The 1920s Step Out
Commercial recording began around 1888, but the recording industry began to take off in the early 20th century. Prior to about 1902, only a handful of recordings could be made at once. Musicians would perform for up to five or so microphones, each recording making an individual record. A performer would have to sing or play the song thousands of times. This came to an end when it became possible to record a single “master”, from which any number of recordings could be made. But sales of records and cylinders––which Edison continued to manufacture until 1929 because he thought their sound fidelity was superior to that of records––were overwhelmed by sales of sheet music. It wasn’t until the 1920s that record sales surpassed those of sheet music and piano rolls.
One of the biggest factors making the 20th century musically different from the 19th is that the new century was more Jewish. Before going deeper, I thought the Jewish impact into American music started with Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Upon digging a bit, I discovered the lyrics to “Home, Sweet Home” were written in 1823 by a Jew, John Payne. And I found the songwriting brothers Harry and Albert Von Tilzer were Jewish. Born in the 1870s when major Jewish immigration began, the brothers had already written a number of hits before Berlin and Kern, who were born in the 1880s, came along. Another other major Jewish songwriter of the early 20th century was Gus Edwards, who was also born in the 1870s and is the co-writer of my 1907 song, “School Days”. One more early Jewish songwriter, though I only know of one credit for him, was Al Shean of “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean,” who was uncle and sometime mentor to the Marx Brothers.
Also born in the 1880s was Sophie Tucker, the “Last Of The Red-Hot Mommas”, and the first Jewish woman singer to reach star status. Tucker started her career as a “coon shouter”, but diversified her repertoire, eventually singing some songs in Yiddish, which she would only perform when a substantial number of the audience was Jewish. In the 19th century Jewish women were forbidden to perform on stage, and were often even forbidden to sing. Sophie Tucker single-handedly changed all that.
The first “Jewish” woman on the vaudeville stage was a Gentile woman, performing with a Gentile man as Jewish father and daughter in 1881, same year as vaudeville’s introduction and the first “coon” song. Throughout the 1880s and into the 1890s, the Jews portrayed on stage were typically played by Gentiles, in skits, for example, involving Jewish pawnbrokers who were burning down their pawnshops for insurance money. Jewish actors realized there was a market for Jews making fun of themselves, and that they could do it in a somewhat more sympathetic manner. Soon, just as there was a separate Black Vaudeville circuit, there was a Jewish one, often featuring songs in a style described as Jewface (as in Blackface and Yellowface). Those songs were rife with stereotypes that would make our contemporaries crawl under the table. “When Mose With His Nose Leads The Band” is a typical title. The Jewish establishment was horrified. In 1909 a prominent Reformed rabbi called these songs, “A cause of greater prejudice against Jews than all other causes combined.”
Material of this sort was also denounced by the Central Conference of American Rabbis but there it was, and it does not deserve to be swept under the table. An album of this music on the Reboot Stereophonic label entitled “Jewface” is available on Amazon. Part of the description there reads: “One of the most remarkable, and perhaps offensive albums, ever.” But by the second decade of the 20th century, Jewish songwriters, in increasingly large numbers, took their place in mainstream America. David Lehman, in his book, A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs (Schocken/Nextbook) nails the result, writing “In the process (of re-inventing themselves as Americans) they kind of re-invented America itself as a projection of their ideals of what America could be.” See Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.
Noel Coward, the playwright, introduced Cole Porter to Richard Rodgers, who was already famous as a songwriter when they met. Cole Porter wasn’t famous yet, but he told Rodgers he had discovered the secret formula for writing hit songs. He leaned over and said, “I’ll write Jewish tunes.” As Warren Boroson, writing in The Jewish Standard explains, Porter “eventually did exactly that. Just hum the melody that goes with ‘Only you beneath the moon and under the sun’ from ‘Night And Day’, or any of ‘Begin The Beguine”, or ‘Love For Sale’, or ‘My Heart Belongs To Daddy’, or ‘I Love Paris’. These minor key melodies are unmistakably eastern Mediterranean.”
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