How that was true Fred.
Fred Hylands(said what he was above) could never have expected that working for Columbia was such a hard job. As he was only a local performer and music director when they found him. He must have been some music director, as he had Mike Bernard and Ben Harney within his reach, to control and slip the suggestions in their mail(to criticize them that is).When Hylands moved to the east coast in 1896, he immediately go back into performing and all of that, as he was not doing so much the time that he was in Chicago. He was performing occasionally, but not too much. When his sister got married in 1893, she moved out, at 18, she was the perfect age for it. Fred on the other hand, was not going out and doing much, mostly laying around, going out and drinking, and playing at clubs and saloons occasionally. His dad must have become slightly aggravated by this. And when his mother died in 1893, not long after Etta(his sister) ran off and married this guy, it was just Fred and Charles around at home. After two years of free-spirited Fred's antics, he finally married, but the girl was not to the best of his father's approval, as she was also a performer to his likeness. They married in early September of 1895, and as the new years came upon them, they moved out to the east coast, where Fred could finally get more work again, and actually get out more. His father followed them on their move, as he had nowhere else to go otherwise. Once they got out there, Fred was immediately hired for several companies and theaters, which was great for them in every way, and he was out performing in various popular venues by mid-1896. He was getting into the small crowd of "Rag" performers that were blossoming in their own "in-crowd" of pianists. Among these queer early "Rag" men were Ben Harney, Mike Bernard, and even Burt Green. When he became Pastor's music man in 1897, he had to deal with all three of those boys, and even tried his hand at cutting contests against them. he was older than them, but they were outraged at the fact that a somewhat uncivilized Indiana hick was ruling over them.
He was also playing their music. But he was playing their music in ways to make it funny, and entertaining in ways that the boys who created it couldn't have thought of. He had as much experience in Rag-Time as it's so-called creator, Ben Harney, so that sparked a little bit of permanent competition between the two, especially when Hylands managed the theater in which Harney was employed. He didn't do too much in performing, as his job at the managing desk was much more sedentary than going around and touring. He did not want to go and do that yet. That took at least until after Columbia dropped him in 1905. Not going around and doing much but yelling at performers and playing piano is why he was at about 250 pounds by 1898. That weight of his did not change until he started to get ill more often and when he started touring around with Marie(his wife).
Columbia was not much better, as that was almost all of what he was doing, lying around, drinking, and playing piano. But he loved it. Even if he complained about it so early on, he still loved working there. He was perfectly content on taking George Schweinfest's place at their piano. He still went out and did shows here and there while at Columbia, as did Marie, but they were separate for the most part, the traveling together ordeal didn't come till after Columbia. After the inspiration and madness working at Columbia, he had the slight yearning to tour again, and gain back the same sort of renown he had in his youth. So that's exactly what he did with writing his musicals and directing all sorts of other ones. But Columbia left him kind of "run-down" if you know what I'm getting at, so from there on(1904 onward) his sustaining good health went dramatically downhill until his death in 1913. It was only nine more years, but it was a wild few more years for him, he did manage to slim out a noticeable amount by 1912 and 1913, but that may be due to the fact that he was out sick quite often between 1906 and 1912 which further destroyed his health. So when he died, it was really a mix of everything he did that killed him, but if he had not worked at Columbia, he would have added at least 10 more years to his life, to a more normal age for these performers(the median age for these performers and recording artists is 56, I did the math recently).
To close off, here is a fun record with Hylands on piano from 1899 with J. W Myers, featuring a great popular piece by Leslie Stuart (i.e. Floradora)
(that awkward pause at the announcement! Hilarious Mr. Myers!)
I hope you enjoyed this!
No comments:
Post a Comment