Revised: Character Studies--Fred Hylands(1872-1913)

After learning a whole lot more about Hylands, it seems fit to essentially re-post the Character Studies post on him. Just like anything I post on Hylands, it's often to aid the kind descendants of him, and to make sure that all collectors are aware of his presence on early Columbia records. 

The amount of information that has been collected on Hylands since this time last year has been phenomenal, and it all makes his life not only more interesting, but a whole lot more complicated. Just a few small facts and observations made by Charlie Judkins and I changed much of what we thought of Hylands, and came as a surprise. If I ever get the chance to give my seminar on Hylands once more(which I hope to!), it will be even more complete than when I gave it for the first time last November! Yes, there are still gaps that perhaps we will never fill, but those gaps at least have been filled to some extent in the last few months. Well, we've still got a long way to tread with the whole Hylands thing, but that is exactly why it remains ever interesting to search.
 There's not a way I could have expected that that unknown, obscure name "Frederic Hylands" written in the pages of The Phonoscope would become such a monumental and long-term project. But no matter, it's still a joy to dig, and eventually I'll find that unmarked grave in New York and at last get it marked if needed. 

Hylands in 1897,

and in 1898.

Here we go...

Hylands was a beaming star amid Columbia's night sky of glowing white stars, with a personality and figure that always consumed a room he entered. Sometimes this was intentional, other times not, but more often than not it was wanted by him. This desire, or demand, for attention is rooted in his past, like most things are with people. Being the older child, and a boy, it seemed inevitable for him to be treated better of the two children, the other being his sister Etta. He was born at about the last week of February(remember that we're not really certain of this just yet), and that would make him older than most of the early Rag-Time pianists, including Ben Harney oddly enough. It didn't take long for his parents, Charles and Mary, to take to the talent and genius of their son, as well as to realize that Fred was not going to be a respectable locomotive engineer like his father. By age 7, Fred was beginning to show interest in playing the fiddle, and with that curiosity took a liking to the banjo on the sly, since that wasn't exactly the most classical of instruments for earning a living. After messing with the fiddle, and becoming rather proficient with it, he began at the piano, playing whatever it was he played early on. Soon he was traveling all around Indiana and Ohio as a child prodigy, hence his sense of importance and need for attention later on. By 1886 and 1887, he was a local celebrity around Fort Wayne, being mentioned in the papers pretty much almost every week, with some new antics and gossip. In 1887 was not only when his father opened a grocery/saloon, but it was also when he went to the local business college(at 15 mind you!). He got into all sorts of trouble in and around Fort Wayne, from cable car bouts to driving a wagon and almost getting killed by a suddenly terrified horse(much like the whole Spencer cable car incident). All of this built his character, and providing entertainment at his father's saloon did so as well. He continued this interesting and well-known life until 1893 when the family moved out to Chicago, in overwhelming interest in the World's Fair. Unfortunately, Mary Whitney Hylands died not long after the move, leaving Charles with Fred and Etta. Etta married off the month after her mother died, with Fred and Charles the only ones at home then. Fred as working out a local outposts for Keith's and Pastor's theaters, playing accompaniments, and managing shows there, but also playing at less-then respectable places that Chicago was infamously ridden with. Places where syphilis and violence ruled the essence. This is where the final touches were set on his playing style, as by this time he had fully settled with playing the piano. His style was finalized when out in Chicago, as all of these other famous "rag" pianists were playing at the same clubs and venues as he, and without a doubt he took from them, despite already possessing a style that was the zenith of Rag-Time's early days(like Ben Harney's). In September 1895, he conveniently married British singer/actress Maria Stevens, possibly due to pressure set on them by both of their parents. Not long afterward, Charles, Fred and Marie moved out to Milwaukee for a short period, most likely because Fred had been asked to work for one of the theater chains at which he was employed to manage. By mid-1896, Fred and crew were finally out in New York. Fred immediately resumed working at the theaters he was already empolyed, only this time it was where the original managers and theaters were, not the chains. Fred earned a reputation in New York, though at first he was seen as a hapless Indiana rube of a sort(not entirely...) to the society Rag pianists such as Max Hoffmann and Burt Green. He was no rube, in fact his smarts were far higher than most thought at the beginning, but this didn't always prove him well. By very early 1897(or late-1896...), he caught wind of the advertisements of recruitment the newly local Columbia Phonograph Company, and that they were holding auditions and tests. Not long afterward, he went off to 27th and Broadway to await his turn before Easton, Emerson, and Issler. Soon he was declared an employee of Columbia, on staff, almost full time. This came about around March-April 1897, according to auditory study of Columbia recordings made around this time. Soon Hylands began to realize why Issler had become bitter about working in Columbia's studio, or any studio for that matter, though at least in the beginning of Fred's term there, and the end of Issler's, the two of them got along rather well, but this did not last into the next year. Of course, with this new job, Fred had no idea how this was going to impact him, assuming it wasn't a horrible occupation to be a studio musician. How he was wrong. In mid-1897 or so, Hylands seemed like anyone else who worked at Columbia, young, sweet-faced, well-rested, and fit. As can be observed from the images of him at the top of this post, none of these things remained as such. He was still relatively good-looking into 1898, though the temptation of the benefits he received from working at Columbia for got to him faster than anyone could have expected. He came in to Columbia in early-ish 1897 at just over 200(keep in mind that he was freakishly tall), and by the middle of the next year, was at over 300. That was unexpected. Also, he seemed to have aged ever so slightly in that timeframe, seeming like heaps alcohol and drugs carved lines and exacerbated his quick gaining of weight. Like many of us would think to-day, that couldn't have been good for him, gaining that much weight in a relatively short period of time. Well, it's likely that in the early half of his time at Columbia(which incidentally was the last quarter of the brown wax era), is where the diabetes he had began to slowly suffocate him, little by little each coming year. It was because of this unexpected spell of suffering and stress that we get quotes from him like this one: 

That was still not too long after he began working for them, a little over a year perhaps. Of course, by the middle of 1898, his rag-time piano accompaniments were becoming a signature for Columbia's records, as they were openly advertised and described in editions of The Phonoscope and they soon became an indicator for what Columbia's records sounded like. His accompaniments in Rag-time behind those singers were superior, perhaps outdoing Edison's own Frank Banta and Fred Hager  by a mile or more. Not always, but the musical ideas and folk background of his made the style more distinct, and interesting to listeners of the era and of to-day. Since Fred was had become so popular at Columbia, he used this to his advantage in selling his music, since anything he wrote while there was certain to get him some decent mileage. it was just at the height of the infamous exhibition season that he wrote his famous "national success"(not really) "The Darkey Volunteer", for Vess Ossman, and when he sent out advertisements highly praising his piece from his first few months at Columbia "The Narcissus Gavotte". This got far, with a handful of takes of "The Darkey Volunteer", and many encores of his fantastic playing at the wearisome, hot and sticky exhibitions, it seemed all-right for him. It must be noted that on the the 1898 cylinder of this by Ossman and Hylands, that it seems the composer didn't even bother to practice his most prized piece, or just bother to play it to the best of his ability(there are many mistakes scattered all around throughout the piece, not on Ossman's part). That just goes to show how Hylands felt sometimes, even in the presence of tightly strung and intense natured Ossman, who probably tediously practiced the piece till he couldn't anymore.  Hylands could clearly be frustrating sometimes, and this is just one example of perhaps many aggravating little things he pulled with other recording stars. 
1899 turned out to be an even more pivotal year for Hylands, and this was because of his forceful will in beginning an official publishing firm with Roger Harding and Steve Porter. He threw the idea at them as well as setting aside some stocks for the firm, all before the firm could ever get anywhere, only publishing one piece successfully in February. After Fred's angry break down from the "Knickerbockers" firm blowing to bits, he stepped right in again to begin another publishing firm, this time with his good studio friend Len Spencer and his booking agent.

This time it seemed Fred had the Columbia Lady's hair in his grasp, by then owning an amount of authority over Columbia's flow of music in the studio. This allowed him to publish music of the studio stars, to further their fame, and this time just not on recordings, but also in print! It was ingenious, until the notion fell through after a year and a half, since Burt Green couldn't manage his flat during the days, and Len Spencer had pretty much dropped out by then, due to his constant recording activity, and Fred himself had grown heavier and weary of the managing he'd done for everyone. Hylands Spencer and Yeager fell through completely in October 1900, and by the month afterward, he had sold all his stock, further throwing him into deeper melancholy from the failure. He still had Columbia to keep him employed, though it was around the time of ending the firm and the last true year of the brown wax era(1901) that he began to form his somewhat rebellious, Socialist viewpoint that later proved him well for a short while. He continued to work regularly at Columbia, thought reluctantly, and worried he was more susceptible to fights and abuse from the other staff members, due to his fooling with them during the publishing firm, which unfortunately for him included everyone he worked with regularly. To escape this, and return to his roots, he began performing in minor shows on and just off Broadway, as well as performing in straight vaudeville, singing songs and playing that signature piano style he seemed to have been known for. By 1902, he had a fling with Columbia finally, almost getting him thrown out, other than the whole Climax feud doing just the same thing. This time, it was more of his own fault, feeling agitated and abused by Columbia's treatment of him, he had enough, though they didn't, and couldn't fire him right then and there. His protest included going off and working for Columbia enemies, such as Zon-O-Phone and Leeds. The other companies welcomed him with open arms, with no previous notion of how vexing working with him was. Of course, like anything he involved himself in, his association with these other companies didn't last long, and by early 1903, he was back at Columbia, working there until the middle of 1905,when at last he was dropped. After 8 years, he was finally freed from them, and able to do what he wanted. Despite mild successes on Broadway in 1905 and 1906, he still was dissatisfied with the little recognition he received from this, and not being able to lived as comfortably as he wanted. Being one of the founding leaders of the White Rats Actors' Union, he had some protection and leverage to keep him and Marie out of poverty. He slowly drifted away from what he was supposed to be doing as a chief at the White Rats, becoming solely a musician with each coming month, refusing to be seen on the stage(Wish we knew why this is...) and becoming disloyal to the union he helped found and organize. He did continue to perform onstage regularly during his period where the other union members became suspicious of him. By 1910, he was living in a boardinghouse not too far away from where the old Columbia building was still standing tall. He and Marie came in and out of the boardinghouse, going on various tours and trips for the stage, and it seemed that Marie was busier than Fred, not even being present for the 1910 census, and her performances scattered all over stage magazines with Belle Farmer were taking over Fred's spotlight by a mile. In 1912, after being thrown out of the White Rats for good, Fred teamed with Wilbur Held as a duo in vaudeville. Keep in mind that by this time, Fred was slimmed out once more, similar to when he first began working at Columbia, but this time it was because of traveling and sickness, not like before. The touring he did from 1906 to 1909 wore him out, and probably exacerbated the downfall of his health. By 1912, especially early 1913, he was especially not well, perhaps any night of a show could be his last by then. Of course, he didn't think that way, so he refused to let this notion bother him. In the early part of 1913, Fred and Held were signed to tour in England in the summer, which by June, is where they sent off to. Once over there, they got to touring almost right away, with Fred and Wilbur being the headliners of many shows, and Marie being in some of them as well. After about a few weeks of touring, once the troupe had gotten to the northwestern coast of England, Fred dropped dead, of something related to the crippling diabetes he had for years. Oddly enough, Marie and Held continued to perform for a few more weeks after Fred died, since their contract had been extended, to two years it's said, but of course, it could not be fulfilled without Fred. 


After a few more weeks, the troupe finally disbanded and went back to the U. S., to have Fred's funeral. It was held by the White Rats union, despite their bitterness toward him in the end, he was still a founding member, and deserved the respect. It is not certain where in New York he was buried, or if his grave it marked in any way, it's unlikely to be. Marie spent two years in mourning for Fred, in the typical Victorian tradition, but just then and there in 1915 she went back to where she and Fred met in Chicago to marry a Dutchman named Sam Gelder, it is uncertain how long they were married, but it was into the 1920's. 



I don't think I need to exhibit a bunch of recordings Hylands was on because they are scattered all over the posts of this blog, and there's really no way to decide on only three or four with him. This is exactly why he's ever interesting! 

Sorry about not posting for over a week, it's been hard to make the time for a post in the past week. 

Keep your spirits up out there! 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Columbia in 1897

The more we read about early Columbia, the more we want to know and try to figure out on our own, but of course, that isn't possible most of the time. However, as it has been stated on this blog, Columbia went through a painful transition period of two years from 1896 to 1897, where pretty much every part of Columbia's staff and location was changed. Come to think of it, Columbia had a few of these transition years, another being 1903 to 1904. They were usually long, and straining to all of the staff members, which meant that many of them were laid off and many were hired. They were unsure times for Columbia. 

Of course we know that the inception of Columbia was unsure by all means, and in some ways not even supposed to have happened. That was harsh for them, but after all of the Edison business passed over them, they were smooth sailing until the recession of 1894-1895. After then came the transition period. This was not nearly as unsure as the previous years, it was more of a period of housekeeping, because it was when they finally became a larger company. Moving to New York was for first step of making Columbia what it became. They were no longer under the supervision of Edison, now they were an independent company with no ties at all to Edison. They happened to set up in the middle of what was to become "tin pan alley", because all of the big publishers were located within easy walking distance of the corner of 27th and Broadway. The next thing that they did was hire a new studio manager, and this was when Victor Emerson began at Columbia, and since the U. S. Phonograph company blew to bits in early 1897, that meant that those who were thrown out of the collapsing company were free to take. That's exactly what Columbia did, took them all when they were dropping out of the U. S. Company. It's surprising how quickly the recording stars dropped out of that company, within only a matter of weeks, they were all gone, and Columbia had taken them. During this "purge" of a sort was likely when Hylands came into the picture, since it couldn't have been any earlier than when this was all going on, and since this was a matter of staffing, it wouldn't be too unusual if this was the case.  In thinking of it that way, that would mean that Hylands was hired to work for Columbia around March-April 1897. Hmm, that's earlier than previously thought. It's not too unreasonable though. Of course with this new pianist meant that Issler was just barely holding on to his place working there. This is also logical, with this, it's important to keep in mind that Issler was a little harder to work with in terms of keeping his orchestra well-paid. 

According to our previous findings on Issler, he always had money issues when it came to his orchestras, and this is why many of his scheduled performances were dropped, due to not being paid fairly. This is likely a reason why Issler probably refused to work at Columbia after 1897. Wow, that's more blunt than Hylands' union leadership! At least it took a few years for Hylands to slam his hand on the manager's desk for better pay. Issler was surprisingly quick to it. 

Issler wouldn't be in that chair too much longer when this picture was taken. Of course with the new fad of "Rag Time" becoming such an essential for recordings, Issler tried his best to keep up with it, but inevitably 25 year old Fred Hylands was just what Columbia needed to end their hunt for a decent Rag pianist. This was a major change to the overall sound of Columbia records, because they no longer sounded like records like this late-1896 Columbia. Of course, the record in the link above was from the very short period where Columbia's announcement was "...of New York City", which is, in many ways, the rarest of all Columbia announcements. This announcement was really only said for the second half of 1896 into the earliest months of 1897. 

Speaking of this short period of Columbia, a recording made around the same time(within the same month probably),as the cylinder in the link above, also be favor has interesting piano accompaniment that I haven't seemed to really notice until now. Edward Favor's "Bonnie My Queen", has interesting piano accompaniment that seems very characteristic of that transition period. It's a sound that's very unusual, and sounds like a cross between Issler and Hylands, which makes sense, but doesn't seem to help it trying to attach one of these two names to the accompaniment. Many Columbia's of this period sound this way, and there doesn't seem to be a reason why. It's likely that during this period, Issler and Hylands rotated a lot more clearly than what may be supposed later. Maybe the two of them were able to deal with one another a little better early on, by early on, only 1897 is meant, because by 1898, most of the recordings seem to have that one style, not a mix of two or three pianists. 

For example, this 1897 Billy Golden cylinder, seems to have more of a Hylands piano style, despite the very early announcement for him to be there. A recording that comes to mind in similarity to this one, would have to be George W. Johnson's 1898-ish cylinder of "The Laughing Coon". This cylinder oddly enough, sounds like the same pianist, and they were recorded rather far apart from each other. The only thing that really makes these records seem to have the same accompanist is that one thing that the pianist plays on the 1897 cylinder many times, such as at 26 seconds in, and that quick thing at 47 seconds in, which is played in exactly the same way as it is on the Johnson cylinder from later. On the Johnson record, you can hear this little thing at both choruses, at just before a minute in and later at just after 2 minutes in. It's hard to tell if the pianist on both these similar takes is Issler or Hylands, but maybe if we turn to two recordings we are safely decided on the pianist being one of these two. 
Here's "The Whistling Coon" by George W. Johnson and Issler from 1891.
take that in.
Now,
Here's "Turkey in the Straw" by Golden and Hylands from 1899.

Even after listening to two safely identified takes by these two, it's still hard pressed to figure this out. Like always I want to think that Hylands is on that early take of "The Mockingbird", because that would make him being there earlier than previously thought, but there's very little to distinguish the pianist on the record, less than "The Laughing Coon". How about we turn to a later 1897 Columbia. 
Here's "Patrol Comique" by Schweinfest from 1897(this is a newly slowed down transfer by the way!) 


This record give a clearer point to the pianist being Hylands, just a little more energetic than other records he's on. It's strange to take this into consideration, but when listening to the recording, it's got accompaniment that's full of life and mirth, just as Hylands' playing usually did, but a little more so than usual. Come to think of it, it kind of makes sense that this is so when looking at a very early image of Hylands:

Ah yes, an image where Hylands actually looks rather handsome!
And yes, I still am firmly standing on my belief that this is Hylands.  

This image fits in very well with the subject of this post, since it is almost certainly dated at 1897, and it hasn't Issler at the piano is especially interesting. An image from 1897 Columbia, we would assume it to be more like the one with George W. Johnson and Issler, with the pianist being one of the old order(the "round" era), not expecting Hylands already working there by the middle of 1897(when the image above was most likely taken). 
With this, we know that records from 1897 Columbia are like flipping a coin when it comes to who the pianist is, more so than any other year of the piano accompaniment era. 

Heads=Issler
Tails=Hylands

This is making more sense now, since being able to understand this pattern on 1897 Columbia's was becoming an awful dilemma. Maybe we're underestimating the first impressions Hylands made on Issler, and vice versa. 1897 may have been all-right for them, but we know that 1898 was Issler's finish with Columbia, even after almost ten years with them. 









Anyway, before I end this post, I'd like to share one record that isn't and 1897 Columbia record, but is an exceptional piece of Rag-Time. Oddly enough, there are occasional Berliner's that sound decent on part of the piano playing, because they usually are known for not being very clear in their last two years. 
Here's "Telegraph My Baby" by Ed. Favor, recorded in 1899. Toward the beginning of the cylinder, there's a whole lot of interesting Ragged playing, with syncopation patterns that are very distinct. By this, I mean distinct of Banta. This is a characteristic of Banta to keep in mind when listening to Berliner's, and Edison's, because he didn't do this all the time, there are a bunch of records that have this type of syncopation in the accompaniment.


Keep listening and identifying out there! 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Character Studies--Fred Hager(1874-1958)

Now that we know Hager was one of those famed Rag-Time pianists on early recordings, it seems inevitable for more posts to be centered around him and Zon-O-Phone in general. Despite a yearning to learn more about him, there's not too much on him out there, everything there is about him is from later on in his career as a bandleader and arranger, from about 1907 to the 1920's, bit after that there's a huge gap of time before then and after that. Soon, we hope to dig up all of this information on him, much like we did on Edward Issler. We hope that these gaps will be filled at least somewhat, so a trajectory will be known to some extent.

Now for Hager's background and upbringing. This at least gets us an idea of how highly regarded he was from such a young age. He was born in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania in 1874, and from a very young age joined local regiment bands, as this state was known for such a thing at this time.  In 1895, Hager was given a full scholarship to attend the New York Music school that had just been set up by the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. He was sent here to study the violin, likely in his case under Dvorak himself, which is very strange yet amazing all at once! Once at the music school,he gained a reputation as a violin virtuoso, and a blossoming musician all around, playing brass and piano as well. By 1897, he had formed his own band, and this was given many awards as one of the top bands of all New York State, which is no small thing. He was soon invited to make records for the relatively small firm of Harms, Kaiser, and Hagen(as stated in The Phonoscope), and the next year, 1898, he was making violin records for Edison. Oddly enough, this caused some competition for Charles D'Almaine, who was then working for Edison and Columbia. It was around this time that Hager became a pianist for Edison, adding to their already three pianists on staff. Of course, just like with D'Almaine, Frank Banta must have unexpectedly entered competition when he  came along, not aware at first of Hager's curiosity in playing Rag-Time. But Banta and Benzler underestimated Hager's curiosity and rather surprising skill when it came to actually playing the style. He didn't surpass Banta in this, but he came pretty close to doing so, in a rather short period of time, since by 1898, Hager was also playing Rag-Time accompaniments for Edison, to compete with that horrid mess of a pianist at Columbia. Edison had two Rag pianists to essentially equal one Hylands. 

the equation was simple:

two Rag pianists:

Banta and Hager= equals one Hylands. Good.

That's Walter Miller's(Edison's Victor Emerson) logic for Rag-Time at Edison.

Anyway, Hager worked at Edison into 1899 and 1900, but it was around the latter that he became associated with the scandalous new company Zon-O-Phone. With this new company, he essentially was working with a clean slate, since this company had no history or baggage with any other company(save for Victor after 1900), and the orchestra was his to piece together. That's exactly what he did, and by 1901, he had created Zon-O-Phone's famed house orchestra, with some of his own musicians, and occasionally plucked out musicians from other studio orchestras. The end result was the best house orchestra of the era, and his arrangements made them ever better. Of course, since he was the orchestra leader, it seemed inevitable for him to become Zon-O-Phone's main studio pianist. He took his time at Edison as a trial for his piano skills to develop, and once he had Zon-O-phone's studio, he allowed this to be his time to really improve his piano playing, particularly his Rag-Time. His style of Rag-Time was very unusual, and it sounded like a cross between Hylands and Frank Banta, and all the other Edison pianists of the late-1890's. Luckily, that's why it wasn't too hard to put Hager's name on that style in the first place. His style was still very odd, combining the straight-laced and classically trained background with a very syncopated and rhythmically superior nature. Oddly enough, he played fifths in his left hand, and combined this with whacky yet syncopated right hand. Oftentimes his right hand was out of whack, but the rhythm in the left hand was always on point. It sounded like Hager had been to performances with Hylands accompaniment, or someone like that, such as Ben Harney, or Max Hoffmann. Wherever his inspiration came from, the style he created was unique and very interesting, obviously taking from Hylands. By 1902, he was eclipsed by his own competitor in Rag-Time, Fred Hylands, because once Hylands became horribly fed up with Columbia in 1902, he entered into Zon-O-Phone's studio and was welcomed by the management. Luckily, this relatively short period became the prime of Hager's orchestra, since he wasn't always going to be the pianist when Hylands was there. Between 1902 and 1904, the best of Hager's orchestra was recorded, you can notice a spike in Hager's Orchestra performances on Zono in this time period, and the overall sound was just as great as it had always been, if not a little better in this period. By the end of the piano accompaniment era(1905) Zon-O-Phone still held on to their piano accompaniment until the end of that year, much like Columbia did, for what seems the same reason. Hager wasn't dropped like Hylands however, he was given leadership of pretty much all the Zon-O-phone sessions, still keeping his orchestra there as the accompaniment, and for occasional band recordings. They were still a superior orchestra, with the superior sound quality that was a signature for the label. By the end of Zon-O-phone as we know it, Hager was thrown out, just like everyone else who worked there. But he feared not, his orchestra became what Issler's did, an old-style orchestra who got a surprising amount of work after recording. Hager was still young by 1912, so his orchestra didn't become archaic until the 1920's. Hager wasn't able to transition to Jazz, just like Issler, but by the late-1920's, Hager had joined the radio business. In the 1930 census, Hager is listed as "program manager-broadcasting", which proves this statement. He was doing just what he did for Zon-O-Phone, just for the radio studios. It seems that by 1940, he had left this line, and retired as a music writer, and general musician. Performances by his orchestra date as far along as 1952! That's dedication. Hager's orchestra must have sounded real old-time by the 1930's, and to think that he was performing twenty years after that! He died in 1958 at the age of 84.

Hager made sure that his family didn't seem unusual for the time period, and this can be well observed in census records. In November 1897, he married Clara Decker, and soon had two little girls, none of whom entered in the music business unfortunately. Not much of his personality is easy to put together, but it's certain that he was an agreeable musician, since he was able to work for many record companies, and not create any baggage with any of them. Record companies probably fought quietly over him, and it was likely that Columbia became envious of the perfect pianist and orchestra leader Zon-O-Phone had, since none of their own staff was as extraordinary all around as Hager. Another thing that kept Hager always well liked was that he was the best-looking of the studio pianists, not seeming to fit the pianist stereotype that Banta and Issler personified to the highest degree. Hager was tall, thin, had dark blond hair, long stick-like legs, well-sloped slightly feminine shoulders, and a gloriously classical profile, with a perfectly shaped forehead to fit this. His good looks and agreeable nature were hard to refuse to the record managers, and he earned respect and admirers from this. 

Hager was a whole lot better-looking that most of these early recording stars. 

Just saying. 

Now for some records with Hager on piano! 

Here are a few examples with Hager's interesting and distinct style:

Will F. Denny's "Ain't You Ma Lulu" from 1901

what a wild record!

Collins' "Just because she made dem Goo Goo Eyes" from 1901

Ed Favor's "Everything at Reilly's must be Done in Irish Style" from 1900

Favor's "He Calls me his Own Grace Darling" from 1901

Well, there you go! Finally information on Hager! Thanks go out to Charlie Judkins for helping in finding all of this, some of the information also came from articles by Tim Gracyk and conversation with Craig Ventresco. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Harding's publishing and Making good for Screw-overs

This evening, I stumbled across a fantastic article on Roger Harding, from the only collector who was an expert on him. Even Jim Walsh didn't know much about Harding, no matter how far he dug into the people who knew him. Unfortunately, this collector who wrote about Harding is now deceased as one of my friends told me a while back. This is also the case with a collector who possessed the best collection of Len Spencer recordings and odds and ends there ever was, and now the collection is split up unfortunately, with much of it ending up at the LOC. 

Harding is among my favourites of these early recording stars, other than Len Spencer, Fred Hylands, Vess Ossman, etc. So it wasn't all that surprising to see that I was mesmerized by this article, and completely hooked immediately upon seeing the article. The article was very well-written, and was full of not often read information on Harding. If you would like to read it yourself, here's the article in the link below:

https://archive.org/stream/NAG65/NAG%2065#page/n1/mode/2up

Enjoy! 

The good thing that was detailed in the article in the link above is Harding's publishing endeavors, which began with his relation with Hylands and Steve Porter. Of course, we know very well that the whole "Knickerbocker" went though Hylands' ear and straight out the other. We know how that went. This must have made Roger a little disillusioned, and disappointed in Fred, with the trust he'd thrown him for this to actually happen, then it didn't. But of course, that didn't end anything with them, because the one rule that Columbia's studio seemed to have just as a mutual thing was that no grudges could be held between any staff members.
 Why? 
Well think about it, Hylands had "screwed over" many of the Columbia staff, even his bestest of friends like Harry Yeager and Len Spencer, which left them all frustrated with one another, however, they couldn't be for very long, because they all still had to make records, with no regards to the "baggage" that they had. This was so even later in time, such as when Collins and Harlan were first working together, because they disagreed rather often, probably more than most people have documented in fact. this happened all the time, Columbia talent disagreed, in fact, during the Johnson Murder trial, this was probably amplified by everyone's differing beliefs and opinions, despite them all siding with the defense(of course they did, because they had to). The point to this moral "rule" is that they all had to come back to work the next day and make records, no arguments or divas allowed. 

Luckily for Harding, he was a logical and optimistic man, wise to all of this, and never cause any fights amongst his fellow employees. He didn't hold a grudge against Hylands, because of the need for more recordings, but also because Hylands made good with him by writing some music for and with him. 
It's this kissing up to him that we get pieces like this one:

Ah yes, more of that infamous Hylands Spencer and Yeager music. 

Before I get into the strangeness of Mrs. Cal Stewart being on the cover, I must continue on Harding. 

Harding's relationship with Hylands didn't end with the Knickerbocker failure, despite what the article stated, as the pieces of music Hylands published with Harding continued:

Without a doubt Harding was still on the periphery of the publishing endeavor, because Hylands kept pulling his leg to publish more music of his:

Hey! It's Gaskin!

But of course, like anything like this, it really shocked me to see Harding AND Porter's names on music for composer credit, and the fact that the authorship looks reversed from our typical knowledge of Porter and Harding. Hylands really wanted to keep their trio together, even if the whole Knickerbocker thing blew to bits. Hmm, wonder why that is? The piece of music just above really says for it, because that's a later publication of Hylands', perhaps later 1899 rather than earlier(my piece in full colour above is a few months older, because of the two other publishing outpost location addresses not being present.) As Much as Spencer probably disliked Hylands for the amount of thing he pulled, there was not a way that they could split, Spencer dedicated himself to the firm, and he had created that gorgeous footer, so whenever he was questioning his commitment to Fred, it was just violently shushed by Fred the millisecond he began in on it.

 So... after Harding learned some of the publishing game(from not a very good role model), he began publishing himself since no one would bother to help him otherwise, setting up on the same block as where he worked(Columbia), and simply called it Roger Harding Publishing Company. One example was thus:

Now that's a familiar face! There were scores more on Harding's music, from Gaskin to George Schweinfest. Hylands probably saw this as a threat to his then-fading firm, since it was set up a block away from him, and for the same purpose, by one of his own co-workers. Harding was confident for a short period about this firm, though just like Fred's around the same time, it sunk quicker than the stock could handle all in one. Since Harding didn't see the end of the next year, his music was never sold to larger firms, which makes it even rarer than Hylands Spencer and Yeager music. It's actually a little surprising that Hylands didn't slip out Harding's stock after the firm went under and when be died, because that seems like something he would do, especially since his own firm was in a slow, painful decline. He didn't and the staff mourned Harding's death, much like when Frank Banta died, though this didn't seem as big a deal as Banta's death two years later. 

Now to return back to the "Kitty Clover" music farther above in this post. Now the many recognizable faces on Hylands' music can seem a pleasant surprise to unknowing collectors, and every time I see a new copy of one of those pieces, it gets me all excited. You never know if a famous recording star will be on a Hylands piece, which is why it's great to sift through them. That specific edition of "Kitty Clover" is a strange one, and gets me a little suspicious. One thing to keep in mind with Hylands is that everything he did came with benefits. By this, it is meant that anything he did came with some perk given to the other person or people involved. Take his praising advertisement from The Phonoscope, where he literally invites people over, in exchange for accommodating hospitality. It is because of this that we don't see any scathing reviews of his Broadway shows later, though they existed, regardless of what all of the sources we see state about him. Hylands probably offered each of those performers on his music something, whether it be percentage of the profits, or something else... ... ... 

It can be assumed by some wild theory that Hylands and Harding found Cal Stewart's wife gorgeous(well it didn't help that they were surrounded by other strange looking men all the time at work...). That's not impossible, because she does seem to be rather pretty, and it almost seems out of nowhere for her to be the dedicatee on the music of two men who knew her from the same source. 

I can see Fred's face light up when she came in with Cal one day at Columbia, same with Roger, except that Roger was probably a little less struck than Fred, since he was older, and a little more reserved it would seem. It seems like something that could be attached to Fred's character, or Roger's. 

Hmm, wonder if Cal had any notion? Hope so. 

It seems odd to tie anything like this to Cal Stewart, thinking of him as "Uncle Josh". But really, if you think it over, it's not too unusual, this is Columbia we're speaking of here, none of this would happen at Edison. 

Other than making all the ladies stars on his music, Fred also made up for wrongdoings by publishing artists' music and dedicating music he wrote to them. This went for Len Spencer, Vess Ossman, Harry Yeager, and Dan Quinn. All of those specific names in association to Fred seem a little suspicious. They all seem like artists that got in a tangle with him before he made up for it by publishing music. The only reason I think this is because he ended a few letters with 

I beg to remain yours respectfully,

FRED HYLANDS.

Also that he was thrown out of the White Rats union because he was tangling with other agents and going off doing what he wanted. All of these factors set up a figure who screwed over many fellows. Since this was such an issue with him, without a doubt this was so when he worked for Columbia. Hylands certainly had his reasons for dropping so many names on his music, probably each performer had a story as to why he did this. Even Ada Jones probably had a yarn with him, because she wasn't on just one of his covers. In this case his tale with Ossman would be an interesting one! Who knows what Ossman thought of dealing with Hylands, two musicians full of themselves is never a good thing, and that's exactly what that duo was. This new article was fascinating to read, especially coming at the Hylands Spencer and Yeager endeavor from Harding's point of view, which is very different from anyone else involved. Knowing what Victor Emerson thought of this whole employees as publishers thing would be the most interesting however, because he had nothing to do with it, yet in a way he was managing it, whether he wanted to or not. 

Before I end, I would like to satisfy some of my Hager "kick" recently, with a new record I found a few days ago. This is an early pre-paper label Zon-O-Phone from 1901 by John Terrell. 

Here's his 1901 Zon-O-Phone of "Tain't A'goin to Weep No More":

https://ia600800.us.archive.org/25/items/CollectedWorksOfJohnTerrell/TaintAGoinToWeepNoMore1902_64kb.mp3

Not a big fan of Terrell, but Hager always makes up for it! The Rag-Time is not phenomenal as far as records go with his accompaniment, but it's interesting and Ragged nonetheless. The solo at the end is short, but has a very interesting melodic idea as far as Rag-Time goes. Hager was always an interesting pianist, even if his Ragged time was a little out of whack sometimes; this was certainly not true when he conducted his orchestra. I would go out on a limb and say that Hager's orchestra(and the Zon-O-phone orchestra) were the best house orchestra of the 1900's, they had the best musicians, best arrangements, and the slickest execution of all the house orchestras. And their arrangements weren't easy, they were the most complicated as well. They were arguably just as good as Sousa's and Arthur Pryor's bands. 

We've got to find more about Hager. 

I looked around in my many books on early recording to-day and didn't find too much on Hager, other than his obvious Zon-O-Phone leadership, and his publishing firm with J. Fred Helf in 1907-ish, and that he worked as a bandleader into the 1920's, but that's not really much for a man who died in 1953. There's literally an abyss of information missing on Hager, not just a gap. There's nothing out there on his piano playing, which is the most unfortunate thing, because he would have to be that unknown pianist on Zon-O-phone playing the most oblong, yet interesting Rag-Time style of all the regular studio pianists. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Batten down the hatches  for the storm out here in California! 

First families of the Phonograph business

A rather common thing among these early recording stars is the fact that more than one sibling worked in the business. It usually began with one family member getting into the business. Most of the time the single misfit of the family got into the business, but occasionally, more than one of the family joined after the other did so. It's strange that this seems to be a pattern in the early business of recording, more so than many would think at first. The Spencer's probably come to mind at first, but there were more families with misfit children who joined recording early on. Sometimes it ended up being husband and wife in the business, but most of the time it was siblings following each other around in the studio. 

The most famous of these families in the early business is the Spencer's. 

Len 

and Harry(the taller one here)

These two brothers were all over the early recording and film business. It seemed natural for brother Harry to catch the bug that his older brother Len got in 1888. Harry came into the business in 1895-1896, more as a salesman and repairman than his brother. He was more of a film enthusiast when he began, which sets him apart from Len. 

(an advertisement for Harry in 1896, from The Phonoscope). 

It seemed inevitable for Harry to tag along with Len in the business, as he had been interested in the technology since 1888 like Len, but he was too young to join back then. He waited until he was 20 to set up his own shop and experiment with film and projectors. While Len was doing the frivolous work in the studios, Harry was working with machinery. Their wives must have been alone at home a whole lot, and probably often became tired of their frequent absence. The lady to really wonder about here is Len's wife, since it's hard to imagine him being married, with children. It's said that Jim Walsh interviewed her, but of course we can't all see those fantastic articles he wrote. 

By 1897, Len and Harry were both working in the same studio, doing the same work at the studio as well. They often took turns announcing takes and handling sound effects, which Harry had to learn how to do from Len. They almost never worked on the same recording early on, which is a little strange, but makes some sense. It seems as though they new that they sounded almost identical on recordings, so both of them speaking on a single recording would get confusing rather quick. After 1900, this occurred a little more often. There are recordings such as this one that help us in trying to distinguish the brothers, but make us realize why they weren't on the same recording very often. Oddly enough, Harry's speech is often a little harder to understand than Len's, with a sort of lisp, accompanied with a dialect thicker than Len's. Some of Harry's announcements sound a little strange with this factor. After 1900, Harry was the chief announcer for the Columbia orchestra, essentially doing what Len did before 1900. Pretty much all of the Columbia orchestra announcements were by Harry from 1901-1905, with occasional anomalies, occasional takes announced by Dan Quinn or Joe Belmont, which doesn't make much sense, but it did happen. 

One of Harry's strange announcements sounded like this:

War-shington Pos' Ma'ch, played by Sousa's band-- fo' Columbia Phonograph com'pny of New Yo'k an Loondon

Yep, that's about right. The only reason I haven't the link shared to the recording is because it's one of those links I cannot share publicly. That's the closest I can get to writing it out exactly as he said it, because the lisp he had is very hard to write out. It's much like how he and Hylands sound on this 1898 cylinder. It's very odd, but interesting all the same, because Spencer's announcements were not nearly as weird, such as his on this late-1897 cylinder.

If I were to phonetically decipher Len's announcement in the cylinder just above, here's how it goes:

I thought I was a winna' , er I don' know you ain't so wa'm--played by Columbia orchestra,  fo' Col' umbi' Phonograph company a New Yo'k an Paris.

It's still a little queer, but it's not nearly as much so as the announcements of this brother. Also, the rest of the recording in the link just above is great, please listen to the rest of it! It's a very early piece of authentic Rag-Time, from 1897. Other than the two dynamic Spencer's, there were also the Emerson's who dominated Columbia's studio at the same time. 

Victor Hugo Emerson entered the recording business in 1890, when he was working as a telegraph operator. He began as a helper of Columbia's newly formed company in Washington, but the next year he became the manager of the U. S. Phonograph company, of which he kept up until 1896. In 1897, when Columbia moved to 27th and Broadway in New York, he was their studio manager. We may know of Victor as the infamous studio manager for Columbia, but his brothers George and Clyde were also running around that studio at the same time. These boys were a bunch of misfits, beginning with Victor, who was the second of the four Emerson boys. Victor and Georgie(as they called him) took turns running daily recording activity at Columbia in 1898 to 1900, with George more often than not the engineer on many of the brown wax Columbia's that we listen to. 

(a cartoon I did of Georgie Emerson)

Victor may have been strange and disliked, but George was more highly regarded by the Columbia staff, especially since he was a better engineer and was much less tightly laced than Victor. The studio stars felt more comfortable around him than Victor, because Victor was high in the management, George wasn't, and seemed more rebellious and interesting then Vic. In a few editions of The Phonoscope, George was mocked for being rebellious and the polar opposite of his brother. This makes the Emerson's ever more interesting, because it seems that Victor wasn't the black sheep oddly enough, despite him being the first to enter the phonograph business. It must be noted that George was born in Oakland California(yay! not far from me!), and that he was the youngest of the Emerson boys, so there's a reason that he didn't join the business until 1897. He was 21 when he joined Victor and Clyde at Columbia. 

When Victor was running the studio, the stars had to behave themselves, but when George or Charles Carson were there, it was work just as usual. Victor must not have been proud of his brother George straying from the good name of the Emerson's, though being involved in recording was the first step in doing this, George escalated this fact. The Emerson's remained together in the recording business until the early 1920's, when Victor was running his own label, the Emerson label. 

We are well aware of the Berliner family being involved in early recording, not just Emile being the only one who did this. It began with Emile, making his label seem more like a family business, with the studio being managed by a bunch of misfit teenage boys. Their family to-day are advocates for spreading the history of their family, and keeping the history alive. This is much like the Quinn family, who are continuing to do just the same as the Berliner family, even if it was relatively recently that they began doing this. 

Since Berliner hired a bunch of misfit teenagers, it seemed inevitable for him to dig up Fred Gaisberg, as well as his brother Willie, both of whom worked for Berliner. Willie was a few years younger than Fred, but they both worked for Berliner from 1893 to 1898, and the both of them went out on quests that took them around the world for the sake of recording. 

Another group of brothers who dominated Columbia's studio in the 1890's were also involved in its management--the Dorian's. 

 Frank Dorian(in the center) was Columbia's first studio manager, beginning this job in 1889. Frank remembered recording Len Spencer in the earliest days, when Spencer had to do everything himself, and when he was coming in just to take parts from machines to repair his father's office phonograph. The other two Dorian's helped around with Frank, since he was running Columbia's studio in that period of uncertainty in 1892-1895. When Frank was sent out to Paris in 1897 to run Columbia there, brother John(seen at the left in the picture above) went with him, and also went on other voyages with fellow recording stars who were performing in England and France, such as Russell Hunting and Burt Shepard, and later Steve Porter. Marion(at the right) was not as involved in these ventures, though he helped out Frank in his management job out in Washington DC, and later went out to Paris to do the same. The Dorian's more specifically Frank and John, remained in the recording business into as late as the Emerson's did, if not a few years later, since Frank lived into the 1930's, he had a million stories to tell, and it's great that Jim Walsh was able to interview him. Dorian was surprisingly sharp when Walsh interviewed him, much like when Quinn wrote his letters to Walsh around the same time. Dorian seemed a little bitter though, more so that Quinn, who was the optimist, clearly observed from his letters. Thinking of the fact that Dorian was Columbia's manager in the early days, it's not surprising that he seemed a little bitter later in life, all we can say to that is that it's good Walsh didn't interview Emerson. 

Whew, that would be rough going. I almost don't want to imagine an interview with old man Emerson. Same goes for Edward Easton. 

Before I finish, I have to share this FANTASTIC early Rag-Time brown wax that was newly posted on Youtube last evening. 

Here's Len Spencer and Fred Hylands' "Get Your Money's Worth" from 1898. 

What a cylinder! My god! 

The sound of the piano(from what we can hear), is absolutely perfect! It has that perfect sound that only a few Columbia's I've heard have, and it's a sound that really defines what the 1890's sounded like on recordings. 

That's the cover to the music, it's dated the year before this recording, 1897. 

In a way, this can seen a like a motto for the Columbia Company at the time that this was recorded, with the Rag-Time adding to the realistic nature of this statement. I just cannot get over how much I love the sound of the piano on this recording, it's got a similar sound to this J. W. Myers cylinder from the same year, that probably means that these "rounds" were recorded not too far from each other. 

Also, if you look up the sheet music to this song, the lyrics are actually really kind of funny, one of the lines in the first verse reads thus:

you had to be a ragged coon to enter in the hall

such a bunch of ragged japs I neva' did saw

As horribly racist as that is, it's pretty funny, and Spencer singing it is ever better.This is another one of those recordings that Rag-Time freaks and pianists really should take note of, since it's a fantastic example as far as these early brown waxes go. It's not surprising that this is coming from a Spencer and Hylands brown wax, like most of these examples turn out to be. 

That's all the families I'll speak of for now, since there are more, but that will make this post unmanageably long and hard to navigate, more than it already is. 

With that,

Hope you enjoyed this!