Fiddler Fred and other items of Interest

In the time that has elapsed since my last post, my dear friend Charlie Judkins and I spoke over telephone of Hylands, Banta, Gaisberg, Issler, and even Jay Roberts and Les Copeland. This long conversation was very informative on both ends, and from this, Charlie sent me an amazing mix of newspaper sections relating to Hylands, Burt Green, and Les Copeland. The first thing that was extraordinary about the sections he sent me was something having to do with the first part of the title of this post. I'll give a hint with a cartoon:

Yes, it does look strange to find Fred Hylands playing a fiddle, but apparently, according to this section just below, he did play violin!

Wow! What a program that was! 

But wait a moment, "Master" Fred Hylands playing fiddle at fourteen? What! Hmm, I couldn't get over that when I first read through it. I still can't now, after several days from reading it first through. Since this section clearly indicates that Hylands was an accomplished violinist at just 14, that means that he was a violinist for the rest of his life, as I can recall a piece of his music from 1900 that is a violin part only, which is strange, but now makes sense. Hmm. This opens so many new ideas when thinking about Hylands, as Violin players are notorious for being showy, competitive, and vain. Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like Hylands... I wonder what it was he was playing there, Paganini or something like "Old Dan Tucker". Either way, it well indicates that he was a pianist as well as a Violinist, which is really fascinating. 

Anyway, the next fascinating section was a May 12, 1900 section about a performance out at the Dyker Heights club done by a handful of Columbia minstrels under Len Spencer. 

Yep, that's the majority of the management over at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. When I read that Hylands played bones here, it prompted one of the funniest images in my head. Hylands all in his minstrel garb playing bones, then getting up quick to go and play piano, hilarious!

Yep, that's pretty much the image I saw. So of course, I had to get out my pencils and paper to draw it! 

There are many familiar studio names in that section above, from Len Spencer to William Hooley, so that would indicate that it was a sort of joint performance with Spencer's minstrels(I just knew Hylands performed with Spencer's minstrels!) and just some of his studio friends. Spencer really must have enjoyed Atlee, since he seems to have been somewhat just on the edge of the "Columbia clan", that would indicate that he was a favourite of not only Spencer's but also of the audiences and record-buyers. 

Another of these great sections is a short but interesting advertisement from the Boston Sun from November 17th, 1901:

Looks like a fantastic show! Having Fred Hylands in a show must have been considered a great thing in 1901, as that was the very year he was officially considered one of the top three pianists in vaudeville. It's very interesting to see his name listed in a cast that was not at all related to Columbia and its artists, unlike the previous one. It was in 1901 that he was still prominently working for Columbia, so I bet that he came in to Columbia at least once during the week-long run of the show advertised above. I'm finally starting to understand Hylands' time spacing while working at Columbia. It's beginning to make a little more sense, just have to find more sections like this though. 

Now this next item is a very interesting look into Irene Franklin and Burt Green, which is a much more dramatized telling of their meeting, but regardless, it's a good read for sure. 
https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp3PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR27&dq=burton+green+irene+franklin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJs_S73MXMAhUFHh4KHWprCT4Q6AEIKjAC#v=onepage&q=burton%20green%20irene%20franklin&f=false

There are some fun truthful parts to this tale, but the whole meeting when Irene was sixteen was a myth, as we all know that Green met Irene in about 1906 while working at Huber's for $75 a week, which beats Hylands' salary at Columbia by quite a lot! Burt Green might have been kind and affectionate toward Irene when they first were getting to know each other, but we know that the dates are all wrong from logistics of knowing that Burt was married before he met Irene. This was not at all mentioned in the article above for some reason. Must have been because if any of the truth about Green was mentioned, well, it would be a little less romanticized, even though the idea of him being dissatisfied with his first wife, then finding Irene and splitting with his first wife for her is a pretty good story. Thought it's not exactly the same as the sweet tale told in the article, nor would it be considered as so to readers of the magazine. Think back to what I said about the problems with The Phonoscope with possible myths being told, and rumours being spread, who knows what's right and wrong. 
Anyhow, I am still waiting for my friend Daniel's copy of "You Don't Stop the World from Going Round" to arrive in the mail, and I will certainly do a post on it once it comes. 

Hope you enjoyed this!