Well folks, the West Coast Ragtime Festival is coming up, so I've been real busy getting art done, and getting all of my pianist research ready for a prime-time seminar. While I've been in this frenzied state I have spent a lot of time going back and critically thinking over the research I've done on Fred Hylands. In the last week, a few unexpected discoveries came up while on digs for other things.
Last night I was going though that book that much of Hager's scrapbook was covered in, the one documenting 50 years of the Masonic lodge Hager and Ring were in, and I combed through the membership list again.
I saw a name that was oddly familiar. The name Sampson Gelder was listed as a member. Now, I don't know if I've ever mentioned this name before here on this blog, but he is most definitely connected with Hylands. But how?
So he was initiated into the Masonic lodge of Hager and Ring in 1903, and 10 years later he was growing closer to Hylands' recently widowed wife Marie. In 1915, Marie married Sam and they moved back to Chicago where she and Fred married 20 years before. So that tripped me out, seeing Sam Gelder listed as part of the same lodge as Hager and Ring. I wonder if it was Hager to introduced Sam to the Hylands', or who knows how all three of them are connected.
So this got me thinking...from my past research on Hylands, he wasn't really allowed in any major clubs or lodges, due to his oddly toxic presence and personality(or whatever it was). So I'm wondering if he had made lots of friends in these organizations to get information from. Someone like Burt Green would certainly have provided Hylands lots of information about what was going on in the inner crowd of Broadway, and his sketchy assistant James Phelan Cuddy would have similar insight into the publishing business.
James Phelan Cuddy, date uncertain, possibly the mid-1890's.
Another thing to note in this idea is that Hylands knew everything about the George W. Johnson murder trial through Rollin Wooster. Hylands had no business whatsoever inserting himself into this matter, but how he did. So essentially Hylands knew where all the bodies were buried, almost quite literally in this case. I'm sure having this level of power over everyone at work didn't bode well for Hylands' already rotten reputation. After all the publishing ordeal, Hylands had moved on to something else, Ring and Hager.
Considering Hylands' scary good sense of observation and his web of spies, he knew about Hager from the start. Hager was known before he started making records in 1898, as he was known as the youngest professional bandleader in New York. It took until mid 1898 for minor recording companies to finally take him in to make violin records. His arrival in the recording community was plastered all over phonograph trade magazines, particularly The Phonoscope, so clearly it was a big deal. Hylands was being mentioned back to back with Hager in The Phonoscope, so without a doubt he knew about this new hot young thing(Hager) that was making violin record and leading an exceptional band.
Hager around 1898.
When Hager had made his way to Zon-O-Phone in 1899-1900, it seems more likely now that Hylands helped Hager and young Ring to find talent to record for them. The only thing that connects Hylands with Hager and Ring in 1899-1900 is the fact that Vess Ossman recorded "The Darkey Volunteer" on a very early blank Zon-O-phone. On this record(which I have not heard yet), would have to have Ring piano accompaniment, and wherever this piece was recorded, Hylands was involved in its approval. Another thing to note here is that Hylands published a piece with Spencer by a guy named Dick Thomas, who was an off-Broadway vaudeville performer, likely picked up by Hylands through Burt Green. Luckily, I happen to own this particular sheet:
This piece was published in 1900, the same year that Thomas recorded for Zon-O-Phone, so I'm thinking that Hylands had something to do with that. Ring and Hager recorded other small time vaudevillians and songwriters on Zono in 1900, and it wouldn't surprise me if Hylands was part of those as well.
It was also around this time that Ring started working for Columbia as a pianist. In 1900 only do we hear records by Columbia and Zono with strikingly similar accompaniments on the same songs. For example, I've heard a 1900 Columbia record of "say you love me sue" and a 1900 Zono of the same song by Edward Favor, and the accompaniment is almost identical, but they are most certainly not the same pianists playing.
When Ring and Hager formally joined Columbia in 1901, Hylands was still holding steady there, and that meant they'd be getting bossed around and gossiped about by him. Hager may have been the director for the Columbia orchestra and all, but Hylands was still the accompanist. It was in this period of 1901-1903 that Ring and Hager developed compositional styles somewhat similar to and obviously informed by Hylands. In previous posts I highlighted the striking similarities between Hylands' "The Darkey volunteer" and Hager's "Handsome Harry".
All of this went away when Hylands left Columbia around the middle of 1903, which was good for Ring and Hager, and I'm sure the management was all quite relieved as well. Hylands left recording, but he kept his will to keep friends in various communities he wasn't allowed in. He remained a distant friend of Burt Green's, and after Columbia he was forced to cultivate different friends, this time mostly in the theater and publishing fields. His influence on Ring and Hager remained however, as Ring played accompaniments similar to Hylands as late as the mid-1920's.
Anyway folks, that's all I got on that matter. Before I close out here, I'd like to highlight what will be in the next post. In the last few days I did some digging on Charles Prince and found a lot more than I bargained for. I even went to visit his grave upon hearing that he was buried not far from me. It turns out that he was a much more difficult character than anyone had ever made him out to be. The other thing I hope to write about in the next post, is a single record that I won in an auction recently.
I got the auction list and missed the record several times reading through, and once a friend pointed it out to me, it hit me like a loving slap across the face. It seemed impossible, it seemed like a dream...
It's a Climax record from 1901 with the performer listed as J. Ringleben Jr.'s orchestra.
WHAT? How could this be?
There's no way.
But yes indeed, it's real, and there's no evidence of it being known to exist before it showed up in the auction. I have not gotten the record in the mail just yet, so I will wait until it comes to write about it in detail. The existence of this record is still confusing me, even all these weeks after learning of it.
With that...
Hope you enjoyed this!
