The Mystery of Burt Green

(from the March 1899 issue of The Phonoscope)

Thinking of how busy Fred was, we know that this was not always so.

Burton Green. Who was he? It's a hard question to answer. But to what has been found, he was a business partner and good friend of Fred Hylands(i.e. the section from The Phonoscope above). But what was he otherwise? That's hard to say. He certainly was a pianist like Fred, and met Hylands and Spencer at some point before the formation of this shortly successful publishing firm(Hylands, Spencer and Yeager). One of the death notices of Ben R. Harney:

(with his famous cane in 1911)

stated that Burt(Burton) Green was one of the few great Rag-Time imitators of the late-90's, almost to the degree of Mike Bernard. And that's really saying something, only because Bernard was often considered Harney's best imitators and sidemen as a fellow "Rag Time" pianist. So from this interesting and rather important little thing, it seemed that Burt Green was a pretty prominent Rag-Time pianist of the east coast vaudeville circuits in the late 1890's. 

There! That's where the connection is made to Hylands and Spencer, it's indirect, but one more factor leads to this connection of recording artists and performers. Hylands worked as Pastor's main music man in 1896 and 1897, and made the rounds through all the great music and vaudeville houses in the late 90's, so at one of these times, he must have ran into Burt at some point. Burt at this time however was known well by the crowds that flocked at Huber's 14th street museum:

(Ad from the mid-1890's for as show introducing Ada Jones)

Burt Green was apparently very popular in parodying the great Rag-Time that was spreading around so rapidly from first watching Harney back in '96. He learned the ways of first Harney and Mike Bernard, but then----

 along came lumbering Freddy Hylands. 

He had seen them all, and created his new schtick by 1898. But after he must have heard the records that Spencer and Hylands were making at Columbia, he must have been caught by the pianist. And come to find out that it was his good friend Frederick Hylands. After a few more months of performing at various stages in Manhattan, he met up with Hylands when he was planning to start a publishing firm in 1899. This, at the time, was the most promising thing that Fred had set his hands into, other than the whole being employed by Columbia thing. It was a good group of weirdos working together to publish music, and it seemed that they all worked together very well for a little while. But due to the amount of creatives working together, they didn't have a very good capital and profit output. Even if Len Spencer and Steve Porter were funding them mostly. True creative types don't generally think about the money involved in doing business. 

But this is why they had Len Spencer. He was always "Mr. Moneybags", and he always had plenty of money on him. Spencer was wise to all of the means of the music business. Fred was not. Fred was just a very anxious performer who wanted his ideas out there, and just happened to be the youngest of the firm's staff(if Burt Green turn out to be younger, but I doubt it). Burt was the second most devoted on the firms output(under Fred of course), but he was just as busy as Fred was out performing, even if he just didn't happen to be a recording artist. 

After Hylands, Spencer, and Yeager came to a forceful close, and a depressing one for Fred, Burt Green just sort of vanishes from the spectrum. He was still a performer in the field of Rag-Time, and vaudeville in general, but his whereabouts are nearly impossible to find anywhere. They pop up far later than 1900, as referring back to the mention of his hame at the notice of Ben Harney's death in 1938.

1938! What had dear old Burt Green been doing for so long? Was be dead by that time?(thinking of the lifespans of all of those recording artists and Rag-Time "mokes"haha! ,Any of you Ragtimers get it?). Burt had probably been dead for at least a few years(or even as much as a decade!) by the time this was written. 

Now, If anyone has any information on Burton Green, PLEASE send it to me! I am beyond anxious to learn more about this mysterious early Rag-Timer!

I hope you enjoyed this!