Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1906-02-18
SLANGY SUIT ABOUT
A STOLEN SONG IS ON
LONDON ACTRESS AND MANAGER
CLASH IN COURT
"Under the Bamboo Tree" is Just
Winning Favor in London and the
Court Learns American CoIloquiaI=
isms in Hearing the Case Tried
snecial Cable to The Herald.

Special Cable to The Herald
LONDON, Feb. 17.-When Mr. JUS
tice Bigham took his seat in King S
Bench Court TX, yesterday morning,
and picked up his list he saw: *. b.
TX. Before Mr.. Justice Bigham-At
10:30-Mackay V. Edwardes."
The usher called "Silence," the judge
composed himself for a dreary days
work, and Mr.. Powell, X. c., with a
final adjustment of his wig and a hitch
of his robe, rose to open his case.
"M'lud, my client is successful pro-
fessonal singer" he said, land well
known in some of the music halls in
this country
Some of the dilettantes of the court
pricked up their ears and murmured:
Julie Mackay?' interrogatively.
"The gst of her complaint against
the defendant" continued Mr.. Powell,
'is that he has stopped her from sing
ing a popular song with which she
was identified, and which she had a
right to sing-'Under the Bamboo
Tree"
The court woke up at once. realizing
that the defendant, so casually and
anonymously referred to by counsel,
was Mr.. George EdwardeS of the
| Gaiety and other theaters. Briefiess
barristers in the pit, and the public in
| the gallery, came to the copclusion
that they had struck a good thing-and
| they had, for they saw a sedate judge
of the kings bench division receive a
| liberal education in slang.
Mr.. Powell explained that Miss
Mackay wanted to recover damages for
alleged libel, and, in the alterna tive,
said that Mr.. Edwardes had interfered
improperly with her engagements in
stopping her from singing the song,
and asked for an injunction restraining
him from further interference.
Counsel continued to state his case,
while his audience involuntarily
hummed the lifting tune of: IF I
love-a you and you love-a me, And we
| love-a both the same. Then you love-a
me and / love-a you'-until they real
| lied that Mr.. Powell had finished and
that a charming girl in a brown fur
coat and an American accent was in
| the witness box.
| She was Miss Julie Mackay, who ex-
planned that when she was in New
York in 1902 she heard everyone singing
Under the Bamboo Tree"
She met Mr.. Stern of music pub
| fishing firm, at Stanleys restaurant in
Broadway and he told her that he had
a "corking' song for her.
"Eh? What?" said Mr.. Justice Big
ham. What kind of song?"
| "a corking song" said Mr.. Powell
alphabetically. ut is an Americanism
and means'-he turned to Mis- Mac
kay
mo, not necessarily a coon song. -
said that lady. Anything may be
corldng if it fetches the audience, and
L guess this was a corking song be-
cause l was successful with it. We
] have slang in America just as you
have in this country"
Stolen Songs
Miss Mackay explained that she
brought the song to England and sang
it with success at various music halls
and in a pantomime.
Then she took the song to the Tivoli
and The oxford and received &15 a
week from each hall for singing it I'M
til Mr.. Edwardes informed the man.
ayers that he had the sole rights in the
song.
II had to go back to another song /
had sung for ten years and people were
sick of it, she said. 1.-The music hall
people accepted it, but L guess they
were sorry
What is your nationality" asked
Mr.. Gill blandly and apparently with
out any Interior motive.
"Amur-r-ican," replied Miss Mackay
tantalizingly, and with evident sar-
casm. you can tell that by my ac-
cent"
Then Mr.. George Edwardes was
called to explain that he had secured
the rights of the song for so in each
production, that he introduced it into
1.-THE Girl from Kays," and believed
that he had the entire English rights
The jury eventually found that Mr.
Edwardes, i'm prohibiting the song, was
Innocent of both malice and libel.