A Theater pianist and other New Discoveries

After digging through some information about Burt Green, Ada Jones, and looking back at those 1900 Phonoscope sections, I have found some interesting items. I also looked through much of the issues available online of The New York Clipper, which also allowed for a good bounty of information and interesting advertisements. Of the many things I found about Fred and Etta Hylands, I did not see anything speaking of Hylands' clearly long time and  important engagement as Columbia's house pianist from 1897 to c.1904-05. It's very strange how that whole Columbia thing just passed over everyone's heads, though it's clearly where his trouble started, and its effects haunted him for the rest of his life(If you've ever noticed, Hylands weighed the most while working at Columbia...). I guarantee it, if you look up Fred in any of those theatrical magazines, you won't find anything about him being a studio pianist. It's very bizarre, you'll find Frank Banta being known as a "phonograph pianist", but not Hylands. Take this for example:

 (from Professor Bill's website)
"By the consolidated pianist of Phonograph Fame"
Yep, that's what Banta was known for, even to all the big publishers(including Hylands when he became one!). But, wait a moment, there's this here:

OH! He was on salary! That's right. Durr...
Jeez! Hope you're starting to see why it's very bizarre why you just don't see anything about his commitment to Columbia ANYWHERE. Wow, all the more reason for Jim Walsh to completely avoid writing about Hylands of his perhaps hundreds of fantastic articles. If Walsh was trying to be truly frank with the articles and notes he had, Hylands would have been mentioned hundreds of times. That's only if he mentioned that the pianist accompanied the singer(main subject of the article) was Hylands, and with that, he could have even done one of his specialty biographies on Hylands. That would have saved much of the headache I've had in trying to search around for any scraps of information on Hylands. Even in the November, 1913 issue of The Clipper, where they do a short section on him, there isn't at all any mentioning of the whole Columbia venture:

This little section was a little important, as it provided the information that most people knew him for. As according to every source in that time(other than The Phonoscope) Hylands was known for being a music director, B. F. Keith's prized pianist(of many they had...), one of the best stage accompanists in vaudeville, and that eccentric vanity publisher(like that they mentioned that...). Nothing about his revolutionary publishing firm with Len Spencer and Harry Yeager, his love and adoration at Columbia, or that he was one of the first popular Rag-Time pianists. Now the fact that they didn't mention the Rag-Time part of Hylands is very surprising, as certainly, by 1913, those earliest Rag pianists were beginning to truly get recognition for the fad they helped begin, which, as we well know, was still on by 1913.  Another thing that the section above indicates is that Hylands had been performing in vaudeville since about 1890, which we know is true, but it is indicated that he began as a B. F. Keith pianist, though of course, as expected, they would not dare to mention his lesser contributions that really were obviously the key to his playing style---playing in low-class clubs and saloons. 

Some of the other sections I found included many indications of the openings for the shows that Hylands directed and wrote himself. One of these sections included this:

Heh, imagine him standing on that stage giving a speech to everyone, that's a fantastic thing to picture. Wonder what he said in those speeches...

Ha! I have heard conflicting opinions about this show of Fred's. This one is, as seen, a much more positive and kind word to Hylands' fantastic talent with the parody. Two notable names in the above section other than Fred's, there are also the names of J. Grant Gibson, and Marie Hylands. J Grant Gibson was a long-time friend of Fred's from after being thrown out of Columbia and joining the White Rats Union in 1905. Hylands created a friendship with Gibson much like the one he had with Burt Green and Len Spencer back in 1898-1900. It was with Gibson that he began his second-to-last publishing firm, and wrote this piece here: 

(from my collection)

Without Len Spencer, that signature decorative footer was no more...

Yes indeed, both Hylands and Gibson were on this sheet music, and it's no coincidence that Hylands chose to write and publish with Gibson over everyone else he knew at that time. The other sections that I found this evening include these here: 

"A cyclone hit", gotta love 1900's slang.

Something odd about these two sections is that they were both featured in the same edition of The Clipper in 1905. That must have brought on the competition factor between the two of them, not that it wasn't already present. These siblings were certainly in the same business at the same time, and this is clearly indicated by these two advertisements here. The other section I found is this one:

Well, at least the cause of death is indicated, but it's pretty obvious that it was that what killed him. Though, of course, it can be very certainly assume that it was more than just diabetes that killed him. He certainly was some sweet piano man, I can tell you that! Pardon my very morbid pun. Anyhow, these sections were very interesting, and I stumbled upon them when I was just looking for all of those sections about Ben Harney in The Clipper from 1897 to 1900, but like a heap of the wonderful resources out there that we know exist, they are not yet on the Internet, for good researchers and nerds to freak out about.

(Harney at left and John Biller at right)
 Many of those sections included reviews of Harney's acts with his wife Jesse, and even some compared to Mike Bernard's playing where he imitated Harney. Of course, also I bet if someone was to digitize those for everyone to have a chance to see them , we probably would see reviews of shows at Huber's Museum by Ada Jones with piano accompaniment by Burt Green. Burt Green would probably be listed in many of them. And this would even be so in the 1900 issues speaking of the events going on at B. F. Keith's theater, that way, we'd see Hylands listed a whole lot more(as indicated by the section just above). This is also indicated by this section in The Phonoscope from May 1900:

Yep. That's the one. 
That must have been the time that he got the job there the second time. By that I mean that he had been there for at least one season before 1900, as said in one of the other sections here. The Phonoscope  indicated in their July, 1898 issue though that he was also pianist at Tony Pastor's theater(probably in late-1896 or early-1897, though no exact date was given) but, Keith's was also indicated in that same section. 

Something just came to mind, Edison's talent scouts didn't really get the best of the best when they went out to grab their staff members. Their dynamic was a little different from Columbia's. Edison's scouts hired performers who were somewhat amateur on the stage, and they took them in so they could become big stars. Columbia's dynamic was to stay with the handful of regulars they got, but only hire the best of vaudeville and dramatic performance. Think about it, Arthur Collins pretty much failed as an operetta and minstrel performer before Edison took him in to have him be an announcer for them in 1897. In 1898, Collins became one of the newest big stars of the recording business, one finally to combat Len Spencer's overwhelming monopoly in the area of the "Coon Song". Spencer fleetingly learned of this competition, and probably laughed at how much of a miserable failure Collins had been as a minstrel man, compared to his own extraordinary skills as a salesman and minstrel man. Collins proved him wrong, and Spencer's popularity began to significantly drop by 1906(the same year that he lost the sight in his right eye!). This Edison dynamic can also apply to Frank P. Banta, Byron G. Harlan, Harry MacDonough, and even Edward Meeker. Harlan wasn't really a failure exactly, but he was a very darn good amateur, as many of the early management staff there put it. Most of these Edison artists were under-appreciated before they got hired on to their staff, even someone like Frank P. Banta had the same sort of hard luck in the business, though I think that being Sylvester Ossman's pianist got him some much-deserved status in vaudeville, much earlier on than going off to Chicago to begin his phenomenal orchestra. Banta was no musical director with cute charisma(like Hylands) though. 

I hope you enjoyed this! 

More on Fred and Etta Hylands

For some reason, to-day I've had a sparked interest in these two siblings mentioned at the very top of this post.  I have really been trying to piece together the personality of Fred Hylands' obviously progressive and independent sister Etta. I have described Fred many a time on this blog, and it sometimes would seem like the two of them were both very bright and varying characters. In trying to piece together the history and character of Etta Hylands, it must be known that she married several times and had several children from the men she married(and didn't marry!). That in itself is really odd for that time period, as looking up many women from that time, you really won't find too many ladies with a story like that. 

Etta first married in 1893 to a man whose name was  Charles Calkins, but I could be wrong. The research I have done on her is a little confusing. She was 18 when she first married this man, and she was right out of the house, away from Fred and Charles quick. She left bachelor Fred and her father at home after she dashed out with her first husband. She married right after her mother died in 1893, and wasn't seen again by her brother and father until after 1900. As I have explained before, Fred remained single until 1895 when he married Marie and moved out to Milwaukee later that year. Of course, being the man his father was, he followed them to Wisconsin, needing the financial support they could offer. Meanwhile, somewhat near Chicago, Etta was living with this man for only three months after their marriage until he died of smallpox(how odd is that!) the circumstances of her second marriage and third are still to be uncovered. She was probably a lady who would become bored with men if they really weren't that passionate and caring for her. She must have grown tired of him by 1900, as it was around that time that she married again. Once again, I do not recall all the names of her husbands, and I am not exactly sure of who is who. She's a little hard to track down when looking her up. 

It was around this time frame(1898-1901) that her performer children were born, by this, I mean the "The Hylands" children. These kids were an act that was begun by their mother around 1907, where the children would perform, while their mother would be at the piano behind them. She probably had a similar style to her Ragged brother, one that was strange, powerful, and full of musical mirth and wit. I would guess that she was just as comical and eccentric as Fred, from not only what I know about Fred, but also that I have heard from the descendants of her that a cartoon of her playing piano exists. That explains quite a lot, just that fact alone. I wonder if one of Fred exists somewhere... 

Etta's most famous child was her daughter Ethel Mizpah(interesting middle name...), as she was formally known, is the most interesting of and mysterious of her children. Why? Well, she's the one that was born out of wedlock, and also that she was the one who was specifically mentioned in a few issues of Variety. 

One of which is here, from 1911:

It's odd heh? One of Fred's nieces. Hm. Sounds about right. 

 I wonder if any of Fred's recording friends ever got the chance to meet Etta(the only one I am almost certain met Etta was Burt Green, why? Well think about it for a moment, she probably stayed at Fred's house/firm headquarters at some point in 1899-1900, and guess who was there more often? Burt Green.)Anyhow, back to "Little Ethel" as she was known. The fact that she was illegitimate is something that I did not know until the kind descendants of Etta had told me, so what that means is that this fact was never spoken of in that time period, and thinking of the era, it was probably very well hidden. Something like that would never have passed well with Fred, who probably learned of it quick. When he learned of the birth of a bastard child from Etta, he must have rolled his eyes. It's pretty certain that they both heard from each other back and forth about their travels and performances from 1900 to 1913. 

Etta seemed to be pretty busy between 1907 and 1915, with her act showcasing her clearly talented children, dealing with letters from Fred, hearing of their father's death in 1909, and who knows what else! 

Hmm, to stray from the main subject of this  post, I just got sucked into watching the 1942 film The Yankee Doodle Dandy, and I am criticizing almost every scene, not just for those typical 1940's flaws in historical accuracy, like with hairstyles and women's dresses, but for some of the dialogue that comes by. OH! that scene where Cohan's character runs into Eddie Foy at the premiere  of George Washington Jr. just went by and all the esoteric puns by the both of them are hilarious! Eddie Foy was a popular dancer of the 1890's and 1900's by the way. Now, at the next scene, which is the opening of George Washington Jr. , they don't sing the "Grand Old Rag" with the "Rag" part of it, but that makes some sense. they could have easily gotten Billy Murray to come and sing that song as it was originally intended, as I think that Al Jolson did that for one film where he came out in blackface imitating someone else. Shoot, I can't remember what it was he was in, but I just recall that Jolson was older and that he sang an old song in blackface. They could have had Murray come to sing "Grand Old Rag" and it would have made that scene a thousand times better. 

Hm, a lot of what happens in this film could be applied to the story of Fred and Marie Hylands, minus that very weird(and romanticized) dynamic between George and his wife, which certainly was changed by the customs of 1940's and 50's films. 

Hey! Also that scene where the woman is singing "Over There", one, the way she's dressed is very incorrect for 1917, as it looks far too 1940's, from her hair to her shoes. The main problem with the singing at one part of this scene is how the singer syncopates the vocals of it, that that is actually not right for 1917. The original way it was sung(as heard on records by many, including Billy Murray) was supposed to be straight on the rhythm, because it was intended to be a one-step, which was not really syncopated. 

Now just to really nerd out, it's really kind of funny how Fred Hylands released a show on broadway in 1905 called The Yankee Doodle Girl  which, not surprisingly, was overshadowed almost completely by the big Cohan show The Yankee Doodle Boy. But you know what, Hylands' show(which was performed after the first few successful runs of Cohan's) Hylands' show might have actually been a joke response to the Cohan show, which was extremely popular when it was performed. But by how popular the Cohan show was, and how it made Hylands practically broke from the losses, Hylands probably hated Cohan for as long as he lived(thought it's interesting to note that he was a member of the White Rats Union, starting around 1909...). 

Anyhow, sorry about the weird tangent toward the end of this post, the movie was really interesting(even though I've seen it a few times), and I had to get into it a little. It's like whenever I watch Showboat from 1936, there's so much to take in, and for old broadway and vaudeville nerds like me just go crazy over. 

I hope you enjoyed this!