Variety (October 1954)

Wednesday, October 20 , 1954 MUSIC BIZ SCENE IN 1914 By JIM WALSH On a recent network quiz show, the emcee, blandly try- ing to help q contestant who Was stumped at identifying two erstwhile hit tunes* said: “Here’s a tip. Those songs came out when the turkey trot and two-step were at the peak of their popularity." The songs turned out to be “Ramona" and “My Blue Heaven," vintage of 1927-28—a period •when both the turkey trot and the two-step had been defunct for almost half a generation. That isn’t important,, perhaps, except as an indication of how little you need to know sometimes to be a network emcee. As a matter of fact, both the; trot and the twp- sfep, which had been the Vogue of 1912-13, were on their way out by the time ASCAP Was organized 40 years ago. A survey of the Victor and Columbia record lists for 1914 proves that statement beyond doubt. And such a survey also reveals some interesting facts about the state of pop- ular music in ASCAP’s natal yean—such as the appear-, a nee for the first time of the foxtrot, and the blues in American pop music. : Perhaps the thing that stands out most clearly about those now charmingly antique days is that the U. S. was dance crazy, for a period of half a dozen years beginning around 1911 and ending with the country’s getting into the First World War, as it never had been before and never has been since. In January, 1914, the turkey trot was still going strong, although most dance, records \vere described as suitable for both th two-step and trot. Four in the Victor list fpr. that month were so described; one was for. the one- step or trot; brie, the turkey trot alone, and there .was a single example of the “waltz Boston." The hesitation Waltzv or “waltz hesitation," showed up in February, and in March there was an innovation—two double-faced rec- ords by Jim Europe’s Society Orchestra, which played at “Castle House,"- the dancing headquarters, of Irene and Vernon Castle. Prior to that time, virtually all Victor dance records had been played by the Victor Military Band, said to have been an inclusive disguise for Pryor’s, Sousa’s and Conway’s Bands—whichever happened to be available. This period also saw Victor achieve one of its typical 10-strikes With the engagement of the Castles to. “super- vise" the making of all Victor dance records. The Castles,, who had previously endorsed the Columbia. Grafanola, now; said the Victfola and Victor records'were the only satisfactory medium for honie dancing. Columbia coun- tered by engaging Prof. Q. Hepburn Wilson, a New York dancing instructor who knew his. business but Whose name lacked the. glamour attached to Irene and: Vernon. Trying not to be outdone, Pathe signed Up Maurice & Walton. And in July, Columbia infused some glamour into its dance output by getting an endorsement from Irene Pav- lowa. Who of course said Columbia phonos and platters •were unequalled. In April, the tango and the maxixe (also known as the Mattchiche and by several other names), showed up in the Victor list, giving it a South American flavor resembling the samba and rhumba outputs of today* I , First Piano Platter |: A month later, Victor explained that the list of pop vocal numbers had to be reduced because the demand for dance records had “somewhat embarrassed the record, factory.” That month also saW the first piano record made especially for dance use. Felix Arndt, composer of “Nola," who died in the 1918 flu epidemic, played hiis own one- step, “From Soup to Nuts," and a “Hesitation Waltz." The . latter was written by McNair Ilgenfritz, who. won some posthumous notoriety a couple'of years ago when he left a will bequeathing money to the. Metropolitan Opera on the condition that it should produce one or more operas he had written—a condition the Met. declined. In June, the Victor supplement writer said the one-step was “the dance of the hour and grows more popular every day.” The factory’s record pressing capacity proved un- equal to the demand for a double-faced one'step offering of that month, ‘“Too. Much Ginger" and “Smiler. Rag,” played, by the Van Eps Trio, consisting of the still living and active Fred Van Eps as ban joist; Arndt, pianist, and the late Eddie King (afterwards in charge of Victor’s pop artists & repertoire dept.) as the drummer. Probably no three men ever made a louder acoustically recorded platter! By this time the turkey trot was completely washed up and so was the two-step. Apparently, neither ever ap- peared in a Victor supplement after June, 1914. For sevr eral months the one-step dominated, with strong compe- tition from the tango and the hesitation Waltz. By a coin- cidence, this change in dancing trends began at the same time as the outbreak of the World War I, which at first Was thought unlikely to have any direct effect on the in- ternal affairs of the U. S. The foxtrot in one form or another has now been-the dominant dance step for almost 40 years. It first showed lip in the October supplement. The historic first title was “Sweetie Dear," with the. writers listed as Jordan & Ed- wards. The supplement annotator said, “The foxtrot is making New York .dance mad." Also in October came a one-step record, of W. C. HandyVimmortal “Memphis Blues," the .first time the word “blues" had ever appeared On a fecord or in a catalog as a descriptive term for a type of musical composition. Columbia didn’t get around to putting out a foxtrot un- til November, when it Offered four. One was Chris Smith's famous “Ballin’ the Jack,” today regarded as a jazz classic.. Others, now forgotten, were “Meridowbrook " “Carolina" tad “The Old Homestead." .‘The first vocal blues record, didn’t app&ap until January; 1915, when Victor issued "Memphis Blues," sung by Mor- ton Harvey, a baritone from Omaha, with a strong mid- west accent. He and his Wife, Betty, with whom he ap- peared in vaude for years, now have a photography busi- ness in Los Gatos, Cal. Looking over the outpouring of pop vocal numbers for 1914, one is impressed by the fact that comparatively few are well remembered today! Another strong impression is of the way Irving Berlin, known today as “The Old Master," but then “The Boy Wonder,” dominated the field. Running through the Victor list from January to Decern* ber, the following Berlin titles catch the eye: “Tra! La! La! La!" “They’ve Got Me Doin’ it Now" (this Was a medley Containifig snatches of big Berlin* hits), “Take Me Back/’ “Daddy, Come Home," “Down in Chattanooga," “This is the Life,” “He’s a Devil in His Own Home Town" (words by Grant Clarke; music by Berlin), “They’re On Their PfaRIETY 40ttf ASCAP AXXIVERSARY 57 Way to Mexico" (a topical ditty referring to the unpleas- antness the U. S. was then having with the bandit leader, Pancho Villa), “Always Treat Her Like a Baby,” “Along Came Ruth," “If That’s Your Idea of a Wonderful Time" and “I Want to Go Back to Michigan." Some of these were hits, others, dogs, but they, were characteristically Berlin. Throughout the year compositions, by Berlin, Harry Vori Tilzer, Fred Fisher, Albert Gamble, Percy Wenrich, George W. Meyer, Ray . Walker, Harry Carroll and other ASCAP stalwarts , dominated the field. Victor issued a special list of “Patriotic Records of the Warring Nations" and rushed, out a platter of the English music hall tune, “It’s a Long. Long Way to Tipperary," which had become a sort of official marching song of the! British soldiers and probably ranks as the greatest hit of 1914 as well as one of the world’s alltime hits. This record, by Billy Murray and tho American Quartet, was such a smash that John McCormick was called on a short time later to sing “Tipperary" for the pleasure of Red Seal customers. Probably the biggest American song lyit. pf the year came out in December—“When You Wore a Tulip arid I Wore a Big Red Rose," by Jack Mahoney rind Percy Wenrich. Another sidelight qn recorded output during 1914 is provided by the list of light operas arid musicomedies from which Victor issued its once famous series of “Gems." Among the musicals from Which excerpts were recorded were “Adele," “The Marriage Market," “The Girl on the Film,” “Oh! I Say," “High jinks/’ “The Beauty Shop," “The Laughing Husband,” “Midnight Girl," “Queen of the Movies" and “Sari.” Because their output was so similar, and in order to conserve space, the Victor lists, ratherthan the Columbia, have beeri Chiefly. refeiTed to here. But there were two specialized Columbia.; offerings, both in the June supple- ment, that, deserve special, mention.: One was a listing , pf three soprano solos by Mrirgaret Woodiw Wilson, daugh- ter of President Woodrow Wilson* who made a career for herself as a . concert singer much as Margaret .Truman did a generation later. Miss Wilson, who died in Iridia in 1943 after becoming a ; convert to Hindu mysticism, sang. “The Low-Backed Car,” “Leezie Lindsay” rind “My Laddie/’ ' 1 ' Arid it was riiso in June, 1914; that the American record buying public got its first taste of the immortal “Cohen on the Telephone ” It appeared in the Columbia supple- ment as an import from the English/Columbia list and was recorded by an American, Joe Haymrin, Who had be- come a popular British music hall attraction. George Clarence Jell, who was then Columbia catalog editor, once confessed he thi v ew “Coh.en” into the June supple- ment simply because he needed “one more record to fill up with:” Coupled with a Fred Duprfez monolog, 1 “Happy Tho’ Married,” it sold more than 2,000,000 copies. After that, of course, no record catalog was complete without somebody’s version of the. telephonic misadventures of Mr. Cohen! A United Nations of Song By OTTO A, HARBACH An impressive proportion of foreign-born creators of music are Americans by adoption. Of ASCAP’s; 3,000 writer-members, 400 have come to our couritry from the lands of their birth. Some of them, after achieving great- ness in the lands of their birth* found chariging conditions repugnant to their continued activities in their homelands and have come to America for the free use of their God-given talent.. Genius never has thrived in strait jackets, nor have ‘iron curtains been good sounding boards for the makers of musical works. Arbitrary formulas for the exercise of creative talent can not bring forth the great Works that result from free play of such talents in unrestricted surround- otto Harbach .. • The exchange of musical cultures among nations is an irreplaceable contribution to world friendship. The ai'ts know no national barriers. Music as an international language expressing the fundamental emo- tions common to all mankind promotes sympathetic under- standing beyond the reach of protocol and treaty. The “ASCAP Biographical-Dictionary” appendix, list- ing; writer members by places of birth, confirms the im- pressive proportion of foreign-born members—the cre- ators of music who have found in America their ideal place of expression. I have skimmed through the names of our foreign-born members to select a few of the out- standing contributors to the musical riches we are proud to call our own. Here they are, alphabetically arranged: From Australia, Percy Grainger; Austria, Fritz Kreisler arid Arnold Schoenberg; Canada, R. Nathanial Dett, Pei‘cy Faith, Eugene Lockhart, Geoffrey O’Hara, Gitz Rice; Czechoslovakia, Rudolf Friml, Gustav Mahier; 'England, Bruno Huhn, Will Rossiter, Leopold Stokowski, P. G; Wodehouse; France, Raymond Bloch,. Carlos Salzedo; Ger- many, Richard Czerwonky, Walter Damrosch,- Lukas Foss, Gustave Kerker, Kurt Weill; Hungary, Leopold Auer, Errio Balogh, Bela Bartok, Emmerich Kalman, Erno Rapee, Sig- mund Romberg, Tibor Serly; Ireland, Padraic Colum; Vic- tor Herbert, Charles ; B. Lawlor; Italy, Girin Carlo Menotti, Dorrienico Savirio, Cesare Sodero, Pietro Yon; Mexico, Alfonso D’Artego, Mme. Maria Grever; Netherlands, David H. Broekman, Richard Hageman, Peter Van Steedeh; Poland, Isidor Achron, Leopold Godowsky; Ro- mani ■* Jacques Wolfe;. Scotland, R. H. Burnside; Russia, Joseph AchrOn, Irving Berlin, Verrion Duke, Mischa El- man, Igor Gorin, Samuel Gardner, Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Levitski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Lazare Saminsky, Igor Stravinsky, Igor Stravinski, Efrem Zimbalist; Spain, Vi- cente Gomez and Manuel Garcia Matos; Switzerland, Ernest Bloch; Rudolph Ganz; Union of South Africa, Paul Kerby, Josef Marais; Wales, David McK. Williams, Alec Templeton, . Let us by sure that do not make it possible for a situ- ation to arise which would keep from our country another generation of Victor Herberts, Bela Bartoks, Sergei Rach- maninoffs, Fritz Kreislers—creative writers whose genius will thrive in the free atmosphere of America; Let us set an example to other countries by extending p warm welcome to any such who riiay come knocking at our door. We must welcome genius regardless of the spoken language Of its birthplace for in this we will be following the American tradition and adding to the . al- ready Vast store of musical riches created in this country. An ASCAP for Painters By HOWARD DIETZ As the leaves begin to fall and The September Song heard in the Wings, there is joy in the heart of an old ASCAP member as he reaps the dividends of his spring arid sumrixer planting. Truly a wonderful organization is this; brilliantly conceived: by the dreaming founders and the envy of all other arts and crafts and callings. Isn’t there some way that painters could have an ASCAP, novelists and poets? The only sirixilar dividend- producing group seems to be the i ternationdl breeders of horses, .. I don’t understand much about the horse trade, and I have discarded enough losing tickets to create m terial for a rather lengthy paper chase, biit, as I understand it, the breeders, collect a fee for every off- spring that wins a calendai'ed race, regardless of the p\v It is a sort of Horses’ ASCAP. The breeders of words and music, who were riot lured by the network foundling known, as BMI, are now. cele- brating their 40th anniversary as a collective Organization. This celebration is taking place in print and several of us rire asked to write Commemorative articles for the bible of show business. My topic is/‘Public Relations and Songwriting," a theme suggested by my schizophrenic career-; schizo fpr the legitimate theatre and phrenic for the movies, Inasmuch as these callings are dissimilar and only related In iriy mind because I practice, them both, it is! as if I were writ- ing on cabbages and kings or arsenic and old JaCe, coupled in tradition by humorous authoi'S who grouped the sub- jects for no other reason except rhythm and the fact that they had nothing in common. And yet, due to the commercialism that sings in our homes and accompanies us in our cars, there has been a blending of the art of the song and the opinion-moulding message of the advertiser. I refer, of course, to the war- bling salesmanship which rhapsodizes over the low cost of Friendly Frost, the overhead of Robert Hall, the saving at Barney's, and the drinks that come naturally in the bottle and otherwise hit the spot. These commercial songs are not regarded with a curl- ing lip. They are good songs and more concise than most ballads which speak of the love for people as opposed to the love of things. Even the parodies, such as “My beer is Rheingold the dry beer," are well-accented and well- rhymed, suggesting that professional songwriters have had # a hand in these materialistic poems; But it. was surely not intended that much space in this definitive article be devoted to the singing commercial. The authors, composers and publishers of these economy odes may get cash from the sponsors but they get no credit on the books of ASCAP. The. original mutton must be returned to, and they are the fellows who write our na- tion’s songs and strive to make the hit parade,. They are the fellows who, for the most part, have fig- ured out not so much what the public wants as what the public -will take. Or* more precisely, what the publisher will plug. The Twain Sometimes Meet I This knowledge is much pf a mystery to the writers of songs for shows, rarely do the acknowledged theatrical tunesmiths seat themselves one day at the organ to make a contribution to the pop parade.. Even though they often write songs that become popular, they seldom attempt the popular songs. Speaking for Arthur Schwartz and me, I know of no case where that was our approach. Speaking for our betters, I know of only one lyric, written by Oscar Hammerstein, 2d, that was launched for the pop .mart. He wrote “The Last Time I Saw Paris” as an occasion Song With the late Jerome Kern, who also, wrote few, if any other, melbdies for suph unattached entry. Cole Porter has written hardly any. I can only recall “Don’t Fence Me In” (which I sing constantly to my wife) but, as his Catalog is long through every passion ranging, it is probable that he is the author of all the good songs whose composers I can’t name. Harold Arlen has writ- ten a few and Irving Berlin, of course, is. a syndicate that blankets the entire field of melody. I can’t think of any by Dick Rodgers and only “Swanee" by Gershwi But all songwriters are banded together in that glorious federation Which is the subject of this eulogy. It is a happy society, composed of happy people, happy by virtue of their, work which they whistle at. Anyone who has practiced songwriting is privy to the essential pleasure in the craft. As Willie Mays says of baseball, “It’s a shame to take the money." ... ASCAP, of course, is more than a good thing. It is a stimulus to the American Way. While several worthy foreign numbers creep irito our airwaves, the American popular song wings around the world and gives other na- tion’s the idea that Americans got rhythm,. Rhythm means personality, charm and grace. In fact, I Would venture to say that popular songs do more for- us than even the diplomacy of state departments, Maybe I’m farfetched, but I'll wait .'til I hear Dulles sing “Jrimbrilaya/’ As you see, this article covers thoroughly the subject of public relations arid sorigwriting. The ‘Mother’ Society . A is for the Aid she gives Cole Porter, S is for her Songs not yet P; D. t C is for the Checks she mails each quarter* A 'a for her A-vailability, P 's for Pinky Herman’s Propositi Guaranteed to please the belles and bards; Hook them up together, they spell ASCAP, That’s the reason I’m not writing greet- ing cards. AI Stillman. r:c (l, ■R