Tin Pan Alley Girl

Best known as the writer of the lyric for the popular Disney song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" as well as the American standard "Willow Weep for Me," Ann Ronell was also a translator and orchestrator for operatic works. This biography traces Ronell's life from her early days in Omaha, Nebraska, and recounts her marriage to producer Lester Cowan and her friendships with George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and the baritone John Charles Thomas. Includes more than 40 photographs, a chronology, family tree and film credits.

"Neither group, however, could foresee to what extent the war effort would be defined by advertisers and merchandisers. One advertiser described morale as "a lot of little things," and those little things included beer, chewing gum, tobacco, breakfast cereal - virtually every product on the American market. Selling merchandise was always the first priority of Tin Pan Alley, and the OWI never swayed them from this course."--BOOK JACKET.

"Mrs. Oscar Hammerstein, so the story goes, once overheard someone praise "Ol' Man River" as a "great Kern song." "I beg your pardon," she said, "But Jerome Kern did not write 'Ol' Man River.' Mr. Kern wrote dum dum dum da; my husband wrote ol' man river." It's easy to understand her frustration. While the years between World Wars I and II have long been hailed as the "golden age" of American popular song, it is the composers, not the lyricists, who always usually get top billing. "I love a Gershwin tune" too often means just that-the tune-even though George Gershwin wrote many unlovable tunes before he began working with his brother Ira in 1924. Few people realize that their favorite "Arlen" songs each had a different lyricist-Ted Koehler for "Stormy Weather," Yip Harburg for "Over the Rainbow," Johnny Mercer for "That Old Black Magic." Only Broadway or Hollywood buffs know which "Kern" songs get their wry touch from Dorothy Fields, who would flippantly rhyme "fellow" with "Jello," and which of Kern's sonorous melodies got even lusher from Otto Harbach, who preferred solemn rhymes like "truth" and "forsooth." Jazz critics sometimes pride themselves on ignoring the lyrics to Waller and Ellington "instrumentals," blithely consigning Andy Razaf or Don George to oblivion"--

For nearly a century, New York's famous Tin Pan Alley was the center of popular music publishing in this country. It was where songwriting became a profession, and songs were created-to-order for the biggest stars. This is the first resource tool that identifies the major publishers, composers, lyricists, singers, dances and jazz bands. It covers the entire history of Tin Pan alley, from its humble beginnings in the 1860s to its demise following world War II. Arranged in an A-Z format, each entry includes name, birth and death dates and a short biography and bibliography. Music teachers, students, professors, musicians, writers and fans will find this eminently useful, and even a bit addictive.

From Saginaw Valley to Tin Pan Alley documents the work of more than sixty popular songwriters who hailed from Saginaw, and provides background information and anecdotes about the most famous songwriters and their most famous songs. Among the greatest of the Saginaw songwriters were Charles K. Harris ("After the Ball'), Dan Russo ("Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goo'Bye!"), Gerald Marks ("All of Me"), Ange Lorenzo ("Sleepy Time Gal"), Isham Jones ("It Had to Be You"), and Ben Weisman ("Paper Roses", "Honey in the Horn"). More than seventy sheet music covers dating from between 1890 and 1955 are interposed with the narrative, adding to the book's charm and historic value.

The author looks at the history of Tin Pan Alley, the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated popular music in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

The first-ever book to tell the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that Publishers Weekly calls "an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked." From the composers who pounded the pavement selling their music in Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the twentieth century; to the lyricists who broke new ground writing shows during the Great Depression; to the book writers who penned protest musicals fighting for social justice during the 1970s; to those who are revitalizing the landscape of American theatre today, Women Writing Musicals tells the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals. Jennifer Ashley Tepper's definitive book covers prolific and celebrated Broadway writers like Betty Comden and Jeanine Tesori, women who have written musicals but gained fame elsewhere like Dolly Parton and Sara Bareilles, and dramatists you’ve never heard of—but definitely should have. Among the gems shared here are the stories of Clara Driscoll, who saved the Alamo and also wrote a Broadway musical; Micki Grant, whose mega-hit musical about the Black experience made her the first woman to write book, music, and lyrics for a Broadway show; María Grever, who made her Broadway debut at age 56 and who was the first Mexican female composer to achieve international success; and the first all-female writing team for a Broadway musical, in 1922: Annelu Burns, Anna Wynne O’Ryan, Madelyn Sheppard, and Helen S. Woodruff. This book is a treasure trove for theatre-loving readers that Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer Kristin Chenoweth praises as "a wonderful resource for actors, and an important read for anyone interested in theatre."

This first complete history of a century of striptease is filled with rare photographs and period illustrations.

When Lady in the Dark opened on January 23, 1941, its many firsts immediately distinguished it as a new and unusual work. The curious directive to playwright Moss Hart to complete a play about psychoanalysis came from his own Freudian psychiatrist. For the first time since his brother George's death, Ira Gershwin returned to writing lyrics for the theater. And for emigre composer Kurt Weill, it was a crack at an opulent first-class production. Together Hart, Gershwin, and Weill (with a little help from the psychiatrist) produced one of the most innovative works in Broadway history. Though Lady in the Dark was a smash-hit, it has never enjoyed a Broadway revival, and a certain mystique has grown up around its legendary original production. In this ground-breaking biography, bruce mcclung pieces together the musical's life story from sketches and drafts, production scripts, correspondence, photographs, costume and set designs, and thousands of clippings from the star's personal scrapbooks. He has interviewed eleven members of the original company to provide a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the backstage story.

For nearly a century, New York's famous "Tin Pan Alley" was the center of popular music publishing in this country. It was where songwriting became a profession, and songs were made-to-order for the biggest stars. Selling popular music to a mass audience from coast-to-coast involved the greatest entertainment media of the day, from minstrelsy to Broadway, to vaudeville, dance palaces, radio, and motion pictures. Successful songwriting became an art, with a host of men and women becoming famous by writing famous songs.