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154
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
DECEMBER 10,
1921
A DAY WITH MY FATHER
Shemanjiay & Go.
Prepared by Wm. Arthur Reilly, Son of Dr.
Reilly, of McLaughlin & Reilly, Music Pub-
lishers, Boston—A Most Mournful Tale
Lend me your ears, as the deaf man said, and
I will try to recount some of the experiences ot
a day behind the counter in my father's office.
Perhaps, if you're awake when I am through,
you'll agree that the first hundred years in busi-
ness are the hardest and that the first million
dollars are the most difficult to get. And speak-
ing of the million, I might say that if the rest
of my million comes as hard as my first five-dollar
bill came, then I think I will try selling light-
houses on the Sahara Desert, or something
equally easy.
My father and I, upon arriving at the office,
woke up the boy who was at the task of count-
ing songs into bundles of fifties. Dad went
into the front office and I saw him lift up the
receiver of the telephone to call for a number,
so I knew that he would be busy for an hour or
two trying to get the number. My job was to
take complete charge of the back office. Within
ten minutes I was convinced that glue is not
the only thing that is thick. I overheard a cus-
tomer asking the boy if we had a "Mass in A
Flat." The boy replied, "No; they have a mass
in a church." So, with a ton of ice on each
word, I ordered the boy to another task and
waited on the customer myself.
It seemed that the customer wanted some-
thing that went dum de die diddle du dum, but
was not quite sure who the author was, or who
published it or whether it was for low or high
voice. Finally, after dislodging the entire stock
of solos, she bought a ten-cent octavo chorus and
was unable to understand why she was not
entitled to a discount on it. Any outsider would
think we were in business together or something
the way we argued. It would take the lawyer
who handled Solomon's breach of promise suits
to convince her that we weren't profiteers of
the worst kind. I had more arguments that day
than there are Southerners in Georgia. I saw
a young fellow, whom I thought was from an-
other office on the floor, about to take the ele-
vator, and he was carrying on his arm a rain-
coat. Now, I had been looking all over town
for a coat like the one he had, so I hollered to
him, "Hey, where did you get the coat?" It
wasn't the fellow I thought it was and he gave me
SONGS THAT ARE SELLING
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USED BY 50 BIG-TIME ACTS
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one look, got pale and, dropping the coat, ran ask you." And the third replied, "I didn't say
down the stairs. He thought it was my coat, anything."
I guess.
After this jam got cleared up I tried to type-
Then, like a rolling stone from a clear sky, my write a little. I got along pretty well until I
doubles began. The telephone rang and as I had a word with the letter "X" in it. I'll bet I
answered it the buzzer rang, signifying that my was fifteen minutes trying to find that X. When
presence was wanted in the front office. In finally I found it I had forgotten what I was
came a flock of customers who were in a hurry, going to say, so I was obliged to give the
along with a messenger boy bearing a telegram, job up, and then and there I decided that any-
and the expressman desiring my signature. Al- body that tried to make a living in the music
together I was about as busy as a man with business would be an old man by the time he
boxing gloves on trying to pick up a common was ninety.
pin. I did not know what to do any more than
a one-armed man would if he were carrying a
RELEASE A NEW FOX-TROT
pail of water through a swamp of mosquitoes.
The party on the 'phone wanted to know if we
Van Alstyne & Curtis recently released a new
published page four of our hymn book sepa- fox-trot entitled "Stars," by John Alden, com-
rately. One of the customers began to berate me poser of "La Veeda." Other numbers being fea-
for sending a dun for a bill that had been paid tured by the company are "Kentucky Moonlight"
two months previous. Another customer wanted and the ballad success "Don't Be Cross With
to know if I could exchange thirty-seven of our Me."
worst-selling numbers which had been bought
two years ago for thirty-seven of our best-selling
composition of which we didn't have enough
Sunshine Of Your Smile
copies. A young girl wanted me to show her
some church music, and during all this time the
messenger boy was waiting, the telephone party
was waiting and the front office was waiting. It's
a wonder I didn't turn gray. Then, to top it all,
in came a salesman to add himself to the crowd.
He was offering me an automatic collar button
finder, priced as low as $17.76, with a special
discount on quantities, and desired me. to under-
stand that he made absolutely no profit'on the
article, but that he was simply helping out the
regular salesman who was home looking for his
H A R M S INC.62WEST45 T - H SLNEIVYORK
collar button.
Love Sends %
Ot Roses P
By this time the boy-came to my rescue. Now,
as luck would have it, the boy is cross-eyed, and
there were three different expressmen in there
demanding his signature. The boy said to the
first, "Where are you from?" The second an-
swered, "American X." The boy said, "I didn't
MY
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"REMEMBER THE ROSE'
ONLY ONE PAL
"MARY O'BRIEN"
"MY DADDY"
AFTER ALL
"EMALINE"
"SATURDAY"
IT MUST BE
"TEA IEAVES"
HOME"
SOMEONE LIKE YOU "KENTUCKY
"GOLDEN SANDS OF WAIKIKI"
HARMONY
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BY COOTS
A RINGLE
ON ALL
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ON ALL
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GREAT
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SUCCESSFUL FOX-TROT BALLAD
ON ALL RECORDS AND ROLLS
Chicago
McKinley Music Co.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"BEFORE WE SAY GOODNIGHT"
J E R O M E H. REMICK & CO.
NewYwk
STANDARD SELLERS
Anyel'0 Prayer, Reverie Weary, Ballad Fox Trot
Our Boys and Girls, March
Dream ot the Rose, -Walts
That's What God Made Mothers For (song:)
Somebody Stole My Gal (sonar)
Love's Mafic Spell (sons or Inst.)
DENTON AND HASKINS MUSIC CO.
1531 Broadway
New York
'• DETROIT
NEW YORK
CHICAGO '• •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • M M * '
ROBERT TELLER SONS & DORNER
Music Engravers and Printer*
SEND MANUSCRIPT AND IDEA OF
TITLE FOR ESTIMATE
311 West 43d Street
New York City
BUY YOUR MUSIC FROM
BOSTON
Publishers
WALTER JACOBS BSSTOITAASV
"PeterGink"fcfc["Arabella" t**
OJiver Ditson Company
BOSTON
NEW YORK
Anticipate and supply Every Requirement of Music
Dealers
White-Smith Music Pub. Co.
PUBLISHERS, PRINTERS AND ENGRAVERS OF MUSIC
Main Offices: 40-44 Winchester St., Boston.
Branch Houses: New York and Chicago