Who Hylands Corresponded With

Composer Barney Fagan

Roger Harding

Three familiar faces. Faces that saw Fred Hylands' frequently in 1899. When Hylands began his "Hylands Spencer and Yeager" firm in 1899, he didn't realize that he would be corresponding with all sorts of famous performers and vaudevillians, of which ranged from the tremendously popular May Irwin to his close friend Len Spencer. He came across pretty much everyone you could think of in the early Rag-Time business in 1899 and 1900. His sheet music covers can show for it. It's not really the composers that really catch the eyes of a sheet music nerd with Hylands Spencer and Yeager music, it's who's on the cover that catches the eyes. Hylands advertised some familiar faces on his music, possibly by his own choice, or from someone else involved in the firm. It's why I question which one of the many involved in this firm decided to have Ada Jones on their covers, several times.

Was it Len Spencer or Fred Hylands? Who took the first fancy to her? I haven't any idea. It's either one of those two though, I do lean more toward Spencer on that one. When I mention Byron Harlan getting advertised on Hylands' music, I would say that that idea came solely from Hylands himself. Hylands must have found Harlan an absolute riot! I can see him now smiling and laughing at Harlan's comedic routines in the publishing office. Hylands must have really had a good time when he ran this firm, as hearing all the hottest singers in his own publishing office must have been great for him. As we can see from this here:

He really wanted everyone he could possibly have come to his office and sing or perform for him. From how many different people he advertised on his music covers, it seemed that they did come to him, and many of them did. More probably came than he and Len Spencer could have ever thought. Hylands, as I have explained before, was not too great with his money. This fact had terrible consequences. It certainly was one of the main causes of the collapse of this firm, and from the amount of partying and musical experimentation, it would seem that this drained his profits quick. 

It was very successful for a recording artist-operated publishing firm overall, as this sort of thing was destined for complete failure in the late-1890's. It didn't last too long, but it lasted long enough to be well-recognized in the whole music community of all New York in 1900. That's a big deal, if all the big publishers took a notice to Hylands' firm by how much fun they were all having there must have caught their attention. Since all the great singers came to Hylands', he must have been on to something. It wasn't just the foolish mess that the recording boys at Columbia thought it was upon first hearing Fred's ideas of this firm. 

May Irwin 

Marie Hylands 

Three ladies of Fred's liking for his firm. We know that the third lady is his wife of course, but the first two are ladies of similar profession of whom he came across in the phonograph business. I have a notion that Len Spencer introduced May Irwin to Fred in 1898, and she later visited the firm office to sing and play her 'cello or piano for him. Len Spencer had become a good friend of Irwin's back in 1895, as he was championing her songs for the phonograph, and she took notice to this and went to find him to genuinely acknowledge his skill. Sallie Stembler was a popular singer on the local stage in 1898, and later was given a phonograph job, which is where Fred took a fancy to her, and must have been shaken from his work to see her in his office the next year to introduce his newest publication. He later gladly had her picture put on the cover of J. Fred Helf's "A Picture No Artist Can Paint" which is where that picture above came from. It wasn't just the singers who came to Hylands, it was also the phonograph salesmen and exhibitors. The reason for this was because he wanted his sheet music covers to be shown at the exhibitions that had the records to go along with it. This got Hylands even more profits, as that was the advantage of being a recording artist and publisher. The advantage of this idea was that he could not only get money from the sheet music sales itself, but he could also get money from the phonograph exhibitors. The phonograph exhibitors offered quite a good profit in that time, especially if you were a publisher of music that they had on their records, even better if the publishers advertised the very singers on the cylinders just like Hylands did. It really was a fantastic idea, and it served well for everyone of the twenty or so people involved regularly in this firm. It was Hylands' irresponsibility that led to the overall demise of this great idea however.  It did create a great model for publishers in the 1910' s and 1920's though, because this sort of thing became much more common a decade after Hylands Spencer and Yeager blew to bits. 

This firm created some really important and interesting connections though, some that would not have happened had it not existed. 

I hope you enjoyed this!