In the years 1906 to 1908, the United States was quiet, the people for the most part contented. Musically, we were attraced to good show songs, as well as popular singers on the vaudeville stage. The piano buisness was an important industry, and its manufacturers sold their products by the thousands. Department stores had special sheet music departments with hundreds of songs displayed for the interested customer. And music fans had their favorites, such as the ones featured here. |
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Brothers Harry and Albert Von Tilzer were both prolific composers and prominent song publishers in their own right. In 1906 Harry wrote When the Flowers Bloom in Spring-Time. In 1908 Albert joined forces with Jack Norworth to write the baseball classic Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In fact, Von Tilzer never witnessed a baseball game until twenty years after the song was written.
| Charles Zimmerman, the U. S. Naval Academy’s bandmaster, and Alfred H. Niles, a member of the Academy’s class of 1907, wrote the official United States Naval song, Anchors Aweigh, first sung in 1906 by the members of the Academy as they marched onto the field at the Army-Navy football game that fall.
|  |  |  | | | George M. Cohan wrote his first song at age 16, and by his twenties he was one of the great stars of the American stage. From 1900 on, George was writing musical shows, including all the lyrics and music, and was a singing, dancing comedian with an enormous following. His fans especially remember his World War I hit Over There, and his earlier Harrigan, which appeared in the play Fifty Miles From Boston. | Victor Herbert, in addition to being a prolific and engaging composer, was first cellist of the Stuttgart Court Opera and the Metropolitan Opera Company. His first operetta appeared in 1894, and in 1908 his loveliest numbers included Love Is Like a Cigarette, and “Ask Her While the Band Is Playing” both from the musical play Algeria. | | The Tour continues on the next page | Return to Musical Tours | |
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