200th post- "Kingpin" Hylands and the boys in the business

Yesterday evening, I was digging once again through the many issues of Variety that are digitized online. Among these findings are many new things about Fred and Etta Hylands. I would seem from all of the things that I read last evening, that Etta Hylands was quite a talented accompanist, just like Fred, but not particularly in the Ragged aspect of the popular music of the time. It would also seem that Fred Hylands was one of the most valuable accompanists of the stage business in the late-1890's. From this little quote here:

That's saying something! Hylands seemed to be more valuable than I really ever thought before I did my digging yesterday. And it's odd, the man who spoke of this said this when Hylands worked at Columbia, and that might have been what he was referring to. It's hard to know, but that notion is very possible. As I have said on previous posts, Hylands was known later as a house pianist at Columbia, in some ways, he may have been more famous in this field than Frank P. Banta:

 Argue this as much as you want, but I have come to the conclusion that Hylands was actually more well-known as a studio pianist than Frank P. Banta. Yes, I know that Banta's "Ragged William" from 1899:

 has this little thing right under Banta's name:

"The celebrated pianist of phonograph fame"

Yes, that may be tangible evidence of Banta's renown in the same business as Hylands', but that doesn't mean that Hylands wasn't known for this as well. And though, in the long run, Banta was(and is!) more recognized as a studio pianist, only because of his famous Jazz pianist son Frank Edgar. Hylands hadn't any descendants to carry on his amazing talent, and his wife vanished from the public eye not long after he died, and she was only recognized here and there afterward as "Fred Hylands' widow". So sometimes its both surprising and not surprising that Hylands has gone widely forgotten in the field of early record collecting.

Other than the supposed "phonograph fame" Hylands was said to have been a clever comedian. I'm not sure what his sense of humor was like, but would really like to know about it. His musicals were always said to have been funny, and were approved of by all who attended, even if he was oftentimes something comical to look at. The reviewers of his shows most often enjoyed his humor and few scenes where he actually became a part of the action. He wasn't always directly involved in the plot of his shows, as he was usually in the pit getting all broken up from the directing and conducting(as well as piano playing of course!). He did do lots of Vaudeville from 1908 to 1912 however, as he can be seen here in this little section from Variety:

They didn't specify if he was in blackface, but I would presume he was. The fact that he is mentioned here really caught my eye quick. "The Academy Musical Director"? What in the world does that mean? Hmm... Never heard anything like that about him before. This little thing can be interpreted in several ways, it could mean that he was very well educated in musical directing, a very good one, or he seemed to be setting an example for other directors by unintentionally teaching them. I really don't know. I have heard many titles attached to his name, most of which I understand, but this one I do not at all know the connotation of this queer choice of diction. 

Here are a few  of these titles:

"Fred Hylands, the popular heavyweight piano artist-" The Phonoscope, July, 1898

"The majestic Fred Hylands-" from an Indiana newspaper dated March, 1907

"Freddy" Hylands- from that one thing in The Phonoscope from their September 1898 issue

Other than these titles, I'm sure there are things like "The Indiana Wonder", or some things else related to his height, red hair, and comically wide figure. I just haven't found them yet, I have only heard about them from other collectors here and there. Like the whole "Walrus" story. Ha! I really love that one so much. I think it must have been from around when this photograph was taken:

I don't know why, but I can kind of see that story being told around the time this picture of him was taken, which was in 1909. So funny. 

He must have been a favourite among the vaudeville singers, as that thing a little above in this post represents. I have the feeling that his sense of humor must have been slightly like Len Spencer's, as that was probably one of the many ways that they got along so well. Spencer's sense of humor was genuinely funny, and slightly crass. That sounds about right. I have heard Hylands' voice before, and I am still trying to piece together his voice with his piano mastery, and his uncommonly heard singing. You can hear Hylands exchange dialogue with Harry Spencer on this cylinder here from 1898:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/11000/11735/cusb-cyl11735d.mp3
I still cannot understand Hylands' words at the beginning. But it's sure the voice of the organ player, which is Columbia's heavyweight pianist Fred Hylands. He's funny on this one cylinder, even if he's hard to understand.

I hope you enjoyed this!