The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-09-22

modern song writer. A good must
clan can take most popular numbers
apart and show what makes them
run.
Copyright Troubles.
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke
Down" had its start in Manhattan
night club where Eddie Riley and
Mike Farley pulled a verse from the
Ford joke book and wrote tune to
go with it. Soon a New York radio
station began broadcasting from the
club and overnight the song was a
national favorite. The interesting
sidelight here is that the Ford joke
book was not copyrighted, other
wise its publisher could have col
lected $3.50 from every radio sta
ton, cafe and restaurant that used
it.
Copyrights-or lack of them
have given many a composer finan-
cial trouble. Take Shelton Brooks,
now pounding piano in New York
cafe. Back in 1910, while doing the
same thing in Chicago, he wrote the
famous "Some of These Days" No
publisher would touch it, so Mr..
Brooks and a friend handled it them
selves. Their net profit at 10 cents
a copy was $62.50. But few months
later a vaudeville trio picked it up
and started it on the road to fame.
Mr.. Brooks sold out to Will Rossiter
for $500. That's all he got out of it
though "Some of These Days" went
on to make cool million dollars.
Since good song writer's are few
these days, publishers have grasped
at new method of protecting them
selves and keeping the public happy.
They're keeping in mind the fact
that copyrights on the tunes that
thrilled grandfather are now run
ming out, and that it's often possible
to buy renewal rights from the COM
posers or their heirs. With new
tunes so few, orchestra leaders oft
en- find it convenient-and pleasing
Ito insert a medley of oldtimers
in their programs.
Reviving the Nineties.
One of the leaders in this old tune
business is Jerry Vogel, New York
publisher who got a break several
years ago when George A. Cohen
turned over his entire portfolio with
out charge. Thus, Vogel found HIM
self sitting with full rights on such
one-time hit tunes as "Forty-fve
Minutes From Broadway" George
Washington Jr." and cover There"
Sometime later a woman from
near Boston dropped in and offered
to sell renewal rights on the num-
Der her uncle had written, Henry
j. Savers eta Ra Ra Boom Der
E." Vogel snatched it up and
showed it to Fred Waring, then play
ing on the Ford hour. Waring tried
it out and Mr.. Ford-a lover of old
tunes-liked it so well he had the
orchestra write special lyrics. They
used the tune more than a year,
which was a nice piece of business
for Mr.. Vogel on a tune which a
few months before had been dead
and forgotten.
But at best the revival business
is only stop-gap proposition, a
matter of securing tunes that will
fill in until Tin Pan Alley can turn
out more new" songs. Publishers
often get pretty Disguised about the
whole thing. Although they receive
vast amounts of script from anna
teurs, the bulk of it is sent back
unopened because there's seldom
anything of value. An exception
was the song, "Springtime in the
Rockies which San Francisco
publisher bought from an amateur
several years ago. 1t was a terrific
smash.
Again, publishers are often the
victims of their own disgust or
smugness, call it what you will.
Hoagy Carmichael wrote "Star
Dust" quite few years ago but
it gathered dust in the drawer until
someone tried it out, having moth
ing else to do on a rainy afternoon.
You know what happened. Similar
ly, another publisher tossed eff I
Could Be With You One Hour To-
night on the shelf until it was for
gotten. Finally somebody wrote a
new arrangement of it and highly
successful recording was made.