Since to-day is mother's day, I saw fit to do a post on two great mother's that are in this line of obscure study on this blog. Many of these recording stars referred to their mothers when they were interviewed about anything they did, Byron Harlan mentioned his mother many times throughout his extensive recording career, and she lived to see some of it happen in fact. Some of them should have mentioned their mothers, like Arthur Collins' saintly Irish-Catholic mother, and Len Spencer's amazing suffragette mother.
Now I really wanted to focus some of this post on Len Spencer's amazing mother, who whenever I read about her, she still is amazing to me. She was one of the prominent leaders of the women's suffrage movement in the 1870's, which involved many daring women who tried to run for many government offices, and also attempted to submit votes, but as we well know, this did not work. No matter this, Sara Spencer continued to teach her boys how to truly treat women, and to selflessly love them. While Len and Harry were recording artists, Sara became headmaster of the Spencerian Business college, and while in that position, kept up with all of the recording work her boys were doing. she must have been somewhat disappointed that neither of her boys wanted to become headmaster after the death of Father Henry Caleb sr. in 1891. That year must have been a time where both the Spencer boys came to a crossroads, it was either they quit recording, or become the brothers who own the empire that their father created. We know what they chose, but it must be noted that Harry was only 16 at the time, and held back from recording until 1895. In those 4 years, he probably helped his mother run the school. According to The Phonoscope, Sara Spencer had a phonograph in her office and was often found listening to Len and Harry's records. She often visited the boys as well, and many of these visits were reported in The Phonoscope. It's very funny that she was watching over them and keeping up-to-date with her two rambling boys, even when they were spending all day in the studios making records every day of the week.
The next mother I would like to speak of is the mother of Fred Hylands. Fred had a deep connection to his mother, more so than that with his father. I have long been under the impression that he was a "mama's boy", as he missed her so dearly for the rest of his life. In 1893, while Chicago was the brightest and hottest place in the world at the Columbian Exposition, Mary Whitney Hylands died suddenly. This left Fred brokenhearted, not exactly as much for sister Etta though, as she was dealing with a new husband who was struggling with smallpox. Fred could never really get over the death of his mother, as he was not as attached to his father, who he then had to live with. His father was much more stern, and was unsure of Fred's life-choices, but since they were doing him well, there was not a need to complain. The only reason I think that Fred mourned the death of his mother for the rest of his life is because a pseudonym on some of his music comes up later in his years of composing that is a little suspicious. This name was "Fred Whitney", which makes sense, as he used his mother's maiden name. The composition style under this name is almost identical to that of Hylands, and it was advertised on a piece that he published in 1912("The Rag-Time Boardinghouse" to be more specific). The name is listed twice on the back of this music, which also is a little suspicious. That indicates something about what he thought of his mother, which was obviously very saddening to him, but at the same time very fond in memories.
Before I end this post, I must go off subject for a moment, as I was looking through the May, 1900 issue of The Phonoscope while writing about Sara Spencer(that's where a section on her was written), I stumbled across these two sections here:
These are very interesting. It's odd to think that Spencer and his group of friends were invited to the republican convention! The club that Roger Harding ran is also fascinating as well, as we are continuing to learn more about Roger Harding, who, as we're learning, was much more than just a studio star. That Mckinley and Roosevelt campaign must have been made just a little more fun with having Harding collecting republican votes, and Spencer doing some underline promoting with campaign songs! If only they had that now!
Hope you enjoyed this! Happy mother's day everyone!
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