Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MARCH 29,
59
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1919
CONDUCTED BY V. D. WALSH
THE CHECKING OF ROLL ROYALTIES
DEATH OF H. M. BLOSSOM
"LET'S BEAT IT" SCORES
So Many Different Methods of Checking Roy-
alties Are in Vogue That a Standardized Way
of Collecting Is Almost Imperative
Playwright and Librettist of Many Famous
Broadway Shows Succumbs to Pneumonia
Twenty-seventh Division Show at the Century
Highly Spoken of—Book and Music Good
Henry Martyn Blossom, Jr., author and play-
wright, died on Sunday night in his apart-
ment at the Hotel Belnord. New York, of
pneumonia.
The funeral services, under the
direction of the Lambs Club, of which Mr.
Blossom was a member, were held at the Camp-
bell Funeral Church, Broadway and Sixty-sixth
street, on last Wednesday morning.
The playwright was born in St. Louis, Mo.,
May 10, 1866, a son of Henry Martyn and
Susan S. Blossom, and he attended the Stod-
dard School in that city, and was engaged in
the insurance business there before he came to
New York City, where he had since lived.
Mr. Blossom contributed to the Broadway
stage many of its successful comedies, musical
plays, and comic opera librettos, including the
famous "Checkers," "The Yankee Consul,"
"Mademoiselle Modiste," "The Prima Donna,"
"Miss Philura," "The Slim Princess," "The Man
From Cook's," "The Red Mill." "The Only Girl,"
"A Trip to Washington," "Princess Pat,"
"Eileen" and others. His published fiction in-
cluded "The Documents in Evidence," "Checkers
—A Hard Luck Story" and "The Brother of
Chuck McGann."
"Let's Beat It," the first Twenty-seventh Di-
vision show since "You Know Me, Al," which
was presented last year, was given Monday
night at the Century Theatre. The lively music
and catchy lines of this year's musical farce so
captivated the audience that no one wanted "to
beat it" until the performance was over.
The book and lyrics were written in the bat-
tle areas of France when the boys were not en-
gaged in actual fighting. Some of the perform-
ers had been slightly wounded, but even this
did not hinder them from dancing gracefully
and, in the case of those who were impersonat-
ing girls, from doing it in the best possible raaii-
r.tr. The production was staged by Lieutenant
William A. Halloran and Private Harry Gribble.
Major-General John F. O'Ryan, commanding
the Twenty-seventh Division, and Mrs. O'Ryan
and party occupied a box draped with the Ameri-
can flag. Jerome H. Remick & Co. are the pub-
lishers of the score.
Tt is understood that the Music Publishers'
Protective Association at a recent meeting
went on record as opposed to the action of one
of the publishers of standard music in his move
to insist that a music roll manufacturer buy spe-
cial royalty stamps from his firm to be placed
on a certain number, specifying that the stamps
could be used on the one number only. The
total purchase of stamps involved amounted to
a substantial sum, and it is not thought that
the music roll manufacturers look with favor on
the precedent established.
The music roll cutters are at present using
the words of the songs on their rolls through
a number of arrangements. The old standard
houses furnish royalty stamps to be placed on
every roll manufactured for the trade. This
arrangement was also the original one insisted
upon by the popular publishing houses, but who
since January 1 have agreed to allow the music
roll manufacturers to abolish the use of stamps,
the roll makers making concessions and adopt-
ing a method of auditing which is just as ef-
fective as a means of checking the sales of
word rolls as was the use of stamps.
Some of the very smallest publishers not con-
nected with any organization have individual ar-
rangements with the music roll manufacturers,
so at the present time there is no real stand-
ard arrangement by which permission for the
use of the words is given, although the majority
of the popular publishers are members of the
Music Publishers' Protective Association, which
made the special agreement outlined above, by
which the stamps for their numbers were elim-
inated.
Now that the majority of the members of the
Music Publishers' Protective Association have
joined the Music Publishers' Association of the
United States it would seem that the coming
convention of that body in June would be a
good opportunity to standardize both the con-
tract and the method of checking the manufac-
ture of word rolls. This procedure will un-
doubtedly also meet with the approval of the
roll manufacturers.
SEVERAL NEW FEIST NUMBERS
Leo Feist, Inc., Introducing a Number of New
Songs to the Public
Among the new popular songs announced by
Leo Feist, Inc., New York, are "Friends," by
Howard Johnson and Joe Santly; "Norma," by
Archie Gottler and Sidney Mitchell, and also a
song called "Daughter of Mine," by the same
writers. Teddy Morse and Russell Robinson are
the authors of a new jazz number entitled "Jaz-
zola." This latter number is announced as "not
a drink but a song."
The New York Chamber Music Co., Manhat-
tan, has been incorporated for the purpose of
music production with a capital stock of $100,-
00O. The incorporators are E. O. Dorman, E.
McClellan and C. Beebe.
THE TWO
THE SINGER
RosesofPicardy
Music by HAYDN WOOD
SONG (LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH VOICE)
ALSO PI B U S K E D AS
VOCAL D I E T (FOR CONTRALTO AND BARITONE)
VOCAL D I E T (FOR SOPRANO AND TENOR)
FEMALE OCTAVO (OI'ARTETTE FOR S.S.A.A.)
MIXED OCTAVO (QFAKTETTE FOR S.A.T.B.)
MALE OCTAVO ( Q I A R T E T T E FOR T.T.B.B.)
PIANOFORTE SOLO
VIOLIN AND PIANO
PIANOFORTE SOLO—"ROSES OF PICARDV" WALTZ
SONG ORCHESTRATIONS (Bb. ( . I).)
14 PARTS AND PIANO
10 PARTS AND PIANO
CHAPPELL & CO., Ltd.
41 EAST 34th ST.
JOHN
McCORMACK
Ernest Hare, the well-known baritone and un-
derstudy to \1 Jolson in "Sinbad," is achieving
success among the phonograph companies as a
recording artist. He has already made a num-
ber of fine records of popular coon songs, many
of which have been released. He is at present
singing with success McKinley Music Co.'s big
number "You Can Have It, I Don't Want It,"
and is about to record this number for several
ot the leading talking machine companies.
HARRIS' NEW MOTHER SONG
The new mother song recently added to the
catalog of Chas. K. Harris is being placed in
the program of a large number of professional
entertainers. It is called "Mother Love" and
is announced as the successor to "Break the
News to Mother." This ballad with the novelty
srng "Ze Yankee Boys Have Made a Wild
French Baby Out of Me" and "Give Me a Syn-
copated Tune" are the leading numbers in the
Harris catalog at present.
GREATEST
The World's Greatest Tenor Is Programming
and Creating a Furore at All His Recitals With
Words by FRED. E. WEATHERLY
SHINING AS RECORDING ARTIST
NEW YORK
TORONTO: 347 YONGE ST.
THE SONG