The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
THEY POSE FOR SONGS
HOW SENTIMENTAL AND COMIC DIT
TIES ARE ILLUSTRATED.
Are Popular-Pictures Carefully
Made.
PHILADELPHIA Record.

| Philadelphia Record.
a pretty girl stood beside kitchen table
in room with ceiling of glass. Her
sleeves were turned back over her white
arms and she wore the short skirt and the
high-heeled shoes of the maid of the
| theater.
| 'Ready?'' she asked.
From a corner a man behind camera
answered Ready" She buried her hands
in a pan of dough that was on the table
before her and the man photographed her
| I'm that attitude. Now there came from
| dressing room a gentleman of middle age
| in evening clothes. He posed himself be-
side the busy girl. He sat on the table,
bending over her. very friendly. Ready"
he said.
| "All ready" the photographer answered.
| picture was made of the pretty maid
and the friendly middle-aged gentleman
in evening dress who sat beside her while
she worked.
Then the gentleman, taking hold of the
maids chin gently, turned her pretty face
up to his. He looked down upon her
roguishy. .tenderly. "Ready?" he asked.
| A third picture was made. Now the
| elderly man took the beautiful girl In his
arms. He placed his lips on her. He said
| Ready" this time in a somewhat muffled
| voice, and when he detached himself after
| the picture had been taken from the en-
| twining maid the prints of her four-covered
| hands and arms stood out with amazing
| diStinctneSs on the back of his black coat.
| woman, middle-aged and by means
| fair, entered. The man and the maid stood
lar enough apart now. but there on the
| back of his coat were those two white arms
| and hands. The woman took up a rolling
| pin. Ready" she asked.
| Let her co." said the photographer
STRENUOUS MOMENTS FOR POSERS.
The woman brought down the rolling
| pin on the mans head. and at the same
| time a picture of the blow was made. 1t
was a genuine blow-a blow that hurt.
| "Ouch," the man said, and he looked at
| the woman vindictively. She now took up
a bucket of water that stood at hand.
Ready" she asked.
| 'All ready" said the photographer
| She hurled the water over the man. IT
! went in his mouth and up his nose. 1t
drenched him thoroughly. He grunted at
| the shock. Another picture.
| Finally the woman took the bag of flour
that stood on the table and threw this on
| the man. 1t made him whittier than a
| tombstone. The photographer, the woman
and the pretty girl laughed heartily, but
the elderly man smiled in rueful man.
| ner.
This" he said. the last picture having
| been taken. lis strenuous posing for fair.
I've earned my money here, all right, all
right"
That's what you have" said the pho
| tographer. Now. hurry into the bathroom
| and battle before the flour and water form
| crust on you.
The photographer then handed to each of
these three persons a greenback, and the
| episode was ended.
| what meaning a farmer from the In
terror would have asked. does this strange
| episode have? Why were these strange
pictures made? Why did you put our mid
| dle-aged friend in the fulldress evening
suit TO such atrocious sufferings?"
| The photographer would have answered:
| why, you see, we are illustrating
| comic song. It's song about a man that
makes love to a maid servant and gets
caught by his wife. She beats him. These
| pictures have taken illustrate lines in the
song The pictures will be thrown on
screen in a, darkened theater. and a man
| and a woman will stand alongside of the
| screen and sing the song the pictures
changing as the song goes on, each line
| being Illustrated with an appropriate, more
| than life-sized photograph.
These words of the photographer explain
clearly enough big and profitable bust
ness the business of illustrating songs. In
| the cheap theaters the illustrated song has
been popular for three or four years. and
| ii promises to retain the affections of the
| public for long time to come. 1t lends,
! indeed, great effect to a songs dramatic
| situations; 1t improves song tremend-
ously.
SAD SONGS POPULAR.
| Why are illustrated songs, nine times out
Of ten, sad? Why, when the public re-
quires CHEEKY tone in its fiction, does it
love in its songs gravestones, tears and
| broken hearts?
| S. Lubin, of No. q South Eighth street,
| the busiest maker Of pictures for illustrated
| songs, cannot answer that question, but he
knows who originated illustrated songs
and what the first illustrated song was.
1.-The late DR.. j. F. Lewenberg originated
these songs" he said; .in 1892, or. maybe.
| Fifty Cents comic.
Every one remembers Fifty Cents" 1t
| begins:
took my girl to ball one night:
| a fancy hop;
| We stayed until the lights went out
| And the music IL did stop.
| And then a restaurant went
| She said she wasn't hungry,
| But this is what she eat:
| dozen raw
| plate Of slaw,
| chicken and a roast,
| Some sparrow-grass
| And soft shell crabs on toast
| Thus the song runs on, enumerating the
things the girl ate and drank. till the man
| swooned. She took, the song says:
| whisky skin,
| A ga- of gin.
| Her thirst 1T immense.
| When she called for more
| i fell on the floor
| For 1 had but fifty cents.
| DR.. Lewenberg, an employe of Mr. Lub-
| ms, did not illustrate this song with pho
! tographs, but with pencil drawings-a half
dollar. a great quantity of food; the heroine
| eating, the hero being thrown out of the
! restaurant, etc.-and the drawings were
| made into lantern slides, and at one OF this
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