Uke Henshaw: Master of His Instrument

UKE HENSHAW

Today is the birthday of Charles Robert “Uke” Henshaw (1896-1969).

Originally from Wheeling, West Virginia, where his family had lived for many generations, Henshaw also spent some of his childhood in Columbus and St. Louis. By his early twenties he had already established himself on the vaudeville circuits as one of the top ukulele performers and his likeness was already being printed on sheet music. By 1920 he was already playing Paris — international stardom was to follow. For a time, his first wife Vera Van Atta was partner in his act. Most descriptions of his playing mention his uncanny ability to make his uke mimic other musical instruments. When vaudeville passed from the scene, he continued to play on radio, toured with the USO, and appeared in films and on television. His name was also used to market a brand of ukuleles. Much more detail about the performer can be found here, including appearances he made in films as an extra which aren’t mentioned on IMDB.

Henshaw was the second cousin of the famous singer Annette Hanshaw and Frank Hanshaw, a successful show biz agent. Uke’s third wife was the popular singer and actress Deane Janis.

For more on vaudeville history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold

Lewis and Dody: Hello Hello Hello!

LEWIS AND DODY

Today is the birthday of Sam Lewis (1885-1959), today best remembered as a tin pan alley songwriter, who co-wrote such classics as “How You Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?”, “My Mammy”, and “Sitting on Top of the World”. At a certain point he was partnered with a guy named Jack Altman, but for most of his career he was teamed with dialect comedian Sam Dody. Lewis and Dody were also billed as The Harmony Boys and The Two Sams.  They starred in a show called Hello, America on the Columbia Burlesque wheel in 1918. In vaudeville they introduced the Bert Kalmar and Harry Puck songs “Kiss Me (I’ve Never Been Kissed Before)” and “Where Did You Get That Girl?”(both 1913)  and the 1917 patriotic number “Homeward Bound” by Johnson and Goetz.  They are best known for a single novelty song “Hello Hello Hello”, which became their signature. They played the Palace with their act in the mid 1920s.

For more on vaudeville history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

Anatole Friedland

Today is the birthday of Anatole (sometimes spelled Anatol) Friedland, although there is some disagreement about the year, claims ranging from 1881 to 1888. He died in 1938. Born in St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida) he was educated at private schools in his native contrary, then emigrated to the U.S. with his family sometime around the turn of the century. He studied architecture at Columbia University, while composing music for amateur shows at night.

He enjoyed performing his own songs, and often performing them in vaudeville. In 1911, he got his first Broadway show, writing the tunes for The Wife Hunters starring Lew Fields and Emma Carus. Then he wrote songs for the Shuberts The Passing Show and Broadway to Paris (1912), with Gertrude Hoffman, Louise Dresser and Irene Bordoni. Starting in 1913, his frequent songwriting partner became L. Wolfe Gilbert, with whom he wrote many hits. He continued to perform in vaudeville as a solo, as a duo with Gilbert, or as the producer of tab musicals with full choruses with names like Anatol’s Affairs of 1924, earning him the nickname “the Ziegfeld of Vaudeville”. Barbara Stanwyck and Mae Clarke were among those who performed in these choruses. As vaudeville began to fade, he continued to mount these revues in the big presentation houses that gradually replaced big time vaudeville house, presenting his shows as the opening acts for movies. During prohibition he also ran a speakeasy named Club Anatol, which also featured his floor shows.

To learn more about vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

L. Wolfe Gilbert

Today is the birthday of Tin Pan Alley songwriter L. Wolfe Gilbert (1886-1970). Born in Odessa, he moved to the U.S. in his youth and broke into vaudeville in the first decade of the twentieth century as part of a singing quartet. While performing in Coney Island he was spotted by English producer Albert Decourville and brought over to Britain to tour music halls as part of the Ragtime Octet. In 1912, he co-authored (with Lewis Muir) one of my favorite vaudeville era songs “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee”. This song was recorded and performed by nearly every singer of the era, and but Gilbert on top. In 1917 he played a week at the Palace with his then-partner Anatole Friedland. Other songs from Gilbert’s catalog include “Down Yonder”, “Ramona”, and “Jeannine, I Dream of Lillac Time”. His later decades were spent working in film, radio and television and he was a director of ASCAP from 1941 through 1944.

For more on vaudeville history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

Nat Vincent: A Trip to Hitland

Today is the birthday of songwriter Nathaniel Hawthorne “Nat” Vincent (1889-1979). In the early days, Vincent was a song plugger and department store music demonstrator. In vaudeville he worked in the teams Franklyn and Vincent, and Tracey and Vincent (which titled its act “A Trip to Hitland”.) Then he performed on radio and on records with Fred Howard and His Happy Chappies. Songs that Vincent wrote or co-wrote include “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”, “When the Bloom is on the Sage”, “Pucker Up and Whistle” and dozens of others.

Here’s Burr and Campbell’s 1919 version of “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”.

To learn more about vaudeville consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Melville Morris: Komposer of “The Kangaroo Hop”

Today is the birthday of Melville Morris (1888-1987). Morris started out as a song demonstrator for tin pan alley publishing firms, and then broke into vaudeville, performing solo, and also accompanying popular singers. He played for Lillian Lorraine at Hammerstein’s in 1911 and 1912, for example. He wrote a number of popular tunes in teens and twenties, the most popular of which was “The Kangaroo Hop” with Gus Kahn (1915), which apparently is NOT the same novelty tune use by Gene Wilder in Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother. For many years he worked for the Paul Whiteman organization in various capacities through the 1920s. He performed with his own groups through the Depression and then retired. He also wrote songs for some old school burlesque revues, including The Big Fun Show for Sliding Billy Watson in 1922 and Bubble, Bubble for Billy K. Wells. 

To learn more about vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Cliff Friend: The Vaudeville Singer’s Friend

Today is the birthday of Cliff Friend (1893-1974). A second generation musician, Friend studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before being sidelined for several years with TB. He went into vaudeville (also appearing in English music hall), eventually becoming the accompanist for Harry Richman. This led to relationships and collaborations with the likes of Al Jolson, Buddy De Sylva, Billy Rose, Lew Brown and Irving Caesar. In partnership with others he co-wrote a number of important Tin Pan Alley songs, the most lasting of which proved to be “Lovesick Blues”, thanks to the hit country record Hank Williams had with it over 25 years after it was written. Others included “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” (one of the themes for Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons), “Then I’ll Be Happy”, and his very first one in 1923, “You Tell Her I Stutter”.

To find out more about vaudeville past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc