Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-04
%HERE Is q fabulous story Of
buried treasure in the tale

u a few short weeks from the
obscurity Of small university
campus to the most sung, whiS-
tied, hummed and abused song in
the public repertory today. It is
the story of 1.-THE Stein Song" Of
the University of Maine.
The popularizing of 1.-THE Stein
Song" was no accident. 1t was a
deliberate act made as a test to
answer the question: what
makes a song popular?" Here is
the story as told by E. c. Mills,
president of the Radio Music
Co., Inc, which is responsible for
putting the song over"
More than IS years ago E. A..
FenStad and Lincoln Colcord, both
former students of the University
OF Maine, composed a stein song
and dedicated it to their alma
mater. FenStad wrote the music
and Colcord the lyrics. The song
delighted the undergraduates and
alumni and afforded a great OPP
portunity to the parodist of
Names neighbor and rival, Bow
doin College. Otherwise the bal
lad was little known, in spite of
the fact that the copyright was
purchased by the Carl Fischer
Music Co. of New York. From the
financial angle the song was q
failure, as only few copies were
sold.
About two years ago the uni
versity requested the publishers
to return the copyright to the
institution merely for sentimental
reasons. Fischer agreed to do SO
il the school would make q nomi-
nal payment, usual in such cases,
for the plates, but it never COM
pleted the transaction for some
unexplained reason, thus saving
the song from oblivion in the
Maine woods.
When the Radio Music Co. was
organized as a subsidiary of the
National Broadcasting Co. several
months ago the Fischer Co. was
one Of the publishers included in
the merger. Shortly afterward
Mills and others connected with
the new organization determined
to take dead" song and plug
it as a test of what made song
popular. Vaudeville, radio, rec
ordS, sheet music and the sound
pictures had played various parts
in popularizing q song. Did the
melody, the words, the medium
or the manner Of presentation
determine the fate Of a song?
they asked.
]. Could radio alone make a song
popular?
i Several old pieces were con-
sidered. These included Down
by the Old Mill Stream" "Silvel
Threads Among the Gold" Ben
Bolt" But they were discarded as
being too well known. In the files
some one discovered 1.-THE Stein
Song" a copy of which had moi
been sold in "a years. This piece
was selected for the test, and the
officials decided to give to Rudy
Vallee, another product of the
radio, the task of handling the
song. Vallee was chosen pri-
marily because he is a native Of
Maine and attended the Univer-
sity of Maine for a year.
It was agreed that Vallee woult
sing "The Stein Song" on the
FleiSchmann program for two Of
three weeks, and the results woulC
be watched. That was less thar
two months ago.
Within IS days the song solo
$50, 900 copies of sheet music anc
untold thousands of records
Forty thousand records were sent
to Boston in one shipment alone
The song became the rage on the
air.
All this happened at a time
when sales of sheet music hae
taken great slump.
/ Before the advent of broad.
casting and talking motion pic
lures 1t was not unusual for 9
song to sell more than a million
copies of sheet music. Some, like
"Dardanella," even reached three
million. Now, however, the most
popular songs seldom exceed
100000. Three months are usually
allowed for a song to "get across,
1.-The Stein Song" was In fuI
swing in less than q month.
Financially the "test" was ar
undoubted success. A bur1ec
treasure has been discovered.
THERE was once a radio editor
william J. Pagan. Now there
is a radio artist Of the same name
| All the time that he was radio
editing Pagan had ambitions. He
wanted to become radio singer
He studied vocal and got on the
microphone with a daily broadcast
of base ball scores, good training
he thought, for what he hoped to
be. Opportunity knocked, anc
there came to him a place on the
staff of the Columbia Broadcast
ing system. It wasn't radio
artists department, however, but
it was next door in the sales pro-
duction Office.
i Finally, in the minute drama
half hour there developed a neec
for a singer as well as one who
could play character roles. sc
Pagan became "Bill' in the pro-
gram.
Have you ever thought you
IL would like to be a radio an
nouncer? Do you think it is ar
easy Job? If so, read the follow
ing test and weep!
I This is sample Of the imagi-
nary announcement which appli-
cants for the position of an
nouncer are obliged to read alout
for the Columbia Broadcastinl
system, while Jack Kicker, pro-
duction manager, and Charles
Speer, continuity writer, stand by
to pounce upon any miSpro-
| norwood vvOrd