The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-17
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

Pan Alley that no composer has more than one great song in his heart. It's hard to argue this axi- om, because if you mention Irving Berlin, for example, and his sev- eral fine hits, the gentlemen of the tune factories blandly will sug- gest that MT Berlin's greatest song is yet to be written. It seems to me, though, that the rule can be applied more aptly to the singers of songs. For every 1 one of them is best known now, | and most likely will be hereafter, for a single song. Since the Christ mas night of 1905, when "Mlle Modiste" opened here, Victor Her. bert's kiss Me Again has be- longed to Fritzi Scheff. That tri- umph became a sort of nemesis for her; it overshadowed the re- mainder of her career. Audiences always clamored for ''Kiss Me Again. They still do, at parties or luncheons or wherever she goes.
 Encore Favorites
 Helen Morgan boarded Zieg- | fld's Show Boat" and sang
 Bill" She sang other songs in other shows, but listeners whi;s- pered: She'll never have another number like "Bilr'. So she vert into night clubs, fluttered her white hands, twisted her handker- 1 chief, and sang "Bilr' osme more. That's what the customers want ed. If and when she returns to the night clubs, they'll still want l it.
 Rudy vallee always will De
 "Just Vagabond Lover" to most 1 of us Harry Richman never can be disassociated from "The Birth of the Blues' Z. Ethel Mer-
 man has a couple of sensationally ! successful numbers in her current show, but she's still the girl who once sang. I've Got Rhythm" <.
 As long as he can sing q note, Paul Robeson won't be allowed to for l get "Ol Man River. :. And Ethel l Waters greatest triumph was in
 Stormy Weather"
 That Harvest Moon
 | Think back to the time of Nora 1 Bayes and you'll think of
 Shine On, Harvest Moon. Y. ..
 And Fannie Brice e?-"My Man. !.
 Irene Bordoni is busy with several
 of the current ditties, but her
 audiences ask for "Do It Again" |. Ruth Fitting can be thankful
 to "What Can Say After Say
 I'm Sorry. .. Mary Ellis returned
 to America few weeks ago and has gone to Hollywood. But
 nothing the tune-tinkers can do
 for her there will overshadow Tn dian Love Call" in the beautiful ! af Mo
 Al Jolson? His greatest prob ably was April Showers. No
 body who heard Dennis King sing
 the "Song of the Vagabonds' IS likely to forget that lusty ditty. Hannah Williams may be Mrs Jack Dempsey, but she also is the | gal who first warbled Cheerful Little Earfur'. Tamara may be on the stage for the next 50 years r. and hope she is-but no song
 ever will be so important to her career as was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. .. Libby Holman now
 considers herself more actress than torch-singer, but ''Moanin'
 Low" was the tune for which she's
 still remembered.
 Profitable Blues
 Twenty years ago Negro orchestra leader passed cou- pie of women on Beale Street in
 Memphis and heard one of them say: Dat man got heart lak a
 rock cast in de sea-"
 Walking along, he kept repeat ing it to himself and found it fit-
 ted into the tune of the "Jogo Blues which he had written the | haf a n more words for the chorus and
 then wrote the verse. beginning:
 T hate to see -. de evenin' sun
 go down."
 Il In 1912 William Christopher
 Handy had sold for $100 the
 music to "The Memphis Blues"
 Seemed like mighty little money,
 he reflected. Guessed he wouldn't
 sell this new tune, which he called
 "St Louis Blues" Guessed if he
 kept it long enough he could make
 more than $1OO in royalties. l. He kept it. all right. Before
 the depresison it was earning $25,000 year for him. and not
 much less than that now. He came to New York in 1918, and has q music publishing company on Broadway. Brings out about n dozen popular numbers each year, but no blues. The blues era has gone, he says wistfully.
 Handy is 61. gray and benign.
 stoutish and with family of five | grown childI5n. Sometimes of an evening he wanders through Har-
 lem, dropping in at the night clubs
 and the private parties.' Every
 body welcomes him, and he smiles tnn l.a Aan 1.A uiv. n see dat evenin' sun go down"