Mr. Farran

Along this journey of reconstructing the complicated lives of Fred W. Hager and Justin Ring, I assumed the two of them were a solid pair that were truly inseparable, in the words of Jim Walsh(and likely Hager himself). Within the last few weeks I discovered something that makes their relationship far more complicated than expected. 

There appears to have been a triangle here at work. 

(illustration, drawn by the author)

To recap, here's the overview of their relationship minus this new third character. 

They meet in the late 1890's or in 1900 in a recording lab, they hit it off and soon become a pair, a little more than musical partners so to speak. The recording community takes notice of this. In 1901-02, their relationship blossomed to the point where they opened a small publishing firm together, Hager attempts to move in with Ring, but it ultimately doesn't work out(for obvious reasons). In 1903 they write their most famous piece, Laughing Water, but unfortunately it earns Hager all the money and credibility, not Ring. In 1904 they write a few more popular pieces, one of them being Handsome Harry . By the end of the year Hager is working with J. Fred Helf in publishing, moving away from their employer Zon-O-Phone, and also Ring. In early 1905 Ring and Hager split up and Ring is forced to scrap the publishing firm they both set up(this was Ring music company, highlighted in my last post). In 1906 Hager leaves Zon-O-phone, and Ring takes over the orchestra, also leaves Hager to work for Seminary music company(later to publish some of Scott Joplin's later works like Wall Street Rag). Hager returns from working in Boston for the Phono-cut in early 1913 and begins the Rex company. Ring doesn't start writing music with Hager again until 1916-17. They remained together again until there middle 1920's when Ring takes over Hager's position as studio manager at the Okeh company. They don't work together again until the middle 1930's, then they stayed together again until about 1947 when Ring retires. 

Whew! There we go. So who is this third figure in the story? His name is Edgar Thornton Farran. His name occasionally came up in some of my previous digs on Ring and Hager, but I didn't think much of him. It started to seem suspicious when Ring seemed to have written perhaps dozens of pieces with Mr. Farran. Then as I kept looking it seemed that Hager took on Farran a little later and wrote many songs with him too. Something is at work here is seems. 

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a picture of this Mr. Farran, but I did come across two draft cards that give a rough physical description of the guy. Being a cartoonist who cares about appearances, it is frustrating to have only a generic description and no pictures. Anyhow, here's his WWI draft card: 

So it seems that he was tall, gray headed(likely redheaded based on the circumstances), blue eyed, with a medium build. Surely he doesn't seem like something to fight over. Well apparently he was. 
He was born April 29th 1879, and by 1900 he was working as a dressmaker in the Bronx, not far from where Ring and Hager lived and performed on the weekends in the summer. It is quite possible that Ring or Hager spied the young Farran at one of their park band concerts. By 1905 he was still working as a dressmaker in the Bronx, but his older brother Walter worked as a piano maker, likely catching the attention of publishers and music writers. Coming from a musical family, Edgar proved to be a talented lyric writer. However Edgar got tangled with Ring and Hager, he first started to catch the interest of a Hager-weary Ring. Hager was working more and more with Helf in 1905, so it is likely that Ring became more acquainted with Farran through possibly making dresses for Alice. Remember Alice? yes, she was married to Ring in 1905, and they had been together since the end of 1903. Alice having clothes made by Farran would prove to be a great way for him and Ring to get to know each other better. Something happened in early 1905 to get Ring and Hager to split, and there's a chance that poor Farran may have been entangled in it. 

Consider this scenario; Ring and Farran get together while Alice is getting Farran to make dresses for her. At first she is ignorant of the situation, but soon she suspects something isn't right. Hager notices nothing while he's working for Helf and minimally at Zon-O-Phone. Sometime within that year or the next, Alice finds hubby with Farran and she leaves him(they did split soon afterward, but when exactly I have yet to find). So with Alice gone, Ring spends the next three years with Farran. It is quite possible that Alice could have told Hager about all this, and Hager then becomes jealous and frustrated, taking on Helf as a partner. 

This is just me throwing around the possibilities here, based on all the events that happened between the end of 1904 and the middle of 1906. 

So it seems that Ring and Farran were working together for Seminary publishing in  1906. Ring wrote music and Farran wrote lyrics for the big time writers they were working for. From 1906 to 1909, Farran and Ring likely enjoyed some time together, away from Hager and the others. In late 1909, Ring remarried a childhood friend of his named Elsie Patz. Though he had just been married, his time with Farran continued. They wrote dozens of songs together, including this one here: 

https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000139909/4352-Whoop-la-Willie_dont_let_me_go

They even wrote a song in 1907 titled Someday, I know You'll come back to me. That sure is a *suggestive* title for the time it was published. They wrote many songs together between 1906 and 1912, but after that date, Farran ceased working with Ring. Ring seemed to have taken a little break from recording and writing music for a few years, but Farran continued to be a prolific and popular lyric writer. Many of his songs were recorded in the early and mid-teen's. 

So this is where things get interesting with Farran, by 1915 he was working as a carpenter, following the family business. Despite this, Farran still wrote lots of music, and by 1916, he was working with someone curious---Hager. Somehow Hager had caught Farran and they were soon writing music together as they both had with Ring in the past. For the next three years, Hager and Farran wrote many songs for the war effort. In 1918, Hager worked with Farran and Ring, certainly making f0r some slightly awkward collaborations. Hager wrote much more music with Farran than with Ring from 1917 to 1920, but for some reason Farran disappears after 1920. 

I have not been able to track why Farran ceased working with Ring and Hager after 1920, but I'd guess that it had something to do with their high management roles at Okeh. After 1920 he worked as a carpenter, and he never married it seems. He lived with his mother until he died in mid 1943. 

Few remember Farran, but it seems that he may have had a significant impact on the lives of Ring and Hager, whatever this was exactly. He wasn't in any way an exceptionally famous or popular lyric writer, but the tin pan alley folks knew him, and considering his employment for Seminary music, he likely knew Scott Joplin and a young Irving Berlin. I have yet to fully discover what his relationship with Ring and Hager was, but there is indeed a possibility that a love triangle was at work here. A good way to figure this out would be finding out who met him first and how. Hopefully in the future I will be able to find more information about Farran, as his story from a humble Bronx dressmaker to songwriter is bound to be more interesting than it seems on the surface. In the next few months I will try to do some more digging on Farran, which so far has been going well, but I can't find much on him other than what was written above. A picture of him would be nice too, I'd like to be able to put a face to this mysterious lyricist that Ring and Hager spent time with. 

Well that's all I got so far in terms of new information. In the next few months however, I will be sharing more records from my own collection, as I finally got my turntable set up again! I am also getting bunches of new old records to go through, which so far has been really exciting and fun. Here are a few of the newest ones: 

 All of these are exceptional records, though the condition varies greatly. The "little  Indian Maiden" Zon-O-phone was especially good. There's a lot of very loud drumming on it, and it seems to have been recorded right before Eddie King took over that position, so the drummer is likely Jimmy Hager. 

Anyhow, I'll get into detail about these records soon, I have to go through and listen to them all thoroughly. 

Hope you're all holding up reasonably well out there. It's been up and down for me, some days are good, others aren't. 

Keep listening out there! 

Ancestry digging and understanding Ringleben

It has been a difficult few months for me.  Since the beginning of April I dealt with serious panic attacks and crippling anxiety...but finally I have come out the other side. 

Since being locked down here in Northern California, it's given me lots of time to think about things, and you'd think that I would have written more here, but I simply haven't been in the right mood to do so. 

For that month I was out of commission, I could barely think about old records and rag-time, that's how bad it was. After that blew over, I was back to drawing, sewing, and thinking. 

About two weeks ago, I decided to dive back into some ancestry digging. Usually I do so to check things I have already seen, and this time is proved to be a good idea. In the past, Hager's family history has been somewhat vague, with the basic information known but the specifics aren't present. Thanks to a descendant of Hager's sister Georgiana, a lot of information was added within the last few months and this has opened up a lot of new questions, and answered some I had. Fred's history is still vague, but Jimmy's is far more complete! 

There are those boys! 

So I am not sure if I've said in the past on here, but I'm pretty sure these boys didn't like each other so much. In Fred's papers(or what's left of it) I see nothing on Jimmy anywhere, though they worked and lived closely for so many years. In 1905, both Fred's and Jimmy's families lived together! 
So from what I've recently learned on Jimmy, he had the absolute worst luck. He married in 1902, at age 20, lost two kids in infancy before his only surviving son was born in late 1905. His son, Mel, was the only male grandchild in the family, a great accomplishment considering brother Fred hadn't any male children. Mel was killed in a NY transit accident at the mere age of 36. In a previous post I highlighted that Mel was the type of young man who lived at home always working different jobs when the census people came around. His young wife Alice(born in 1908) died in 1940. Based on census records, Mel had likely just married Alice only a few months before, because in the 1940 census he was still listed as single. Some terrible luck indeed! 

Jimmy had to witness so many deaths of his children, which really broke my heart to learn. He already had it hard enough trying to scrape by as his brother's underling for so many years, and all his unfortunate luck with married life just adds insult to injury. 
On the brighter side, it seems that longevity runs in Hager's family, as his mother Annie, lived to the age of 99! She was born in 1850, and died in 1949, which is a hell of a lifespan. She would have seen the full extent of her sons' careers, and died not even a decade before her first born did.  Jimmy's daughter Veronica died in 2010 at age 100! In clippings from Hager's scrapbook, there was some mention of their father Mel. According to one page, Mel was a musical guy who encouraged all his children to enter in the music world. He worked on the railroad in the woods of Pennsylvania until 1881 when he decided to move the family to Manhattan.  Just a side note, Annie was pregnant with Jimmy when they moved! 

So with all this new information on the extended family, I am more intrigued by the tragedy that surrounded Jimmy Hager. He was naturally gifted musically, but was forced into the recording business by his overbearing and successful brother Fred. He always looked bitter, like there was something constantly troubling him, and it seems that there was. His drumming on all those Zon-O-Phone's has a lot more meaning now. 







So while doing all this Hager digging on Ancestry, I did realize something essential in understanding Ring and Hager's relationship. For a long while I've been trying to sort out when they split up the first time, and it seems that I have finally figured it out! Before spending time really thinking about the circumstances, I assumed they split in the middle of 1906, as by that time Ring was working for Seminary music and running the Zono orchestra with Eddie King. Turns out I was a year off!  
The way I found out was simply this sheet here: 

(a 1905 Ring sheet, from my collection)

So this sheet here, you might notice, was published by Ring. This publishing firm didn't last more than a year, as it was a vanity project originally hatched by Hager for his and Ring's music. Ultimately the firm didn't present itself to be very productive, so it folded not long after the publication of the sheet above. So what has this to do with his relationship with Hager? Well, actually a lot. 
This sheet's composer is neither Ring nor Hager, rather unusual for the publisher. This piece is likely one of half a dozen sheets they published within that year. It appears to be disassociated form Hager in every way possible, until you get to the back page:

Ah yes, Handsome Harry, that infernal specimen of male temptation. 
So there are only two pieces really advertised here, Handsome Harry and Jovial Joe, which considering the circumstances isn't really surprising. But the mere fact that Ring published such an obscure composer than wasn't associated with either of them, or recording for that matter proves some kind of separation from Hager. Honestly I had no idea Ring was still publishing independently in 1905, I assumed that when Hager officially joined Helf in late 1904 that he bought up all of Ring's stock(kinda not a great thing to do to your companion I'd think). He and Helf eventually did that, but evidently, not right away, which is curious. Another thing to note about this sheet is that the publishing address is slightly different from that of Jovial Joe. when I went to New York in January, I sat on the steps of 55 West 28th street, the address listed on Jovial Joe, but it turns out that he had moved to Helf and Hager's address by early 1905, which is very strange, even though it does make sense. 

So there's actually another layer to this story, thanks to Hager's family I know now that Fred's youngest daughter, Ethel, was born November 7th of 1905. If you were thinking what I was thinking, that would put conception around the time that the Ring sheet above was published. 



Think on that for a moment. 












So there's that. Before I close out, I'd like to talk a little about Ring. He his still as mysterious as he's always been. Little bits about him show up here and there, but the majority of what we'd like to know about him is still unknown. 

Hager's special portrait of Ring in his scrapbook(from my collection)

In a future post I'd like to talk about the importance of studying body language in what few pictures we have of these recording folks. From what there is to be observed about Ring, his non-verbal speaks volumes. He was a quiet and industrious worker, speaking few words and always buried in music. With so little to say, and often a blank face, his body language speaks as much as we could understand. In all the pictures there are of him, he was awkward in some kind of way, sometimes more than others. He was definitely a dandy(as Hager was), but he didn't want to attract much attention as others like Hylands or Hager would. His eyes were always cast aside, his legs a little undecided, but his hands were always graceful. It's little things like this that can help us better understand these weirdos who made all these early records.
 In my next post I hope to do some of this non-verbal analysis. Believe it or not, you can actually gather a lot from pictures of these folks, even though they were taken in an era where we normally wouldn't associate such quirks. A great example for unlocking the core of Hager's personality comes from those home movies that Jim Walsh took at the John Bieling Day memorial in 1950. Just from a few short clips of Hager(although silent) interacting with old farts like Billy Murray and Eugene Rose, all the traits I've described him with come through perfectly. 


Anyhow, that's all I got for now. I have had lots of ideas for blog posts since getting over my weird attacks, but formulating one good idea has been difficult, as I've spent a lot of time thinking things over. Another idea I've had is discussing the evolution of Rag-Time in fashion, as this is something that has caught my eye in the last few weeks. There were specific styles that young men and women wore in the middle and late 1890's that quickly became associated with rag-time, some of which are part of the era's stereotype as we know it today. Anyway, I'll close it off there. 

Hope you enjoyed this, and are staying healthy! 

Hager as a character and the dilated stare

In the last few weeks, a few interesting things have come along in my research. About a week and a half ago, a descendant of Charlie Carson contacted me, and they sent along a bunch of really nice pictures that he and his friends took. Before i get into the Hager story here, I must talk about a single picture that opens up a lot more discussion about Fred Hylands. 
Since becoming immersed in this Ring and Hager project, a lot of my research on Fred Hylands has been put off to the side. Occasionally I do dive back into the Hylands project to add things and revise some information, but this picture has gotten me even more curious about his relationship with his Columbia co-workers. 
So here's the picture:

 Yeah that really does look like someone we know. So before I did any analysis on this being Hylands, I initially thought that it could be Hylands, Cal Stewart, Byron Harlan or Clyde Emerson. After ruling out Stewart and the others, I decided to stick with Hylands. Okay, it REALLY does look like Hylands. Yes, in the past I have gone on rants about other pictures of guys who look similar to Hylands, such as that other studio picture from 1897. I mean this one here:

Okay, I know now that that pianist is not Hylands, that's actually one of the engineers sitting in the piano chair for the shot. 
So that slim guy at the piano may not be Hylands, but that one exhibited first in this post IS. from what I can see in that picture of Hylands, he's wearing quite ill-advised cuts for his shape(this coming from someone who draws him often), and he looks like a rough mess overall. 

 The one thing that really put me over the top thinking it's Hylands was that stare. The one eye that is very visible through the blur is just as piercing and dilated as the other pictures I have of him. I compared the picture back to back with all the other confirmed portraits of him and everything seemed to line up. The hands, shallow but angled shoulders, collar and tie, leg structure, ears, nose, up-curled brows, crooked mouth, feet, smokers' cheeks, and especially those eyes all matched the other portraits. The moment I saw the picture the first time I thought that large tall man was Hylands. He even had a smile similar to that of Etta Hylands. 

Those legs look very similar, having the same structure and shape as the Carson picture. When I did my comparison I also noticed how the trouser legs gathered in exactly the same places as the one other confirmed picture of him standing. The trouser legs wrinkled at the knee and unevenly gathered at the ankles, creating a slight inward curve(the guy had interesting legs). See folks, this is how advanced and detailed my study in appearances has become. If you ever wondered how seriously I take my photo identification process, this is a perfect example. I have come a long way from that picture of Steve Porter at the recording horn with that slim "accompanist" behind him. At this point I am really studying the smallest details, and oddly enough the leg and feet aspect of this new Hylands picture proved very crucial, as the face is difficult to decipher from the suddenness of the snapshot. This picture was taken in front of the Columbia lab(1155 Broadway, exactly where I stood nearly two months ago), and it is entirely candid, completely unposed unlike the other early lab pictures. This snapshot was not taken for a phonograph publication, so it is very much a scene from life. With this in mind, it is fascinating to see Hylands without any theatrical air about him. He's looking like a stereotypical rag-time pianist would in the late-1890's(the picture was taken between 1897 and 1900), though he isn't wearing a waistcoat. One thing I noticed about his clothes in the picture is how much it looked like this here:

(The portrait of Hager on the cover of his Handsome Harry)

That is completely unrelated to this but it did remind me of that, and we know that Hylands and Hager worked together at Columbia from 1901 to 1903. 

I literally spent hours staring at that Carson picture, making sure that what I was seeing was indeed Fred Hylands. It's lucky that Hylands was captured right at the very second before these two random guys zipped by the photographer(you can kinda see them in the cropped version listed above). That does however make it a bit creepier than Hylands already was. Everything else is in motion while he's staring right into the viewer's soul. Anyway, that's about all I got on that topic. Hopefully more will come of this picture find, as it's really extraordinary to see Hylands in a family history still left intact. He can be found nowhere else, but Carson and his family kept that picture of where he worked, and Hylands just happened to be there. 

Moving on!

Yesterday I received a book in the mail. Only last week did I hear of this book's existence. last week was the 100th anniversary of Mamie Smith's first records, so naturally the 78 records Wordpress blog posted about it. If you are curious to see it(which I highly recommend reading and subscribing!), here you go:

https://78records.wordpress.com/2020/02/19/100-years-ago-at-okeh-mamie-smith-gets-her-break/

So, I read the article, and I was intrigued by this book that was quoted, Born with the Blues. With this burning curiosity, I asked a few friends about this book, whether it would be worth my time and money to grab a copy. Those I spoke to about it recommended that I go get it. With the best of luck, there was a first edition copy on ebay for pretty cheap. I snagged it, and got the book yesterday. I immediately started pouring through it for the Hager story. To my surprise, Hager wasn't just some background figure in the story of getting Mamie Smith on record. For once Hager wasn't mentioned once and moved on from. This book is Perry Bradford's autobiography and his perspective of the transitional era from the black America of reconstruction to the Harlem renaissance. I read Nat Shilkret's book last year, and when doing so was overwhelmed with so much information that I am still attempting to work through it all. Bradford's book is very similar in this way, but it is a little better organized. I read only the chapter about Bradford's association with Okeh, but even that on its own was dense.

 So...Bradford had lots of difficulty getting Mamie in the recording lab and getting though the management. This isn't surprising, but he went to Columbia first around 1917 attempting to get his stage partner Jeanette a deal, but this didn't work. With the rise in recording authentic black southern blues, the white record boys were starting to feel the pressure to take action. Columbia in 1917 had just recorded several sides by W. C. Handy's Memphis orchestra, and with that, they were starting to dabble in the idea of recording more black artists playing authentic blues melodies(even though I have heard exceptional examples of pianists like Justin Ring play authentic 12 bar blues before 1905, but that's beside the point). Here is the beginning of his adventure in getting his dream realized:

After Columbia gave Jeanette the works, I contacted Mr. King[Eddie King]. the Victor top man. he wasn't so hard on us and set a recording date for Jeanette, but we went out of town to do some vaudeville dates. As soon as we came back I doubled back to see Mr. King again, not for Jeanette, but for Mamie Smith who sang in the show Made in Harlem. Mr King let Mamie make a test record of "That thing Called Love" with me playing piano for her, but it was never released. 

...

 I told Joe[a record store owner in Harlem], that [Wilbur] Sweatman tried Columbia first and Mamie Smith made a test record for Victor of "That Thing Called Love" and was turned down, but Joe countered with , "I've had a long discussion with the Victor salesman about you working with some other colored girl for the Victor Company." Then Joe suggested that I go back and see Mr. King, which I did, and Mr. King played the test record of "That Thing Called Love"and admitted that Victor had a better recording of the song than Okeh, but that Victor just couldn't lower their prestige by following these small companies. 

Then I went over to Bert Williams' office, where he and Will Vodery listened to the two records. Mr. King had loaned me the Victor test to let Bert hear them both. Instead of Bert Williams commenting on the records, he told me about the treatment Victor had put on him before he finally started making records for Columbia; how he made a test record and was refused. "Now you realize what I told you would happen," were Bert's parting words. 

So this is where Hager comes into the story. 

So I woke up on a cold February morning in 1920 and put on my lead-sheet(meaning my topcoat), because I'd hocked my overcoat(what the actors called--my full orchestration), and walked from 135th street in Harlem to Ford's saloon at 40th street and 8th avenue downtown. There I had all the free lunch I could devour and was feeling nonchalant, so I strolled aroun' to the Okeh studio at 145 west 45th street to see Mr. Fred Hager again, with the intention of making my last stab at trying to sell  a colored girl singing on records. All other attempts had failed, I'd walked out two pairs of shoes going from one studio to another, and my friends were begging and pleading with me to give up my fantastic dream and go back on the stage where I could always "mess-up" some plates every day, even if I had to stand off the restaurant man for my meals. 

Just as I showed my head in the door of Mr. Hager's office, before I could say good morning, I was confronted with the same old stock answer of:"Leave your name and address, if anything turns up, we will notify you."

No one except a fellow who has been in the same fix can realize how it feels when you're getting a square meal not and then, mostly then, to hear those "disappointing blues" sung to him everywhere he goes. 

 Seeing that I had been given the run-aroun' and I had been pestering Mr. Hager's secretary for a whole month and could never get past her desk, I finally did get a chance to see him(the only recording manager I seemed able to reach) and we had a "heart-to-heart" conversation and he admitted that his hands were tied. With all these setbacks i was slowly making uo my mind to throw in the sponge and call it quits, when Bill Tracy, the white writer of "Play that Barbershop Chord", gave me the key which opened up the prejudice door to my thorny problem.

So there's already a lot to take in here. Eddie King was at least kind to Bradford's offers, though ultimately he was little help. As Bradford elaborates on Hager, he paints him to be a sympathetic good hearted country boy. Applying his extraction to this descriptor portrays him to be a considerate and oddly thoughtful executive. I am unsure how much of that to believe, considering that Hager was aggressively selfish and ambitious, even in his middle and old age. Here is more of the story before I dig deeper into my analysis:

Here's how it happened. I'd kept on "gum-beating" in the C.V.B.A. club every night that something ought to be done to crack that solidly entrenched recording monopoly wide open, until it seemed to be getting on the members' nerves. But as soon as I mentioned Mr. Hager's name, Chris Smith told me, "I've known him for a long time and he's a regular guy." Then Bill Tracy, a song writer, butted in with these words, "next time you talk with Fred Hager, tell him I asked that he give you an audition for your colored girl singer."

As Tracy's "Barbershop Chord" had been published by the Helf and Hager's music firm, that's how I got to see him this time. Because when I entered his office, I told the information girl, "Don't worry, I know there's nothing today, " but I shouted out loud, "I have a message for Mr. Hager from Bill Tracy." And right away Mr. Hager poked his head out the door and wanted to know, "What's that about Bill Tracy?" After telling him that Chris Smith and Bill Tracy had given him a big build up by saying he's a regular guy and would give a struggling songwriter a break, then I spread this new approach. "There's fourteen million Negroes in our great country and they will buy records if recorded by one of their own, because we are the only folks than can sing and interpret hot jazz songs just off the griddle correctly."

 ...

What really got the butter and sold Mr. Hager was the big surprise of hearing about that big Southern market that no one up North had ever thought of. So he asked, "What songs have you in mind?" I showed him "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down". After reading the lyrics and the music, he okayed them and promised an early recording if i would take them over to Sophie Tucker and tell her Okeh would record the two songs if she would sing them for us; because nobody could so justice to this material like she could. ...

Bradford went to Tucker with the songs, but she was contracted to Vocalion at the time, so she was to record them there instead of at Okeh. Bradford went back to Hager at Okeh and told him of Mamie, praising her so highly. This was Hager's reaction:

...Mr.Hager got a far off-look in his eyes[folks who have been following my Ring and Hager project can probably imagine this vividly as I do] and seemed somewhat worried, because of the many threatening letters he had received from some northern and southern pressure groups warning him not to have any truck with colored girls in the recording field. If he did, Okeh products--phonograph machines and records-- would be boycotted. 

And so this is where his praises for Hager begin. When considering this perspective in this topic, it must have been a difficult decision for old Hager. He had already made so much history and done a lot of people right and wrong to get where he was, but he ultimately took a chance on such a heated topic as this. Never have I seen such aggressive praise for Hager. Even with all of this I do wonder about what significance Hager actually thought this decision had in his own history. I cannot find any scrap of this story in Hager's papers(they may have been thrown out with the rest). 

May God bless Mr. Hager, for despite the many threats, it took a man with plenty of nerve and guts to buck those powerful groups and make the historical decision which echoed aroun' the world...

So I shall remember Mr. Fred Hager as long as there is any breath left in my old carcass.   

That is indeed some very rather religious praise there if I've ever seen some. The one question I had going into reading this book was exactly what angle Bradford took to move Hager's ego. Of course, not so surprisingly, it took some massaging of that ego to get the ball rolling. He took it from the Helf and Hager angle, which seems like the perfect way to get his ears perked up. While reading this dense chapter, I literally threw my hands up when a certain Mr. Ring was mentioned. He's also mentioned in conjunction with Hager. 

Clearly I'm not the only one who sees this Ring and Hager thing. 

Anyhow, there is more on this topic to write about, but there's already so much here. I'll have to cut if off here. I have only read though this chapter once since getting the book in the mail, so I will have to go through it a few more times to really get a better analysis together. Reading this chapter really has been making me think about the entirety of Hager's personality. I think that he must have been a slimy sort of executive to get where he was by the 1920's. Without a doubt he had to be a serious hustler with freak ambition to get to that position, though I have often wondered how he was once he got to those high ranks. This chapter does shed some light on what he was like to deal with as a businessman and executive. i will have to think about this some more as I go back through Hager's papers that I have. One thing that is very much solidified from reading this chapter was that his massive ego was the key to him. I had guessed that before based on the content of what remains in his papers, and how he dealt with Walsh and poor old Ring. 

Nothing new to report in the world of new transfers, which is unfortunate, but hopefully I'll get to hear some new interesting stuff soon. All these Ring and Hager discoveries are burying me in their music and I'm starting to get tired of Hager's simple composition style and Ring's experimentation. 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

 

 

Musician's Club and the Phono-Cut

Okay, to begin, scratch all of that I said in the last post about the OkeH record I bought recently. After speaking with a few collectors about the record, we have concluded that the speaker at the beginning of that record is Ernest Hare. 

I was wrong, and I apologize for getting any of you especially excited about it. Yes I am a bit disappointed, but that record is still a valuable artifact, as it features a celeste solo by Justin Ring that takes up about 90% of the side. The other side is equally as delightful. The other side features Hager's Concert orchestra, playing another piece by Ring and Hager. 

Anyway, time to move on. 

With the recent access of Hager's scrapbook, I have been really digging into the specific sources that Hager clipped his favorite bits from. This is my first instinct of course, to ask the question, where did this come from? 

And luckily with the help of an accomplished Rag-time researcher, I was able to thumb through one of the major sources that was scattered in bits in Hager's scrapbook. As I flipped through the bits in Hager's scrapbook, I noticed a specific term mentioned, and I had no idea what this was, but obviously I assumed it was something important to return to. 

So, then a respected Rag-Time researcher sent me this link:

https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsofstce00free/page/244?q=%22justus%20ringleben%22

So, this opens up a lot of information. This was that very book that Hager saved a lot of his clippings from. It made so much sense as I started flipping through. Hager was one of the major leaders of this inner community of the St. Cecile lodge. If you were to look up Hager's name in this book, he comes up quite often, both as musical director and as an assistant to ceremonies and meetings. Someone else who shows up a fair amount is his sidekick Justin Ring. 

(Ring in 1903, and Hager around 1895)

But that wasn't it! 

I started looking to see who else was mentioned in this book, and lo and behold, there were dozens more of important figures!

Just to name a few:

Frank P. Banta

Vess Ossman

Edward Issler

John W. Bratton(Rag and popular composer)

Ed Horatio King(Eddie King's father)

Percy Wenrich

Thomas Hindley(composer of "patrol comique")

Herbert L. Clarke

Isidore Witmark

Julius Witmark

Jacob Witmark

Nat Mann(Coon song composer)

William Lorraine 

Theodore Pusinelli(Hager's clarinet soloist)

Albert Von Tilzer 

Gus Williams 

So that's only a small fraction of who was mentioned in there. The mentioning of Issler got me intrigued, as I had heard of his significance in musicians' clubs and unions. One of the major times he was mentioned in this book, he is portrayed as a sort of grandmaster of the business and of recording. In a piece dated to 1913, many of the musicians of the lodge went to hold a large party in honor of Edward Issler in Newark. 

For the last few years, my research on Issler has proven him to be a literal hero to all the recording folks who came after him. It would be difficult to think otherwise when you know that he was the first studio musician and an advocate for musicians' rights. So I can safely say now that even in his era, Edward Issler was the oracle of studio recording. Issler's prominence is clear, and it was made clearer by this book. 

So what can we say about all of this? 

Well, it's fascinating to see hard evidence that a lot of these studio workers did indeed know each other outside of their competing studios. It is also interesting to note that Rag composers and band and orchestra members intermingled outside of the studios and publishing houses. This book also illustrates how interconnected these musicians were, and how well folks like Ring and Hager got around to making connections and deals. 

Keep in mind that this was only one community of musicians like this. There were dozens more in NY at this time. When flipping through the index at the end of the book, it can be intriguing to see who isn't mentioned. For example, there were quite a few of Sousa's musicians mentioned as being members if this lodge, but where were Arthur Pryor and Henry Higgins? 

To answer that question, they were members of the Elks lodge. A lot of these musicians were scattered(scattered in close proximity), though it is interesting to note which ones were together in certain communities. 

When I saw the list of members of this lodge, I knew almost immediately that I wouldn't see Hylands or J. Fred Helf. I recall seeing Helf listed as being part of the White rats, and we know the same is true for Hylands. So all of this digging illustrates that all of these musicians knew each other, and those who you think may have known each other and exchanged ideas, probably did. 

Before I move on to the information regarding Phono-Cut, I'd like to mention something on that Columbia band(orchestra) group photo. In the past I have gone on about this photo: 

We know which guy is Justin Ring(most likely) 

After I went back and stared at the picture some more, I noticed that the guy directly to Ring's left looks almost familiar. 

Who is that slightly familiar guy next to Ring? My first guess was Hylands. Well, I know it might seem a bit odd to guess that, but after I did some more staring, it started to look more like Hylands. The pointed out ears, sunken eyes, high cheekbones, distinct nose, bright hair, broad shoulders, and the distinct height difference--it all looks familiar. I can see those very specific slopes of the eyebrows. Up to the time i'm writing this, I have probably spent several hours of time looking at that picture, comparing the clear portraits of Ring and Hylands next to the group photo. And you know what, it is truly amazing to think that they are together in this photo, and right aside each other for that matter. So this makes it pretty solid that Hylands worked for Columbia after 1900. I cannot stress enough how much that looks like Hylands next to Ring there. Now this is a picture we NEED to find a better copy of. There are over a dozen more famous and important studio figures in that picture. Along with my mission to find the rest of Hager's paper materials and record collection, I am making it a mission to find a good copy of this photo, a print would be ideal. 

Just think, in this photo I have already identified Charles Prince, Frank Mazziotta, The Mygrants brothers, and Eddie King is hiding there in the back somewhere. 
Anyway, I will keep looking for a better copy of this important picture. I sure hope that Hylands and Ring are together in that corner. 


Time to move on!
In the last few months, I have been anticipating writing about this topic--Phono-cut records. 

There we go. These were among the earliest vertical cut records to be sold in the United States. Now why do I have such an especial fondness in these? Well, it's actually quite simple--Hager. Hager was one of the founders and directors of this small and short- lived label.
a nice article regarding this topic can be seen here, if you're extra curious! 
https://78records.wordpress.com/tag/phono-cut-78-records/
(I would highly recommend subscribing to this blog if you aren't already!)
This short but effective venture in vertical recordings gripped the recording media from 1910 to 1913, being mentioned all over the place in Talking Machine World and other media. This label was started in 1910 by a Boston Millionaire who invested a big chunk of money in this new independent vertical record company. Hager was called on as the first choice for director and ringmaster for this venture, and with that Hager was brought back into the recording business. It was that year that J. Fred Helf's publishing firm seemed to be winding down a bit, so the timing seemed perfect for Hager to jump at it. As it turns out, this venture allowed Hager to take a lot of suspenseful risks with recording. As Zon-O-Phone was winding down, Hager decided to re-ignite the sentiment and repertoire he had been so dedicated to a decade before. A good example being this one here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSNSZPugf-A
And you know Hager is in that orchestra because the moaning violin comes through like a screech. 
Hager brought in performers like Bob Roberts and Collins and Harlan, which is definitely reminiscent of the early days of Zon-O-Phone. 
But why exactly was Hager's work with the Phono-cut so important? 
One of the ongoing stories throughout the 1911-12 editions of Talking Machine World was Hager's episodes with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1910, Hager set out to use his symphonic connections and prowess to lure in many prominent members of the BSO to make recordings for the Phono-cut. Clearly it took some convincing, but as the press indicated, he soon became closely acquainted with them. The press made sure to keep up to date on Hager's actions at Phono-cut, which allows for a pretty good chronology of what happened with this unusual label. 

Hager(at center) and two of the Phono-cut fellows, dated 1911 from Talking Machine World. 
 Hager got an oddball group to record for Phono-cut, and they were called the Longy Club. This was no small potatoes, these were the woodwinds of the BSO, and it was the first time this was known to have happened, in terms of issued symphonic recordings(in the US). These records were the entire Longy Club with piano accompaniment. 

(sorry the picture is so small)

(this record is not in my collection, courtesy of a friend)
Furthermore, another place where I found some more hard evidence of Hager's courting of the BSO members, was this odd photo:

(detail of Hager)

A few of the fellows in this odd photo include Boston Symphony musicians, a few being part of the Longy Club. This photo was featured in Talking Machine World in early 1912. 
Starting in 1911(but probably before that) Hager began hosting these lavish gatherings of phonograph workers at beer garden type places for "beefsteak" parties, and by the end of 1912, Hager was known for these, being the organizer of them. I drew a pair of cartoons to illustrate this odd combination of ideas:

Hager and Georges Longy.

Hager and half of the Longy Club. 
(I used a high resolution print of the group to make sure I rendered everyone accordingly)
Yes indeed, Hager had evolved into something quite different by 1911. 
So I have only heard one of these Longy Club records, but I tell you what, it was fascinating enough to get me started on a secondary research project. I am wondering if any of this connection between Hager and the BSO has been written about in any history books about the BSO and symphonic recordings. As I keep learning more bits about Phono-cut records, I will write about them more in future posts. When I was at ARSC back in May I asked around for any information about the connection between the BSO and Hager at Phono-cut, but got no leads. In spite of that, I have been able to find just enough on this odd label to keep my curiosity peaked. These records did sound good, and they had some very interesting and diverse material recorded on them, with the addition of Hager, what could be better? 




Anyway, that's all I got for now folks. There's a lot more to write about but I don't want to keep going on about unrelated material. I'd rather stick to things that I can pull together in at least a kind of decent manner. 

With that,

Hope you enjoyed this!