Variety (January 1954)

SO MUSIC UfaUEfr ; WediMNwhr, January 20, 1954 By JIM WALSH The Ford program of a few months ago, highlighting 50 years of American history, ranks as one of all-time TV highlights. And It seems generally agreed the top highlight was the Ethel MermanMary Martin impersonation of the old-time Happiness Boys duet team. Now that Decca has reprised the : Merman-Martin duo’s classic performance on all types of platters, time seems ripe for some researoh on the history of the horseless carriage as related in pop songs and recorded comedy sketches of the past 50-odd years. A more than cursory check-up indicates there just weren’t any automobile songs at the tur.n of the century, and if there were they didn’t get on records. There is no tribute, serious or derisive, to the gasoline buggy in the 1900 Edison catalog, the 1901 Columbia or the 1902 Victor. If a car is mentioned a street-car is meant. When Ed Rose and Ted Snyder wrote “Take a Car” in 1905, they sang the praises of the trolley, declaring Pit beats all your hansoms and automobiles.” During the stretch from 1900 to 1906, trolley songs were much more frequently met with than those about the new-fangled Dobbin-terror. There was a “Trolley Galop.” “On a Good Old Trolley Ride” was popular, as was “There’s Room For Us All On The Trolley.” “Comings Home From Coney Isle” had its locale in a street-car. As late as 1912 there was a raggy number called “The Trolley Car Swing.” Apparently the first record to feature the 20th Century go-devil was “Uncle Josh in An Automobile,” which the ever-present . Cal Stewart made for Victor and other companies early in 1904. Like all the Punkin Center specialties, it was popular, but even more so was its 1915 variant, “Uncle Josh Buys An Automobile.” Rube Comedy The rube comedy angle also was brought out by Len Spencer in a 1904 record which Victor called “Reuben Haskins’ Ride in the ’Red Devil’,” and Columbia, “Reuben Haskins’ Ride on a Cyclone Auto.” Real historical value attaches to a 1906 Columbia, “Seeing New York; or a Trip on the RubberNeck Coach,” in which Spencer and associates take the listener on a tabloid tour of the more outstanding areas of old New York— Chinatown, the Bowery, the Flatiron Building, Grant’s Tomb, etc. Of course the motor coach breaks down, bystanders jeeringly shout, “Get a horse!” and the passengers emerge, singing “Take a Car.” Instrumental descriptive sketches began to pop up. too. George Rosey, composer of the once-famous “Handicap March,” also wrote “The Motor March.” Harry Frantzen changed the title a little with “The Motor King March.” Columbia issued a record played in London by the Royal Regimental Band of J. Gilchrist’s “Motor Car Galop.” featuring honking of horns and the slaughter of dogs and other critters that didn’t get out of the way. A Comic descriptive j specialty, “Motoring,” recorded by : the . late Harry Tate^ was one of the big selling records in Great Britain for almost a generation. Some of its humor was adapted into the Victor record of “We’re the Sunday Drivers,” made by Billy Murray, Carl: Mathieii and Monroe Silver in 1927. Similar to the “Motor Car Galop” was the 1905 Victor record of “An Auto Race,” by Arthur Pryor’s -Band. There was also an “Automobile Polka.” The first to get anywhere is still one of the best remembered, Vincent Bryan and Gus Edwards' “In My Merry Oldsmobile,” which was widely sung in 1905. (Many years later the Oldsmobile makers distributed free copies of the sheet music as a publicity stunt.) The all-time top interpreter of topical J songs, Billy Murray, waxed it impartially for Victor, Columbia and Edison. “Oldsmobile” set off a spate of auto songs. A good followup was “On An Automobile Honeymoon,” written by Billy Jerome & Jean Schwartz, and featured by Harry Tally in McIntyre & Heath’s production, “The Ham Tree.” Tally, later the lead in the Empire City Four, said to have worked more vaude time than any other singing ensemble, also played no favorites, recording it for all the leading companies. His heroine’s name was Mollie, but the make of the honeymoon car wasn’t specified. Then along came “Out in An Automobile,” by Vincent Bryan and George (Honey Boy) Evans. Although “Merry Oldsmobile” was the first car song to make a hit, it was not the first to be recorded. That honor probably goes to “My Gasoline Automobile” (composer unidentified) which the late Sam Rous, the Victor catalog editor from 1902 to 1917. plattereti under the alias of Frank Kernell in 1004. Obviously, the number is a comic, and the “Gasoline” in the title probably was used to indicate the machine wasn’t an electric runabout or a Stanley Steamer. Berlin At Wheel Irving Berlin got into the auto act in 1912 with “Keep Away from the Fellow Who Owns an Automobile,” This may have been the first .song in which timid maidens were warned against the predatory intentions of the guy at the steering wheel. It is very likely the first time the phrase “you’ll have to get out and walk” was used in a pop tune, (Berlin assumed the girls would prefer to take a nice, invigorating hike rather than give the lecherous driver a kiss.) But this was not the first song in which the “Walk home” motif appeared. Harry Williams & Egbert Van Alstyne’s great 1906 cowboy hit, “Cheyenne,” told of how Shy Ann and her boy friend started riding a-hossback to be married in Cheyenne, 67 miles from the ranch. En route, Ann decided maybe she didn’t want to marry, after all, whereupon “his face got red, and BETAIL DISK BEST SELLERS FIVE TOP ALBUMS (Ludwig Music House) V o ) y— (Jenkins Music) Q o U .2 .. . K&rieFt > Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports obtained from leading stores in •10 cities and showing comparative sales rating for this and last week. ' CA 2 o 09 ett M 0) 5 o U . M 6 <0 3 s l Hudson Ross) £ .© e • ms 3 i 6 A . £ i •S VK fi X a 0 Q 1 3 s w ’* .. 4> c 0) Q 1 Detroit— (Grinnell Bros.) T o T A L VI * * National Rating This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label, Title j 1 ft * a fc ■s ms • 4) I MM’. .£ 1 o a u 1 s v . co San Anton: CO w • 1 . '55 A w.. £ A « . e e ' •m S' Kansas Cit V bs c< • S : • j 1 1 i EDDIE FISHER (Victor) “Oh, My Papa”. . ..... 1 2 2 4 1 l 1 1 i 1 95 2 2 DEAN MARTIN (Capitol) “That’s Amore”. . .... 6 4 4 2 5 • i 5 5 5 5 58 3 3 PATTI PAGE (Mercury) “Changing Partners” 4 6 .. 3 4 ... 2 4 a • 4 50 4 10 FOUR ACES (Decca) “Stranger in Paradise”....:. 2 1 .. 2 4 a a 3 43 5 4 . TONY BENNETT (Columbia) “Rags to Riches” . . 7 .. . 6 3 9 ’ 7 .. 2 2 a a 41 6 9 DORIS DAY (Columbia) “Secret Love”. . .......... 5 7 6 6 * a. 30 7 6 TONY BENNETT (Columbia) “Stranger in Paradise” . . . . 10 « • 1 2 3 a a a a 28 8 5 TERESA BREWER (Coral) “Ricochet” . . 8 •' « 6 4 6 8 a • 23 9 • • a MILLS BROS (Decca) “Jones Boy” . . . . . . 3 3 • t • t • • a • a a 16 10 11 TONY MARTIN (Victor) “Stranger in Paradise” • • • • 3 • • • 4 « .a 15 11 14 FOUR TUNES (Jubilee) “Marie” . . . • *. . • » 5 • • 3 a a a. a ✓ • a 14 12 7 FRANK CHACKSFIELD (London) “Ebb Tide” .. 9 ^ • « ■ 8 7 • • * • a 7 a • 13 13 7 EDDIE CALVERT (Essex) “Oh, Mein Papa” » • % • • • • • * • * 8 « a a » 2 12 14 15 FOUR ACES (Decca) “Heart of My Heart” • a " . • • • 5 8 ■ • ' a a 9 • a 11 15 A 13 FOUR KNIGHTS (Capitol) “I Get So Lonely”: • • • • • « • • « 3 a a a a 8 15B 19 DINAH SHORE (Victor) “Changing Partners” • • ♦ • • • • • • • 3 a a 8 17 A GEORGIE SHAW (Decca) “Till We Two Are One” : ... ... 10 9 • • • a a 8 6 17B 12 FQUR LADS (Columbia) “Istanbul” • • .. 9 .. 7 • a • a 6 17C GAYLORDS (Mercury) “Strings of My Heart” • » 9 • • • • . • • a a 7 6 20 17 JULIUS LaROSA (Cadence) “Eh Cumpari” • • . • a •. • V. • • • a r • 9 8 a 5 1 2 ‘ 3 4 5 KISMET THAT BAD EARTHA CONCERTOS FOR SHOW BIZ CALAMITY JANE Broadway Cast Eortha Kitt YOU libaraca-Weston All Star Cast Doris Day Columbia Victor Columbia Victor Columbia ML 4850 LPM 3187 ML 4764 LOC 1011 C 347 then he said, ‘You will or you’ll walk home.'” Presumably being fresh out of walking shoes, she chose to wed. Even as late as 1913, motor vehicles appear to have been considered the playthings of the idle rich rather than a necessity for the average man. Berlin’s “Inter-, national Rag” of that year speaks of “dukes and lords and Russian czars— men who own their motor cars.” However, Henry Ford by . this time was becoming one of the most talked-about men.in the world, and with the ever growing popularity! of the Ford, comic songs about cars, particularly “the Tin Lizzie,” increased. Edgar Leslie, Grant Clarke and Maurice Abrahams did well with “He’d Have to Get Under, Get Out and Get Under (To Fix Up His Automobile).” C. R. Foster and Byron. Gay gave the Ford a terrific plug with “The Little Ford Rambled Right Along,” which represented that you could patch a Henry up with “a piece of string, spearmint gum or any old thing.” .and itwould still go when no other car would venture. Another 'T’ord song was “On the Old Back Seat of the Henry Ford.” The “jitney bus,” forerunner of the present-day bus systems that have nudged street cars out of business in most cities, made its debut in 1915. Gay knd Charley Brown followed up the success of “The Little Ford” with “Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus.” Also heard were “Hop a Jitney With Me” and “I Didn’t Raise My Ford -to be a Jitney.” Ulysses Kay, longhair composer, set as guest conductor with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson, Feb. 23. He’ll baton his own compositions. \