Tweet Sheet Music featuring silent films and performers

[silentfilm]

While some of this music was certainly featured in scores for these films, it was as much of a merchandise tie-in as a soundtrack (album) CD of today's films.



The first two just feature "Mabel Normand" in Goldwyn films. The last is from Mickey (1918)


White Heather (1919)


Norma Talmadge in Smilin' Through (1922)


A song dedicated to Norma Talmadge


Pola Negri in A Woman Commands (1932)


Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927)

[Mike Gebert]

Very cool, thanks for posting those.

My grandmother's uncle had a sweet jazz band in the 20s-- Walter Davison and His Louisville Loons (he was from Detroit, by the way)-- and I've picked up sheet music with his band's image on them. It's an interesting reflection of how things have changed to realize that sheet music was a significant medium in terms of sales and publicity, not that long ago.

[silentfilm]

Here's a good search engine for the Indiana University Lily Library sheet music collection...

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=devincent;c=starr;g=sheetmusic;cc=ALLSELECTED;xc=1;

Type in something like "Theda Bara" or "Norma Talmadge" or "Valentino", and you can see several covers of sheet music that featured these stars.

Very cool, thanks for posting those.

My grandmother's uncle had a sweet jazz band in the 20s-- Walter Davison and His Louisville Loons (he was from Detroit, by the way)-- and I've picked up sheet music with his band's image on them. .

Hey Mike,

Check this out, if you haven't already:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjSSBd4YYUo

--JA

[Mike Gebert]

Wow! I had no idea that was on YouTube, wouldn't have thought to look there. Thanks. I have their three 78s for Columbia, they did two sides a few years earlier for a much smaller label but I've never run across a copy of those anywhere. Walter ran a piano roll company before that and it's not hard to find ones where he's credited as the player; the company also issued piano rolls by Jelly Roll Morton and I wouldn't rule out the possibility that those (which have been recorded and issued on CD) are actually Walter too, imitating the style of a name they'd licensed. For a sweet jazz band run by an Irishman from Detroit, the Loons were pretty swinging.



The Pat O'Brien lookalike at left is Walter. In the whole history of jazz, I suspect he's the only musician whose last days were spent as president of a country club (in Gross Pointe).

Here's one I like:

I'm going to give this image upload thingie a try...



IT WORKED!!

This sheet music was published in c.1911 and the model for the cover is supposedly Virginia Rappe. That identification was made after her death by the graphic artist, O. Irwin Myers, who had drawn her during her art model days. (I have a scan of the drawing he did of her, but unfortunately he didn't identify what purpose the drawing had, darnit.)

I don't think it's her. Myers was very specific about the identification, though; he said she was the girl in the big sunbonnet on the sheet music of Let Me Call You Sweetheart, which is pretty much this girl. I think he may have conflated this sheet music with another hot-selling sheet music she posed for. It was ten years later and memory is a funny thing. This piece of sheet music sold about 850,000 copies, so not a small deal for whoever the model was.

So whaddya think, Nitratevillains?

Fred

[Mike Gebert]

Well, first, I'm amazed that this image was assumed to be a million young men's idea of a sweetheart-- just shows how standards of beauty changed, especially between the Gibson Girl age and the Jazz Age.

Which is the problem with pulling later images of Rappe for comparison-- they're styled so differently:



Nevertheless, based on facial structure, could this woman (10 or so years younger) have inspired that possibly intentionally less than 100% accurate sketch? I think so. So could many other women, I'm sure, but I don't think the visual evidence makes the historical evidence unlikely.

[silentfilm]

I think that the nose, lips, and chin look different between the photos and the sheet music.

Well, first, I'm amazed that this image was assumed to be a million young men's idea of a sweetheart-- just shows how standards of beauty changed, especially between the Gibson Girl age and the Jazz Age.

Which is the problem with pulling later images of Rappe for comparison-- they're styled so differently:



Nevertheless, based on facial structure, could this woman (10 or so years younger) have inspired that possibly intentionally less than 100% accurate sketch? I think so. So could many other women, I'm sure, but I don't think the visual evidence makes the historical evidence unlikely.

EEK! The photo on the left is definitely Virginia Rappe--I know because that's my photo. The clown who posted it on his web page nicked the jpg off my myspace page, sans any credit, of course. The second photo is not Virginia Rappe. I don't know who she is, frankly, but the photo was taken much later, probably in the early 30s. (The hair and hat styles are a giveaway).

Even given that artists often put their own spin on drawings, I still don't think the sunbonnet girl is Virginia. Of course (and this might be the rub) I have a lot of photos of Virginia Rappe. It might not have been a fair question for me to ask, since I'm more familiar with how she looked at any given period.

Here's a scan of the drawing Myers did of Virginia, c.1908-1910. I only have a nasty newspaper microfilm scan, unhappily. It is more recognizably Virginia, although there is still so much artistic spin on it (very much in Myers' style, unsurprisingly) that I might not have identified it myself. He's drawn her to look much older than she was, which means that the modeling game hasn't changed all that much.



Fred

[Mike Gebert]

Yeah, I thought that hat was very 30s, but it was on the internet so it must be right...

There is a Douglas Fairbanks sheet music on eBay right now. Item number: 290200451534

I have a number of movie sheet music, all in great condition but wasn't able to unload them on eBay recently. After 4 tries I gave up.

I've got a bunch on Valentino (naturally) and have a few Doug & Mary, Bebe Daniels as the nice decor framed in the master bath. Some of the sheets are remarkbly beautiful.

I've got a bunch on Valentino (naturally) and have a few Doug & Mary, Bebe Daniels as the nice decor framed in the master bath. Some of the sheets are remarkbly beautiful.

Hello, Donna,

How many different Valentino song sheets do you think were published?

Were the majority "tribute" songs printed after his death?

I have WE WILL MEET AT THE END OF THE TRAIL complete with the sad looking Jean Acker on the cover.

I've got a bunch on Valentino (naturally) and have a few Doug & Mary, Bebe Daniels as the nice decor framed in the master bath. Some of the sheets are remarkbly beautiful.

Hello, Donna,

How many different Valentino song sheets do you think were published?

Were the majority "tribute" songs printed after his death?

I have WE WILL MEET AT THE END OF THE TRAIL complete with the sad looking Jean Acker on the cover.

Hi Darren

Well, worldwide, over 80 of them. I have a friend who focuses on collecting the sheet music and at last count she had 82 different sheets. I think a few titles were duplicated overseas with slight different covers, like the Blood and Sand, Monsieur Beaucaire and The Sheik of Araby (which surprisingly did not have a US version with Valentino on the art). I have about 30 pieces of sheet music, and there are 4 or 5 that are post mortem tributes. There are a fair number of tribute tangos and other songs inspired by Valentino while he was alive, such as I Wish I had a Man Like Valentino (which certainly endeared him further to the male populace of the 1920s) and Rodolph Valentino Blues.

Some are quite hard to come by, most notably the beautiful sheet music for The Young Rajah, or the alternate sheet composed for The Son of the Sheik (with the same title) and others are common as grains of sand on a beach, such as New Star in Heaven or We will Meet at the End of the Trail as you mentioned with Jean Acker (IMO trying yet again to cash in on Rudy's name and fame).

Well, worldwide, over 80 of them. I have a friend who focuses on collecting the sheet music and at last count she had 82 different sheets. I think a few titles were duplicated overseas with slight different covers, like the Blood and Sand, Monsieur Beaucaire and The Sheik of Araby (which surprisingly did not have a US version with Valentino on the art). I have about 30 pieces of sheet music, and there are 4 or 5 that are post mortem tributes. There are a fair number of tribute tangos and other songs inspired by Valentino while he was alive, such as I Wish I had a Man Like Valentino (which certainly endeared him further to the male populace of the 1920s) and Rodolph Valentino Blues.

Some are quite hard to come by, most notably the beautiful sheet music for The Young Rajah, or the alternate sheet composed for The Son of the Sheik (with the same title) and others are common as grains of sand on a beach, such as New Star in Heaven or We will Meet at the End of the Trail as you mentioned with Jean Acker (IMO trying yet again to cash in on Rudy's name and fame).

don't forget the parodies, etc., including "The Sheik of Avenue B" recorded by, among others, Fannie Brice.

don't forget the parodies, etc., including "The Sheik of Avenue B" recorded by, among others, Fannie Brice.

oh, that is one I do not have! Gotta go hunt ebay now!

How about this tango... published by the Fox Film Corporation:

How about this tango... published by the Fox Film Corporation:

Looks mightly like George (hunkadola) O'Brien, to me. With the Fox association, I would think I'm correctamundo.

Looks mightly like George (hunkadola) O'Brien, to me. With the Fox association, I would think I'm correctamundo.

Please tell me I am mistranslating this! The Seafood Tango? Not that George O'Brien wasn't quite the clam with pretty mussels.

Fred

The title, "Carne de mar" can be translated as "Sea Meat".

I would use a poetic translation: "Sea Flesh".

On the bottom left, you can read (if I remember well):

"Propiedad de la Fox Film de la Argentina; todos los derechos reservados"

which can be translated to "Property of Fox Film Argentina; copyright reserved".

Fox Film Coporation had a few composers under contract in Buenos Aires (note that I'm posting from the United States) and they created a number of themes, not limited to tangos, for a lot of films. Other studios did the same.

Online is available a title tango for Von Stroheim's "Foolish Wives" which I copied, by hand, from the Buenos Aires film museum that I later reconstructed with a software programe:

For now, pay attention to this 1923 tango:



Do you want to hear it?:

http://www.esnips.com/doc/da3a34d2-f0e6 ... 91956e9801

I myself restored and reconstructed that recording, which was damaged and survived incomplete.

If you want to download it:

http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/da3a34d2-f0 ... 3116161625

That is George O'Brien in a studio portrait used as publicity for "The Man Who Came Back"(1924).

"Meat of the Sea"? In the US Fox promoted George as "A man's man , and a hero of women!" One can see that Fox's South American publicity department were more singlemindedly pursuing George's female fan base, down under.

If I remember well, there was also a fox trot using this portrait of George O'Brien. The tune was also the Argentine title of the film.

Unfortunately, I don't have it. However, it was written by Emilio Iribarne Mario Valdez (score) and Cancio Millán (lyrics) who wrote several themes for films since they were under contract with the Fox Film Corporation.

Somebody was selling this in eBay (and I would like to get the actual score):

For years I was unable to identify the following tango by Cátulo Castillo called "Juguete de placer" (Pleasure Toy), with lyrics written by his father... with apologies for the size of the image, which is the original:







It took me years, to identify to what film this tango belongs. To make things worse, I am not in Argentina and it was impossible to research this issue.

Finally, my friend Satantango in Buenos Aires (http://www.mundosilente.com.ar/) was able to identify it.

This is the main theme for Gloria Swanson's MANTRAP (1924) and this tango was written the following year. Although I didn't see it yet, I feel that this tango is probably much better than the film that inspired it.

At the time, the Fray Mocho magazine and Paramount Pictures set up a tango contest to find a musical theme for this film. The winner, was Cátulo Castillo, who just lost Max Glücksmann first tango contest the previous year. However, that tango called "Organito de la tarde" (which ended 3rd) was popular enough that the lyrics by Cátulo's father, José González Castillo (a filmmaker himself), became a classic, if lost, silent film.

In the following photo, Cátulo Castillo receives the award from the Fray Mocho magazine and Paramount:



Carlos Gardel recorded the tango at the time and here is his recording:

JUGUETE DEL PLACER, tango
Music by Cátulo Castillo
Lyrics by José González Castillo
Performer: Carlos Gardel
With Guitars: (Ricardo and Barbieri)
Recording label: Disco Nacional Odeon
"Manufacturado exclusivamente para Max Glücksmann por
la Argentine Talking Machine Works Buenos Aires"
Record number: 18174
Master disc: 4100
Recorded in 1926

http://www.esnips.com/doc/042cb2bf-e479 ... 926---RicB

to download: http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/042cb2bf-e4 ... 3148634343

And here is a treat, which has never been available in more than 80 years (which I myself restored): a parallel instrumental recording of the tango by Francisco Canaro and his orchestra. In fact, this version is a bit earlier (from the previous year), probably from before the tango got its lyrics.

JUGUETE DEL PLACER, tango
Music by Cátulo Castillo
Lyrics by José González Castillo
Performer: Francisco Canaro y su orquesta típica
Recording label: Disco Nacional Odeon
"Manufacturado exclusivamente para Max Glücksmann por
la Argentine Talking Machine Works Buenos Aires"
Record number: 4107
Master disc: 3077
Recorded in 1925

http://www.esnips.com/doc/c8749d28-1d66 ... 01-07-1925

to download: http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/c8749d28-1d ... 3148806406

The title, "Carne de mar" can be translated as "Sea Meat".

I would use a poetic translation: "Sea Flesh".

Muchas gracias, senor. (And that pretty much plumbs the depths of my Spanish.) "Sea Flesh" doesn't really sound all that attractive to me, but I guess it must have cultural resonance to Spanish speakers (or specific to Argentinians?). Come to think of it, I would imagine that a direct translation of "Hunk" would probably not sound all that attractive in Spanish.

Fred

The images are courtesy of the Buenos Aires city government (which posted a lot of sheet music scores)

Here is a Chaplin rarity from Argentina in 1926:

http://www.acceder.buenosaires.gov.ar/i ... 485d26.pdf

And here is a clandestine edition of a tango by Francisco Canaro (which he never recorded). I suppose that everybody will identify the film:

http://www.acceder.buenosaires.gov.ar/i ... 9c9158.pdf

This is a reconstruction of a sheet music score of a tango specifically written as the musical theme of Erich Von Stroheim's FOOLISH WIVES.

Since I was unable to xerox it, from the Buenos Aires film museum, I was forced to copy it by hand and more or less reconstruct it with a music notation software and Photoshop. However, I retained a credit to the magazine in which it was originally published (Imparcial Film) and the date when it was originally printed.

The cover is lifted from a contemporary newspaper ad (which survived in microfilm). However, todotango decided to slightly change it and added color to it to make it more appealing to the eye, although they made a minor mistake too.

The face at the left is Von Stroheim's. I removed a sign announcing the theater where it was going to be premiered in order to put the one for "Tango criollo" and a credit to its composer:

Here is a waltz that neither one here ever knew, except if you follow some of my own writings in other places.

When Wallace Reid died in 1923 he wrote a waltz called "Eternamente" (Eternally). Even though it has been recovered from a xerox copy, the sheet music score features a curiosity: not one but two Paramount logos







Since there are no complete versions available online, here is a 45 second sample lifted from a music store (if somebody needs the complete recording, send me an e-mail):

http://www.tangostore.com/audio/4/1484_20.rm

[silentfilm]

Since yesterday was the anniversary of Theda Bara's death (April 7, 1955), here's a new piece of sheet music that I have featuring a photo of her. The piece is I've Lost You So Why Should I Care (1916), and it features both a piano part and and music for a four-part male quartet.

Hi Bruce

I have this sheet next to a Mary Pickford on the wall. Mine is different, full size image of Theda in brown and yellow tones. Very cool sheet you have!