Bahama Mama

Say, remember that post I did on the composer, L. Gilbert Wolfe?

I had some beautiful sheet music covers that came from songs he did, and I researched a little bit of his history.  Well, I think I am sensing a pattern here, because I fell in love with a sheet music cover I recently bought, and who do you think the composer is but Mr. Wolfe again.

It seems like some of my favorite sheet music artwork ends up being on his songs.  This one is slightly different in style than the last one I wrote about, but there is something about the girl that just captivates me. 

 

Usually there is little to no surviving information on the artists who illustrated vintage sheet music covers (at least from the research I've done), so imagine my surprise when I looked up the cover artist for Bahama Mama and found something!

This article has a fantastic biography of the artist Frederick S. Manning that I highly recommend checking out.  I also found this list of his cover artwork, which confirmed that I have many of his pieces, and love all of them!

I have several pieces of jewelry in the works from this sheet music, and as soon as they are done I'll update this with pictures so you can see what I came up with.

When I Dream of Old Erin

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day I wanted to share this lovely sheet music cover with you!

"When I Dream of Old Erin (I'm Dreaming of You), 1912

Words by Marvin Lee

Music by Leo Friedman

The cover is in good enough shape that I didn't want to do anything with it, but I did use the music inside to make a new batch of necklaces....check them out below!

1. "Sweet" necklace with bow

2. Large "shamrock" necklace

3. Silver "dreaming" necklace

4. Simple bronze "you" necklace

5. "I dream" charm necklace

Listen to the song here!

 

How you can help me create something special and preserve the past

Do you want to preserve a little piece of history?

Do you want to help me create something special?

Do you want to clean out the attic?


If you answered "yes" to any of these questions- read on!

I love creating art and jewelry from old sheet music. But I also love the story behind each piece and knowing about its owners before me. And here's where you come in....

I've noticed that the more people I talk to about what I do, the more they want to be involved in it. Countless people have approached me at shows and told me about how much old sheet music they have sitting in their attic that they just don't know what to do with. Once they saw what can be done with their old sheet music, customers started asking if they could send me theirs!


It's win-win. You get to unload something that maybe you had previously felt bad about throwing away or didn't know what to do with. You also get to know that your old sheet music is going to start a new life as a piece of art or jewelry, and get a loving home. And I love it because I get to know more about where my pieces came from and make connections with some awesome people.

I pay the shipping, you just drop it in the mail! Email me at tessello (@) gmail.com and we can chat about the details!

They're Hereeee........

I'm so excited to share the newest additions to my shop with you....


Sterling silver drop earrings featuring sheet music under glass!





These are super dainty, easy to wear, high quality earrings that are SO romantic and pretty! Since they are sterling silver they are ideal for people with skin sensitivities. I've been test driving a pair for two weeks (they're so comfy) and I've been getting tons of compliments on them.

If you love pretty and romantic high quality jewelry, I hope you will check them out!

Cross the Great Divide

Today we are going to be playing a little bit more of music/history detectives!

I found this piece of sheet music in an old box at the antique store (surprise surprise), and was really taken with the epic artwork and pristine condition of the piece.

In the blue inset there are two people, a man and a woman. It's very common for sheet music of t his time to feature the photograph or likeness of popular performers of the day who would sing the music. In this case I was intrigued by the duo pictured, as they have different last names. Were they a married couple? Was one a singer and the other an instrumentalist?

It seems that Horace and Rene preformed a prodigious amount of songs together, though there is little in the way of biographical information online for either of them. I did find a digitized copy of a book called "Who's who in music and drama: an encyclopedia of notable men and women in music and the drama" from 1914. It says that Horace Wright was born in England and came to the US at the age of 4. He began his career as a boy soprano in church choirs and quartets. He broke into Vaudeville shortly thereafter and married Rene Dietrich in 1909. They preformed widely together in Vaudeville acts.

Besides that I wasn't able to find out much about them! Surprising given how many songs they did together...

So, this is kind of awesome. There is an actual recording of Wright and Dietrich singing together on YouTube. It's a different song but it's pretty interesting to be able to hear their voices! Warning: it gets a little shrill, so adjust your speakers accordingly ;)




Because this sheet music is in such lovely condition (I just don't have the heart to cut it), I'm listing it for sale in my shop, check it out if you are looking for something different and pretty to frame!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/78473542/vintage-sheet-music-cross-the-great

No more putting it off...something new!

So I know I’ve been starting a lot of blog posts recently with “It’s been a while, so sorry…” but if you will bear with me just once more....

It’s been a while, so sorry I haven’t been updating and responding to comments recently! It seems like I always have a million excuses when it comes to my blog. Here are some recent favorites:

-It’s been really hot out, making me not want to sit down and write for fear my brain will melt

-My laptop lost its battle against its dying battery and fraying powercord.

-I expertly sliced my finger while cutting a pepper, and the stiches make it uncomfortable to type for long

-I can never think of anything to write!

Annnnnd shortly after I finally sat down to write this post the power went out and ate it!

Ok, no more excuses. I have been working on something that I’m pretty excited about and want
to share.

So, I have a lot of fun cutting up old sheet music (have you noticed?) and collaging it together to make new pieces of art. I like using the images and words in unexpected ways that the original artists never would have. But it can sometimes be a little limiting to only work with what has already been created; do you know what I mean? A little while ago I was staring a blank, wood plaque I bought trying to visualize what I would do with it.

Ok...have you ever seen Mystery Science Theater 3000? I know this is so random, but you know on the
show how they show the movie and then they have the character’s silhouettes sitting in the theater seats superimposed over it? Well that gave me an idea.

Ok…one more tangent! Last one, I promise! I have been getting really interested in the Vaudeville era and culture. I love the sheet music covers that show all the Vaudeville stars and the advertisements for the shows. So I put together those two things, my blank wood plaque, and a pinch of Regretsy (hopefully not really though?), and got this…



I’ve already yapped a lot so let me quickly explain what
you’re looking at.

I took this photograph of the Keith-Albee Theatre in Cincinnati and traced it in pencil on my
plaque. Then I filled it in with sheet music. Even the solid colors and white are from sheet music. I wanted to create something totally new. I wanted to give a new kind of life to every little piece of sheet music that’s been forgotten. Most of all I wanted to pay homage to a much forgotten art form/ form of entertainment and the beautiful architecture the Vaudeville era. So what do you think? I am working on another one right now of the beautiful, old Orpheum Theater in Boston. While I think my first attempt came out pretty well, it’s still very much a rough draft of what I would like to do with these in the future!

Antique Adventures

Hello!! It seems like forever since I've posted and I honestly don't know why. The show last week was a bust (rain!) but still fun, and I've been working a new part time job lately. In fact, my new job is so crazy cool that I might just have to dedicate a blog post to it at some point. For now let's just say it involves princesses and sparkles. So between that, the constant weather shifts between extreme hot and cold, I've been feeling a little zombified lately.

Yesterday we decided to go to New Bedford, a whaling city about an hour south of us. I hadn't been there since I was little, and I'm doing a big show there next month so it was good to get down there. Plus, the biggest, most overwhelmingly amazing antique center EVER is there.

This antique mall (mega mall? Super store?) is 55,000 square feet of musty goodness. Yes, that number is correct!

There was so much to look at we didn't even know where to start. I'm pretty sure there is no way we even saw close to everything. Whenever we go antiquing I have several things on my radar I look for (otherwise I will just buy everything): Victorian fashion prints, cabinet cards and CDVs, sheet music, postcards, and cool original art. The Mister likes to look for pipes for his collection, and those teeny miniature Toby mugs from Occupied Japan. And of course we always drool over the furniture for our imaginary house someday.

The postcards in this place were amazing!! They were totally reasonably priced, and they were EVERYWHERE. I had to restrain myself and only pick out a few, but they will definitely be making an appearance in a new collage sheet in my shop soon. The other area that I scored big in was sheet music. This is dangerous because I can justify it as a business expense, so I tend to go nuts.



The gem of the trip has to be this sheet music, which not only features a picture (and to be honest, not the most flattering one) of Mary Pickford, but is actually ABOUT her. You probably know Mary, if nothing else, from the movie Chaplin. She was a huge star back in the day, and remains iconic today as an emblem of beauty. I can't wait to find something special to do with this one!

Much prettier than the illustration suggests

In addition to the Mary Pickford song, I found some of the prettiest, most romantic, over the top sheet music I have ever seen in my life on this trip. I am actually giddy thinking about possibilities. One of them is even mermaid themed...meremaids!

As always I would be totally interested if you have any suggestions for what you would like to see!

Are you a treasure hunter? Do you love thrifting, antiquing and flea markets? What are you usually on the hunt for?

Mabel Normand

This tattered piece of sheet music came from our trip up to the North Shore the other week...she was buried deep in a box of dusty music sitting under a window. As soon as I saw her sad eyes peeking up at me I knew she was coming home!
What I didn't realize was what a celebrity was hiding in that forgotten box of music. I googled the name "Harold Freeman" first (so I could save what I really wanted to know for last!) and came up with some other titles by him as well as a MySpace page for a 46 year-old gentleman living in Houston. Nothing exciting there.

When I did a search for Mable Normand, the name under the plaintive looking young lady on the cover, I was quite surprised.
Apparently I have been living under a rock, because Ms. Normand was nothing short of a phenomenal celebrity in her day. In fact, her career and life were so ground-breaking and interesting that she has been portrayed by the likes of Bernadette Peters and others in modern day plays and movies. Have you ever seen the movie Chaplin with Robert Downey Jr.? Mabel is actually in it, played by none other than Marissa Tomei. Did you know that she was the first actress to be filmed in an airplane? Or the first person credited with throwing a custard pie in that now famous theater gag?
But let's back up for a moment.

Photo credit: imdb.com

Mabel was born in New York to a poor family in 1892 (I also saw on source saying 1895). Her father was a Vaudeville performer, and by age 16 Mabel was modeling for artists and soon after appearing in films. She worked with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and was friends with the famous actress of the day Mary Pickford. She was so successful that she was able to start her own movie studio and production company. Her lustrous career was tainted by scandal, however, twice. In 1922, just moments after leaving his house, the director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death. Mabel's name appeared widely in newspapers linking her to the crime, though she claimed innocence and was never implicated in any wrong-doing. Then in 1924, Mabel's chauffeur used her pistol to shoot the millionaire Courtland S. Dines. Her name was again publicized in connection with the case. After these scandals as well as accusations of drug use Mabel's career began to decline, as did her health. She died in 1930 at the young age of 37 in a sanitarium.

Photo credit: wikipedia.org

Mabel appears on many sheet music covers, including songs featured in her movies. Needless to say, I'm completely amazed at the history behind the face on my sheet music cover. Aside from seeing Chaplin I never had heard of Mabel Normand before, but now I'm dying to know more about her.
Have you ever heard of this fascinating woman from early days of American cinema?

Pucker Up and Whistle

"Pucker Up and Whistle (Til the Clouds Roll By)" is another great piece of music I found on my last trip. It's in better condition than most of the pieces I buy for cutting, but everything was so cheap (the lady just gives me a bunch of this stuff sometimes) that I couldn't pass it up. I mean, look at that art on the front! So romantic!

There are a lot of names on this piece, and I really wanted to know some of the story behind them.

Let's start with Blanche Franklyn. One of the things I love about sheet music from this era, is that women were a huge part of the industry. In this case, Blanche was the lyrics. She was a vaudeville actress collaborated with Nat Vincent on other songs of the day. Here is a photo of her from the University of Washington library.

Blanche Franklyn

Besides that, I couldn't find a whole lot out there on Blanche. Mr. Vincent, on the other hand...
Nat Vincent was born Nathaniel Hawthorne Vincent (love it) on November 6, 1889. Nat was also in vaudeville, and you actually probably know one of his songs. Ever heard "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"? I bet you have! He also worked as a sheet music demonstrator in department stores, and was part of the radio recording group "The Happy Chappies". More info on Nat and his career can be found here.

Ok, so who is this winsome lady on the cover? It says "Introduced by Yvette Rugel". Well, yep, that is none other than Ms. Rugel. I really could not find a whole lot on Yvette either, which is a shame, because I would love to know more about some of these women. Apparently she was a vaudeville actress (no surprise there) during the last wave of vaudeville and also preformed on Broadway. She must have been a pretty big deal because her face appears on at least a few different pieces of music (which I am assuming she preformed as well). Here is a photo from her a little later in life it looks like.

So here is something kind of awesome...someone recorded "Pucker Up and Whistle" on piano with all the lyrics...enjoy!
Click here!

Are You From Heaven?

I got a nice big stack of sheet music the other week (that I absolutely can't wait to use) and I thought it would be interesting to do some detective work on some of the pieces and their composers.
This is one of my favorite pieces of art to come out of this new pile:

The song is "Are you from Heaven?" by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Anatol Friendland in 1917. Thanks to some serious sleuthing (ok Google, IMDB, and Wikipedia) I unearthed some information on Gilbert and Friendland.

Louis Wolfe Gilbert was born in Odessa (in what was then the Russian Empire) in 1886. He came to America when he was a young man and became a popular songwriter. In fact, he wrote the theme song to the hit TV show Hopalong Cassidy! His other hits included such gems as By Heck and Waiting for The Robert E. Lee (I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes out for these from now on). Gilbert also wrote the first motion picture theme song, Ramona. He died at the age of 83 in 1970.

Anatol Friedland was also born in the Russian Empire in St. Petersburg in 1881. He was kind of awesome. Friedland was a vaudeville pianist and owned his own nightclub. He died in 1938 at the age of 57. He and Gilbert collaborated on many songs, and actually one of his most popular songs was one called "My Little Dream Girl". I recognized that name right away because I have used the illustration from it on a project before!

A tray I made with the cover of "My Little Dream Girl". Available in my Etsy shop

Gilbert and Friedland had their own publishing company, appropriately named Gilbert and Friedland Music Publishers. The cover for "Are you from Heaven?" touts the men as "Songland's favorite composers", Songland being the name of a production label I believe. I've seen that name on a lot of pieces in my collection. Here's an ornament made with elements from a Songland advertisement:

Ornament with vintage sheet music advertising available in my Etsy shop

I love it when patterns appear and names become familiar within all the thousands of copies of old sheet music floating around out there.
And, just for kicks, here are the lyrics to "Are you from Heaven" (the music to which I desperately tried to find on YouTube but to no avail). If I can find a microphone I'll record myself playing it on violin so you can hear the melody...

I hold your little photography Because you are not here;
I sit and wonder 'bout you, little dear!
You're just as near perfection as most anyone could be,
My dream girl, Won't you tell me:

Are you from Heaven? My glad heart sings, Are you an angel?
Where are your wings? Who were you sent for? Who were you meant for?
I'll tell you, I'll tell you, For me a-lone! Your smile is sunshine,
Your tears are dew, Your eyes are starlight, So pure and true.
Your godly splendor, Your soul so tender, Are you from Heave? Please tell me, do!

They must have sent you down to hear To light my weary way, To
make my darkest hour bright as day. My life was just an empty dream till
you came here below. My dream girl, I want to know...

Oh my gosh, ROMANTIC!!
So, now I just need to decide how I'm going to use this music. Keep the entire cover in tact? Cut out the beautiful lady and use her in something? What do you think?