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THE  JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Wednesday, April 17, 1946
PAdfic S3S4
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Jews As Song Writers . . .
(A Study of Jerome Kern, Harry Von Tilzer and Lew PoUack) By USA JOANNA FEINSTEIN
vtiinm a penoa oi a lew scant months, death robbed the civilized world of three of its most gifted songwriters—Jerome Kern, Harry Von Tilzer and Lew Pollack. Since 1910 there has scarcely be^ a day that America—and much of the world—has not danced, whistled or joyously beat time to a time penned by one of these three Jewish composers. As in the case of the Eiritish flag, the sun never set upon a song hit of theirs before anoth^ was basking in its rays.
All of them had something in common beside., their Jewish faith —they reached the heights of eminence only through determined efibrt, through patient- forebear-snce, through courageous plodding in a field notoriously littered iwith bioken i>romises and broken hearts.
In the case of Von Tilzer, he wrote almost 3,000 songs before the first one was published. That was "Mfir Old New H!ampshire Home," which he sold outri^t for $15. It made the publisher rich and Von Tilzer famous.
In the case of Pollack, his Jewish background exercised a marked effect over his tunes. One particular melody haunted him for years. . Where had he heard it—in i^yna-gogue,in his mother's lullabies, in his owii heart? He never knew— and it would not let him rest. Out of that came "Yiddishe Momme," which he wrote in collaboration with Jack Yellen. It was Sophie Tucker's biggest niunber and won a warm spot in the hearts of millions, Jews and non-Jews,
In the case of Kern, it was the case of another Jewish boy bom on the East Side—as were George Gexshwin and Irving Berlin—who grew up in a district noted for its breweries. But he was fortunate to have a moth^ who knew how to play the piano and she made him an ^ithuaast, too. IVom there it was only a hop, skip and jump to Wanamaker's music counter where he began to make a living plug^g songs. And then along came Marie Dressier.
This gracious lady of the stage needed an accomi>anist one evening and young Jerry was sent. It was his «itree to the xheatre and it didn't take long before he was writing for the stage. In. August, 19H a first-night audience sat down to hear and enjoy "The Girl from Utah," in which Julia Sanderson was starred, and they left whistling, "They Didn't Believe Me," Jerome Kern was now substantially on the way of inijecting contagious tunes into the nation's life.
Kern was a singularly prolific writer. At one time, during the first World War, three of his shows ran simultaneously on Broadway. But he outdid even this achievement in the incredible '2Vs with his magnificent "Show ' Boat," That grand folk song, "Old Man River," one of the most intriguing of its genre ever written, was bom in "Show Boat," along with five other hits. "Let Us Make Believe" and "Why Do I Love You?" were other favorites of that musicaL
Then followed, in succession, "Cat and the Fiddle," "Music in the Air," and "Roberta," and in 1934 he swung over to Hollywood to write the scores for these shows and others.
Where Kern differed from Tilzer and Pollack was in the fact that he never wrote What Tin Pan Alley calls "popular music," that is, sheet music selling for ten cents and plugged by vaudeville or night club singers. He composed only for musical productions—such as "SaUy" and "Sunny" and "She's a Good Fellow," which introduced Adele and Fred Astaire to fame.
While Kern was practically im-recognizable in a theatre audience —he was a shy, self-effacing -pei-son—there was not a rare book dealer in New York who did not know him by sight. There is a story that he stepped into a noted shop just off Fifth Avenue during a bankruptcy sale. All items had been drastically marked down. While the proprietor engaged Kern-in conversation, a clerk went to the safe and pegged a Robert Biuns
rare item up from ?2,000 to ?6,500. Kern wrote a check for the latter sum without demurring. When he I&tef held a sale in 1929, his collection drew $1,729,462. He sold his Dickens collection {done for $252,540. A copy of a poem by Shelley went for $68,000.
And all through the years his haunting melodies were intriguing yoxmg and old alike, songs like "Look for the SUver Lining," "The Night Was Made For Love," "Fve Told Every Little Star," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "The Way You Look Tonight," and others mentioned above. Kern was a little man, bespectacled, white-haired, unprepossessing—but he gave man-, kind lyric moments that will live forever.
Harry Von Tilzer's life approximated more the carnival spurit, the romantic life of the troubadour. The man who was determined^ to write more than 8,000 songs was bom in Goshen, Ind, the son of immigrant parents. His father owned a shoe store, having previously been a shoemaker in Poland, • while his inother came from Germany. Young Harry Gimun-that was his real name—was self-taught, self-reliant. In the middle of the night it was not imiisual for him to be heard playing the piano.
Over his father's store was a little theatre and when visiting troui>es of actors came to town, they were booked to appear on this stage. Harry was early drawn to tliem and even at the staggeringly
yotmg age of 10 and 11 he was making up songs and playing them for the thespians. He was avowedly going to become one of them, but his i>arents objected.
One day a circus came to tov/n and an acrobat took to the 14-year-old boy. Yoimg Gumm decided then and there to run away from home. He assiuned the name of Tilzer, after his mother's home town in Germany, and iMrefixed' the "Von" to add importance to it. Three years later he joined a repertory theatre company and toured with it until a noted ac-triess advised him to go to New York and have his songs sung.
He duly arrived in Gotham with but $1.65 between himself and starvation. Nevertheless he went straight to Tony Pastor, then at the height of his fame, and played some of his tunes, PaJstor was impressed and offered to sing them. Then Harry got a job for $15 a week singing in a saloon.
His next step was to join a music publishing house and ten years after he owned his own firm which, while handling mostly his own works, started others on the road to success. He published the works of Gershwin and Berlin and is said to have sponsored Nora Bayes because her name was similar to his mother's maiden name.
Von Tilzer is reputed to have made at least a dozen fortimes in New York and to have given Tin Pan Alley its monicker. Among his popular numbers were "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Wait Til the Sun Shines, Nellie," "A Bird in a Gilded Cage," "I Want a Gu-1, Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad," "Jenny Lee," "Down on the Farm" and "Refus Rastus Johnson Brown."
While Von Tilzer died at 73 and Kem at 60, Pollack was fatally stricken at the comparatively productive age of 50. He achieved his great success in the interim period in Which the screen featured theme songs. It was then that he gave the world "Diane" in "Seventh Heaven," "Charmaine," featured m "What Price Glory," "Angela Mia" in "Street Angel" 9nd "Little Mother" in "Four Songs," A sentimental streak ran through his works, which included "Miss Annabella Lee," "Two Cigarettes in the Dark" and "He's My Uncle," "Charmaine" alone sold more than a million copies, earning him $30,000 in sheet music and 525,000 for records,
Btom in New* York City and educated in the public schools. Pollack,
too, early in life began to write songs, working for leadixig Broadway publishers. He entered show bt^siness in 1918 as a piano player and 10 years later went to Hollywood imder contract to Twentieth Century-Fox to write for the early sotmd pictures. He remained with tliis firm for eight years and the last three of his life he spent with RKO. Some of his songs for the films were written in collaboration with Emo Rapee who died last Jvne. He did the lyrics and score for "Pigskin ]Parade" which featured Shirley Temple.
At the start of his career, Pollack played in practically every cabaret in Coney Island. At this time he teamed up with another obscure
Jewidi trouper—Ted Lewis, then a clarinet player. He married Helen Mellette, one of the Mellette Sisters, a famous team in the early 1920*8, and left two sons, both of ihem in the armed forces.
Some of his best sellers, he once said, were written in an hoiir's time.
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