The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-17
Man bout

Bv George tucker

~
Importance to a Broadway producer
of musicals r competent song
writers, and when Harry kaufman
was ready to go to work on Keep
Off the Grass" he hired James Nc
Hugh and Al Dublin, two of the clev-
crest melody and lyric writer's in the
business.
McHugh is a tall, wide-shouldered,
easy-mannered fellow who looks a
lot like Bugs Baer, the humorist. His
son, Jimmy, "a, is married to Ed
die Cantor's daughter, Edna, 10.
When he got Kaufman's urgent wire
he came on from the coast and es-
tablished living quarters in the War.
wick, which is to say he acquired
a couple Of extra rooms in which
there were only a piano, a couple of
chairs, a table. and paper.
His co-worker, Dublin, was already
on the scene AS soon as McHugh
was ready to go to work he, Dublin,
and Kaufman went into conference.
They discussed Ray Bolger and jim
nv Durante, and Jane Frohman, and
the others, so as to ascertain the
nature of the music to be written and
to determine the right mood.
Then McHugh and Dublin, a ro-
tund, sp~arse-haired and eXtremel.'
affable individual, locked the doo-
and went to work.
I do not know Dublin personally.
I have said hello to him and seen
him on a few occasions. McHuGh
says he is one of the fastest writer's
he ever saw, or worked with. Dublin
wrote the lyrics for all the Warner
Gold-Digger films. He wrote "Shuf-
file Off to Buffalo and 'Forty-Sec.
ond Street" Last year with Nc
Hugh he wrote South American
Way" and all the score for Streets
of Paris" which is also a kaufman
show.
McHugh himself is an old, ex-
perienced hand at writing hit tunes
at haphazard and also in the scores
of film or stage productions. He
wrote the music for the Deanna Dur
bin pictures. He wrote II Can't Give
You Anything But Love, Baby"
The first thing he does is to select
a definite title. He and Dublin work
over this carefully. That sets the
salt, the tempo, the mood. Then he
goes to work. AS he finishes the
melody he passes the sheet to Du-
bin, who is already at work thinking
up lyrics. By the time McHugh is
on another title, Dublin says, See
how this goes" He passes the manu-
script back to Ntzhugh,, the lyrics
pencilled in.
For Keep Off the Grass Nc.
Hugh probably wrote a hundred diff
ferent songs, and Dublin probably
wrote IS sets of lyrics. Out of this
will come perhaps is numbers.
For writing this score they are he.
ing paid 4 per cent of the gross.
Every time $4,000 comes into the
box office sometimes they take this
much in a single week) they will
get a thousand. This is quite aside
from the royalties the song will
bring il from radio, orchestras, and
sheet music sales, not to forget
photograph records.
Unlike freelancers who write
songs when the spirit moves hem,
composers of shows only begin to
work after their scores are COM
pleted. They must attend all re.
hearsals and be ready to make
swift revisions when a hitch de-
velops, OF a change is needed. At
Yesterdays rehearsals of the chorus
l saw McHugh write Is bars of
new music in Is minutes. He wrote
it standing at the piano, one hand
in his pocket, While the pianist sat
there and paved it, bar for bar, as
it was written.
That's sausage-grinding," Nc.
Hugh explained. mo inspiration
necessary. If you had to write a
hundred words in a bury, you
could do it without thinking.
What's a few bars more or less to
a song-writer?"