Thursday, August 30, 2018

Tin Pan Alley Sheet Music: Men, Women, and Courtship

My collection of sheet music includes many early 20th c songs that were sung on Vaudeville stages.  Many were written in Tin Pan Alley.

One can learn so much about society in those days from these songs. Let's start what they reveal about men's attitudes toward women. These date from 1909 to 1919.

My Wife's Gone to the Country Hurrah! Hurrah! was written by George Whiting, Ted Snyder and Irving Berlin, published in 1909.

According to an interview with Irving Berlin, the song came to him in a barbershop. George Whiting, a vaudeville actor, was a few chairs down from Berlin who asked him when he needed to be home. Whiting replied, "I don't have to go home, my wife is in the country." Berlin walked out of the shop with those words in his head and soon found them a melody and the chorus worked out. In a few hours the song was completed and two days later it was heard all over the land.

When Missus Brown told hubby, "I just can't stand the heat
Please send me to the country, dear, I know 'twould be a treat"
Next day his wife and fam'ly were seated on a train
And when the train had started, Brownie shouted this refrain:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need a rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I don't care what becomes of me, my wife's gone away

He kept the 'phone a-going, told ev'ryone he knew
"It's Mister Brown, come on downtown, I have some news for you"
He told a friend reporter just why he felt so gay
Next day an advertisement in the papers read this way:

[2nd refrain:]
My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need a rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I don't care what becomes of me, my wife's gone away

He sang his joyful story into a phonograph
He made a dozen records and I say it was to laugh
For when his friends had vanished and Brown was all alone
His neighbors heard the same old tune on Brownie's graphophone

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
Like Eva Tanguay, I don't care, my wife's gone away

He went into the parlor and tore down from the wall
A sign that read "God Bless Our Home" and threw it in the hall
Another sign he painted and hung it up instead
Next day the servant nearly fainted when these words she read:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
Now I'm with you if you're with me, my wife's gone away

He called on pretty Molly, a girl he used to know
The servant said "She left the house about an hour ago
But if you leave your name, sir, or write a little note
I'll give it to her when she comes" and this is what he wrote:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I love my wife, but oh! you kid, my wife's gone away

He went and bought a parrot, a very clever bird
The kind that always would repeat most anything she heard
So when his voice grew husky and Brownie couldn't talk
While he'd be taking cough-drops, he would have the parrot squawk:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I knew my book, she left the cook, my wife's gone away

The song was sung by Stuart Barnes, a successful English Music Hall performer whose songs and monologues were usually about marriage and women. He often sang Irving Berlin songs after his monologues. He earned $400 a week in 1909. (Source found here.) He was openly gay.
***
Some men wanted freedom from their women, while others were worried about being thrown over.

 Keep Your Eye on the Girlie You Love by Howard Johnson and Alex Gerber, music by Ira Schuster, was performed by Tin Pan Alley and Vaudeville star Moe Thompson. The March 2, 1917 issue of The Saturday Evening Post has an advertisement for the sheet music and the Pathe recording.

Take a tip from one who knows, all you single men, 
If you've a girl to call your own, Don't ever leave her all alone. 
If temptation comes her way, will she pass it by? 
That's a question, so my suggestion is, Watch her on the sly. 

Keep your eye on the girlie you love, 
There's a beau that you know nothing of, 
Who may be there to call, when you're out of sight, 
Of course, she may not fall, but may be she might. 
Never leave her for more than a day, 
‘Cause there's hundreds that lose ‘em that way, 
So keep your eye upon your girl, Bill, 
If you don't some other fellow will. 

It's a tough thing now-a-days, picking out a girl, 
So when you find your heart’s delight, 
Take my advice and treat her right, 
Girls are fickle as can be, change their minds each day; 
Do a rave to ‘em, be a slave to ‘em, That’s the wisest way. 

Keep your eye on the girlie you love, 
Just be sure that she’s your turtle dove, 
Don’t take a chance and introduce your best pal, 
For if she likes him best, goodbye to your gal. 
She may kiss you goodnight by mistake, 
Call you Clarence, when your name is Jake, 
So keep your eye upon your girl, Bill, 
If you don’t some other fellow will.
***
One way of 'keeping your girlie' was to make love to her at the movies. Couples sitting in a dark room raised the fear of parents who worried about the sexual freedom that might be perpetrated there. Hollywood movie stars had wild parties and scandalous sex lives--evil role models for the young. This was the new world of dating. Courtship no longer took place on front porch swings.

Take Your Girlie To the Movies (If You Can't Make Love At Home) by Edgar Leslie and Bert Kalmar with music by Pete Wendling would have been pretty scandalous in 1919.

The song begins when a boy asks love advice:

When I call to love my girl
Her folks are always there;
That's why I'm blue, 
What shall I do?

The answer is:

Take your girlie to the movies
if you can't make love at home;
There is no little brother there who always squeals
you can say an awful lot in seven reels.

Take your lessons at the movies
And have love scenes of your own;
When the picture's over and its time to leave,
Don't forget to brush the powder off your sleeve.

Pick a cozy corner where it's nice and dark,
Don't catch influenza kissing in the park,
Take your lessons at the movies,
and have love scenes of your own;
Though's she's just a simple little ribbon clerk,
Close your eyes and think you're kissing Billie Burke;
Take your girlie to the movies, if you can't make love at home.

***
Good girls, bad girls--they are all the same according to There's a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl by Grant Clarke and Fred Fischer, performed by Brice and King, published in 1917. This sheet music shows Elizabeth Brice and Charles King, performers called some of the "cleverest" in the business. Miss Brice came from Toledo, Ohio and progressed from singing in Sunday School to the town casino.

 This is a truly horrifying song!
Nobody ever sings about the bad girls
Because the bad girls are sad
And everybody sings about the good girls
Because the good girls are glad
Till you've been around 'em once or twice

You can't tell the naughty from the nice

There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're not to blame
Mother Eve was very good
But even she raised Cain
I know a preacher's daughter
Who never orders water
There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're all the same

I had a dream I went to see the devil
There was the devil to pay
He said I'm awful busy on the level
I said the devil you say
Why are you so busy tell me why
He replied and winked his other eye

There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're not to blame
Though they seem like angels in a dream
They're naughty just the same
They read the good book Sunday
And snappy stories Monday
There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're all the same

***
They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me by Joe McCarthy and Fred Fisher was published in 1917. The song appears in Bullets Over Broadway by Woody Allen.

There is a version for men:

I hate to talk about myself,
But here's one time I must!
Your confidence I'll trust,
I have to speak or bust!

It's funny how I get the girls,
I never try at all;
I seem to hypnotise them,
I'm bound to make them fall!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!
They go mad, just as mad as they can be!
No matter where I'm at,
All the ladies, thin or fat,
The tall ones,
The small ones,
I grab them off like that!

Every night, how they fight over me!
I don't know what it is that they can see!
The ladies look at me and sigh,
In my arms they wanna die!
They go wild, simply wild, over me!

I get so many pretty girls,
I give a few away!
They bother me each day,
They're leading me astray!

There's lots of fellows go with girls
And never get their drift;
I always get the women,
It's just a natural gift!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!
They go mad, just as mad as they can be!
No matter where I'm at,
All the ladies, thin or fat,
The tall ones,
The small ones,
Why, I grab them off like that!

Every night, how they fight over me!
I don't know what it is that they can see!
I can never be alone,
I have to choke the telephone!
They go wild, simply wild, over me!

And for the girls:

I hate to talk about myself but here's one time I must
Your confidence I'll trust, I have to speak or bust
It's funny how I get the boys, I never try at all
I seem to hypnotize them, I'm bound to make them fall

They go wild, simply wild, over me
They go mad, just as mad as they can be
No matter where I'm at, all the fellows thin or fat
The tall ones, the small ones, I grab them off like that

Every night how they fight over me
I don't know what it is that they can see
The fellows look at me and sigh, in my arms they want to die
They go wild, simply wild, over me

I meet so many funny men, no matter where I go
They're waiting in a row, they seem to love me so
There's lots of girlies go with boys but never get their drift
I seem to understand them, why, it's just a natural gift

They go wild, simply wild, over me
They go mad, just as mad as they can be
No matter where I'm at, all the fellows thin or fat
The tall ones, the small ones, why, I grab them off like that

Every night how they fight over me
I don't know what it is that they can see
Why I can never be alone, I have to choke the telephone
They go wild, simply wild, over me

They go wild, simply wild, over me
They go mad, just as mad as they can be
I meet so many kind, I leave a few behind
They love me, they kiss me, why, I guess they must be blind

Every night how they fight over me
I don't know what it is that they can see
I'm very skinny I'll admit but when I when I smile just a smidge
They go wild, simply wild, over me
***
Whatever that guy had in the last song, the man in the next song clearly lacked. To Any Girl by the hugely successful and prolific lyricist Lew Brown with music by the equally successful and prolific Albert Von Tilzer (whose most famous song was Take Me Out To The Ballgame). This song is a lament, for the young lover has no girl to write to. Any girl will do...as long as she cooks and sews and is true.
 I found a picture postal card while on the street today.
A lovesick fellow wrote it, and here's what he had to say,
"O haven't any sweetheart, so I don't know what to do,
I wish I had a girl to send this to.
I won't put on an address, I won't put on a name,
But still I'm going to send it just the same.

To any girl who's feeling lonesome,
To any girl who's feeling blue,
I write these lines today
here's what I have to say
I've got a lot of loving that I'd like to give away,
To any girl who'll love me only
To any girl who will be true,
But if you have a beau,
Is there any girl you know
who's not as lucky as you.

He says he wanta a girl who sews and one who also cooks,
But then he doesn't mention anything about her looks
The boy is not particular,
I think that he's in wrong,
For he'll take any girl who comes along,
He can't expect an answer, 
He doesn't make it plain,
I'll have to read the postal card again. (Chorus) 

***
Harry Von Tilzer, Albert's brother, often worked with Andrew B. Sterling including on this 1915 song, Those Musical Eyes, about Ragtime sex appeal.

Stirling and Von Tilzer are my favorite pair to collect. Learn more about Von Tilzer at The Parlor Songs Academy.

Two big eyes that shine, won this heart of mine,
"Want you near me," they say and sweet is the music they play,
O those great big eyes how they harmonize, 
Even when we're apart, 
They play on the strings of my heart
Ragtime love tunes till I'm almost crazy,
Those "G sharp" eyes they seem to play for me.

Oh, those eyes, those great big musical eyes,
Such "harmony" lies, 
In those sweet "Come and kiss me" eyes
"Say you'll miss me," eyes, 
Roll them, roll them, roll them up to the skies,
Each glance at me, a "Rhapsody,"
Oh, those eyes they say "come on...and spoon!"
Oh, those eyes they play a wedding tune,
Oh, the love that lies and lies, In those musical eyes!

When I'm feeling bad, when I'm feeling sad,
Everything has gone wrong
those eyes, play the cheerfullest song,
They just look at me, strike a chord in "C"
sorrow puts on his hat, 
Those eyes soon will sing in "A Flat"
Every glance starts my heart beating "Forte," (Chorus)

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Simply Austen: A Concise and Comprehensive Guide to Jane

My introduction to Jane Austen came in the form of a year-long honors course taught at Temple University by Prof. Toby Olshin. We read all of Jane's novels, letters, juvenilia, and the books that influenced her. Since 1978 I have reread Austen numerous times and read many books about her, three in the last year alone.

In the last few years both my book clubs read Austen: Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. I think they were chosen because they are Jane's shorter novels. I discovered that the general reader today rarely 'gets' Jane. They lack an understanding of Regency society and history. They don't understand Jane's social commentary and satire.

Joan Klingel Ray's Simply Austen provides a solid base for Austen newbies to learn about Jane, her life, and works and the Regency world. Ray is the author of Jane Austen for Dummies and was the only three-term president of the Jane Austen Society of North America. The book is a useful introduction to readers new to Jane but also a "crisp refresher" for those of us who have read her.

Simply Austen will help readers understand the times behind the stories.
Understanding the social milieu is an important part of understanding Jane's novels. In the course I took we learned about the social history and the material culture: what color were puce gloves and which carriages were workhorses and which were the sexy fast ones and what was special about the waters at Bath and how much money was 'enough.' Ray addresses each novel with a summary and background information.

Although Austen's works have timeless themes, going into them with 21st c expectations results in women losing patience with Anne Elliot for being 'persuaded,' as happened in my book club, We are used to liberated, strong-willed females in today's literature. We miss the satire of the Gothic novel in Northanger Abbey and don't understand that scenes were a parody of a popular Gothic novel. (Ray has taught me is pronounced North-Hanger; it refers to the hanger, or wooded hillside, on the estate.)

Ray brought out some things I had not before considered. Such as how Anne Elliot was the only heroine who "has nothing to learn in terms of character growth." Instead, it is Captain Wentworth who has to overcome his well-nurtured hurt pride after Anne turned down his proposal eight years earlier.

The book is dense with information but is written in an accessible style that makes for easy reading.

The ebook is just over 200 pages with illustrations, Forward, Preface, Sources, and Suggested Reading. There are links provided to articles, including a link to the original manuscript of Jane's unfinished novel Sanditon.

Chapters include:

  • Jane Austen and her Culture-the Context for her Novels
  • Jane Austen and Her Family of Readers
  • Jane Austen's Family Enjoys Her Early Writing
  • Responding to Trends in Sensibility and Gothicism
  • Two Revisions Become Classics
  • Austen's Three Chawton Novels
  • A Wry Send-up of Health Spas by a dying Novelist
  • Janes Austen's Popularity and Legacy

Read an interview with Ray, "Becoming Jane", at https://simplycharly.com/interviews/joan-klingel-ray-on-jane-austen/

Simply Austen is part of the Simply Charly's "Great Lives" series which offers short introductions to important people in history.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Simply Austen epub ebook can be purchased for $7.99 at
https://simplycharly.com/books/?store=%2Fitem%2Fsimply-austen

Austen Family Album quilt by Nancy A. Bekofske
pattern based on Barbara Brackman's Austen Family Album
Pride and Prejudice Story Book Quilt
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton

I read Florence Gordon by Brian Morton for book club this month.

Florence is strong and sure and unmovable, so imperious in the surety of her superior understanding that she is hard to be around. She is also single-minded, unable to small talk or socialize, wasting time on trivialities.

At 75 years old, she is trying to write one last book before the inevitable. Her granddaughter Emily helps her grandmother by doing research. Emily ends up learning about her grandmother's life and achievements, her iconic books and essays. And in the process is able to find her own path.

The son/daughter-in-law thread was not necessary; their story was inconclusive and did not seem related to Florence. Unless the daughter-in-law was supposed to be a foil for Florence, showing her opposite, so granddaughter Emily has two role models to choose from. Her mother worships Florence but she is not much like her; she is a good enough mom, although not so good a wife.

I hated the short episodic chapters, they did not draw me to keep reading, each a self-contained scene.

You expect to love your children; it brings a different kind of joy to realize you admire them.

Florence is an interesting character whom one admires more than likes. I especially appreciated Emily's struggle to understand her grandmother and the Feminist movement and how it helped her make a choice about a former boyfriend. The book was written in 2014. In the book, Emily has taken a year off from college.
Emily wasn't particularly political, and she had no idea if she was a feminist. She knew she was a beneficiary of the women's movement--she'd read enough novels, she'd seen enough episodes of Mad Men to know what life before the women's movement was like--but at the same time, the word "feminism" didn't have great associations for her. The feminist girls she knew at Oberlin, her roommate among them, were the kind of people who made you feel bad for liking what you liked. 
Emily wondered whether your identity has less to do with anything inside you than with the time in which you happen to be alive. 
The novel has high praise from critics and readers and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.  But the book club members did not give high ratings to the book. Some admired Florence. We did fill an entire hour talking about the book. But the open ending was not appreciated.

I have read several books recently about older women who came to age in the 1960s. I am sensing a trend here of people who want to explore a politically active generation of women. These women end up being failures as wives and mothers.

I am getting irritated by that generalization, and hope that in the future writers will explore how women can be political, interacting for the common good, while still being loving parents. Perhaps the 'latch-key' generation wishes they had June Cleaver moms.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon: The Garden Folk

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by Janet Laura Scott was first published in 1920 in Great Britain. I have a 1935 edition published by Wies-Parslow Company, New York.

The book was written to teach children about the fauna of the garden. In each chapter, Jane Elizabeth meets something new: a Swallow Tail butterfly and Humming-bird moths, frogs and toads, bumble-bees and honeybees, even hornets and spiders.

The chapter begins with a poem about the creature which is followed with a story in which Jane Elizabeth encounters it. Prince Tiger Swallow Tail butterfly introduces himself and his sister as Turned-Intos-- "when you start out in life one sort of thing and after a while, you turn into something very different and scarcely to be believed."


"Although Jane Elizabeth had a new book and very much wished to read it, having brought it into the garden with her, she had not been able to read much. The young robins had been so very funny, half flying and half flopping about, and Mother Robin had been so very anxious for them to do every little movement of the wings just right, and had made so much noise telling them how to fly, that it was much more interesting than a book, no matter how new it was."

Jane learns that all these creatures have a life cycle involving a physical change.



The lesson guide for the chapter on the Humming-Bird Moth begins, "Did you know that the government at Washington is helping farmers all over the country to fight insect pests? Some moths, such as the peach moth and the gypsy moth do great damage to trees. It may be that you have heard of the boll weevil and the Japanese beetle. Both of these insects caused a great deal of trouble for the farmers by destroying their crops. Uncle Sam had to fight these insect enemies for a good many years before he got them under control. Our government needs men and women to help in this insect war. Would you like to be one of the helpers? Choose one of the four pests you have just read about and write a fifty word composition on it."






The lesson plan calls Ladybugs the 'police force of the plant world' because it eats insect pests. "Immigrants coming to our shores must be carefully inspected. try to find out about some of our laws which require the inspection of fruits and vegetable and plants imported from other countries, or shipped from one state to another."













I love these illustrations!

Thursday, August 23, 2018

A Walk in the Woods

We went for a walk in the woods today. This summer was brutally hot, and my husband had knee replacement therapy, so we are just now getting to enjoy walking again.

We went to Stage Nature Center in Troy, Michigan, just a few miles away. I had never been there before but had seen photographs my brother shared from his walks there.
The nature center has 100 acres and includes an educational center.
The nature trails are nearly two miles long and go through deep, dark wooded areas filled with deer and birds, a marshy area, a pond, and meadows.


The woods are left quite natural, with fallen trees left in place. Michigan wildflowers are protected from the deer with cages over them.

There are sugar maples which are tapped to make maple syrup every year, which is sold in the visitor's center.
The Rouge River flows through the nature center. This is the same river that goes through Detroit. The Rouge watershed draws from the densely populated and urbanized area of Southeast Michigan.
We were told there are thirteen deer in the park. We saw at least four sets of doe and fawn. They are alert but used to people and don't run off.

The trails vary from mulched paths to dirt paths riddled with tree roots to wood walkways over the marsh. The most difficult part of the trail was the Fox Trail which had an uphill climb with steps to reach the top of the ravine...and of course then one must come down again!

I noted several quilts in the nature center. This tree quilt with an owl is a fundraiser silent auction.

 This owl quilt is a temporary loan.
The visitor's center has a library, display cases, and several interactive areas for children. Educational activities for all ages are offered.


I look forward to returning to see the woods in other seasons.