one very old firm for information on a cer- talu point, and was refused, as "tbe firm never had anything to do with tbe pressi" The only advertising tbat Is done generally Is a few annouuceoients to the effect that "Mr, Smith will sing Mr. Jones' song. Daylight Fancies, at MudportH)n-8ea, on Monday next." The en- terprise Is almost overwhelming. (Continued on page 44.) -a 8 a a a MUSIC HALLS IN ENGLAND. The Story of Their Origih and Devel- opment. 1 liappened to be rumsglng In an old book- shop the other day when tbe proprietor came and handed me a number of little paper-covered volumes which be tbougbt might be In my Hoe. They were twelve issues of Thomas Iludsou's Popular Songs and tlie first one was dated 1S18 and the last 1830. Bacb contained about twenty songs—some of tliem of Inordinate length—and altogether they represented- the' popular melo- dies of the day. But although nearly a bnndted years old these songs appeared by no means old-fashioned, in fact as far as types were concerned they dif- fered very little from those of the present day. There is a coon song about the c01ore<l servant -who saw much and said little and gained much credit thereby; tbere is the tale of tbe rustic who meets with misfortunes In London; the amorous vicissitudes ot an attrac- tive young widow are fully described: and there Is one quaint little ditty entltletl. Which Fully Accounts for the. Same, which bears an uncanny resemblance to one or two recent popular suc- cesses. And naturally, skimming through these lit- tie books, the idea came to me that perhaps these songs were largely responsible for tbe palatial music halls and variety theatres ot the present day. They were the songs which were sung which were sung at all convivial and public gatherings. They enlivened the progress of the condemned man on his last procession— with bis back to the horses—In the cast to Tyburn; they met tbe bridegroom on his return from the church. Altojrether they were part and parcel of the real life of tbe people. Thomas Hudson was the great song writer of his day. Be not only wrote bis songs but be set them to music and then sang tbem. Certain- ly he had bis troubles for in his volumes we find notices saying that be had suffered very much from having bis music pirated and In fu- ture be Intended to prosecute anybody selling unauthorized copies of any of his music. But be was the first man to set a really popular type of topical song in vogue, and living at the time when the germs of the present day music balls were just appearing, his work bad an Immense Iniauence On every kind of popular song music. Hudson's songs were chiefly sung at what were known as Tbe Song and Supper Rooms— which were among tbe most prominent Institu- tions of London life. They existed all over the town but their chief stronghold was In tbe West, between St. lames' and Temple Bar. Primarily they were eating bouses, but as time went on tbe vocal and instrumental music which tbes offered to their patrons became as great. If not greater, an attraction as tbe food, excellent as this was. Hot suppers, admirably cooked and served could be bad up to about four o'clock In the mornings If those present were not eating they could just sit and listen : to the musical attractions provided. The land- lord bimself took the chair and more often than not. con'trilmtcd to the harmony of the evening. At first tbe program was of a simutaneous (Continued on page 44.) LONDON OFFICE. of the Wltmark & Sons Uusle Publlsblns Con- cern. a 8 1 a s a 1 a I s a '8 a a a — 8 —