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JOHN M’CORMCK'SBy JOE TOYEJohn McCormack is the greatest individual money-maker in the musicworld today{|WL’^i^\^p4(VBjvery time he sings he gets at least$2500. gfimgNEvery times he makes a talking-machine record he collects an equal amount.In addition to this Mr. McCormack gets tremendous royalties on the sales of his records.John McCormack sings more, earns more, spends more and saves more, it is said, than any past living musician.His total income this year is esti-mated to have been over $300,000.McCormack sings more often in concert than Caruso does in opera. Allowing for Caruso's private and European annearances. McCormack’s inappearances,come even then exceeds that of thegroat Italian tenor.The paid attendance figures at ‘McCormack's recitals during the past two seasons in New York, Boston anu Chicago exceed the combined attendance figures of any other half-dozen vocalists during the same period.Fifty concerts in Australia show a total attendance of 135,000 people In four cities in four months.McCormack drew close to $60,000 _12 concerts in New York alone. He has packed the Hippodrome to the tune of close to $10,000 a performance.An audience in San Francisco's 10,000-capacity auditorium paid $13,258 to hear McCormack sing.Up In Canada they flock to McCormack, He did 18000 business there, In Montreal. In New Haven he draws $4000 and the same in St. Paur.He fills Symphony Hall every time he comes to Boston and “turns them away” always. He recently sang four concerts In one week at Symphony Hall. It was the same story every time. Then he came back a few weeks later and sold out again, and still th«-demand exceeded the supply of seats.Six years ago McCormack was getting $800 a week as a member of the Chicago Opera Company. They let the contract run out. It costs Chicago about $5000 a night to hear him sing now, and he sings there when he feelslike ItMcCormack filled the New York Hip podrome twice In three weeks.Money Just pours toward him from ell corners of tie world. Now the movies want him. For threo or four years McCormack has been receiving motion-ptcture offers. One man was particu-44larly insistent.“I sat down and wrote a telegram to the company, naming what T thought to be an exorbitant sum—$300,000 for six weeks,- said McCormack. “My price was accepted. Now, I don’t know what I'll do. I don’t think I'd care for myself on the screen.”For royalties on hist records McCormack received recently a check for $76.-000, and that covered only a comparatively brief period.Within 24 hours of the announcement of the making of McCormack’s “Tipperary” record orders were received from phonograph dealers which gave McCormack in royalties between $6000i* and 17000.Last year McCormack received $134,000In royalties on his rocords.this year will exceed that figureCaruso gets 15 per cent royiI Hear You Gatlin* Me,” long ago put on the phonograph bv McCormack, has obtained the biggest sale of all his records. The first two verses, with themusic, are published by the Post by permission of Boosey Co. of New York, publishers and owners of the copyright. — — -- _ _ ■ ———— - ■----— *’ ■wan jmksvc . -a* • a*TEitWTYTrade Mark;GOWNS. SUITS. DRESSES$6.00 to $50.00WM ** w% - 4 ww (T* A 1vv* vand BrassieresL. SANDERSBoston's Original Maternity Shop14!) TBEMONT ST.LawrenceBOOKLETrecords. McCormack’s 10 per cent brings him more money than Caruso’sU per cent.McCormack’s “Sunshine of Your Smile” In one month brought in $120,000 cash, which meant $12,000 royalty for th* tenor in one month.“I Hear You Calling Me was McCormack's very first record. And It Is today his biggest seller. It is the greatest selling record In any country, at any time. More than a million of McCormack’s records have been sold in this country alone during the past year. But McCormack has not been greedy. He has never allowed his records to be sold for over a maximumHis sales I price of f 1.80.McCormack Is well liked at the biglaboratory of the talking machine company with which he is under contract—until 1938, by the way. He is the firm’s greatest individual asset.I asked McCormack to tell me aboutJ making records. v“When a song has to bo reproduced11 for the record machine the singerstands as close as possible to a largereceiving horn, with an orchestragrouped near-by,” said the tenor.“The receiving horn stands out froma large screen, behind which standworkmen guiding a complex mechanism which they won’t tell anything about, because it n» a rnmattn. vi vl*© trade, and each company has its own particular method. The singer doesn’t see what is being done, at all.“The voice is recorded on a wax disc. Metal moulds are made from this waxoriginal and the records are pressedout from these moulds. Double-disc records are made by pressing the composition which makes the records between two moulds.Records used to be made of rubber,but a less expensive and more durable a great Impression on the novelist and composition has been found, tnciden- when he had heard a few ^c mnn-tally a 10-inch record in ’stamped out” bers rendered he was quite unable tounder 100 tons pressure, a 12-inch under keeh his feelings to himself. Aft considerably more. I concert the novelist took out one of4-wTho authors of The Years of Discretion,” a successful play produced by David Eelasco a. few years ago, introduced a most unique piece of “business” to hold the attention of the audience for 4 1-2 minutes during two Interesting love scenes taking place at the same time in a darkened room.In tho play, one of the couples starts a phonograph. The song used was Ah, Moon of My Delight.” from “In a Persian Garden,” sung by John McCormack. iMr. Belasco, in answer to an inquiry as to how he came to select this particular record, said that he felt It was next to impossible for any voice to break Into ft play and hold the audience 4 1-2 minutes, so It was vital to get a good record of a voice that had the human note in it. He spent three hours In the record shops and, without knowing the voice, selected this record of John McCormack. Mr. Beiasco declaredthat it is the only voice he has everhoard with a wonderful, sympathetic, human note that could hold an audience, even when they were expecting something else. Mr. Belasco is ono ofhis cards, on which he wrote a few words, arid then sent it, up to the artist. The message on the card read as fol-* * $ X * 9 4 S e r,ifi t\ iXI UWIA a iowwv tu uv**tnow, though he had never heard himbefore the selection of this record forhis play. / _Hall Caine, tho famous novelist, is one of the greatest admirers of JohnMcCormack.It was about three years ago that the author of The Christian first heard the great tenor. It was on theocaslon of McCormack’s first visit to Ostend. McCorlhack’s first song madslows:This has been ono of the de-N lightful treats of my life. Allow me to thank you for and compliment you on the most beautiful and human singing I have ever listened to.”“A w*80 man once wrote a long article ior a paper, using all sorts of technical terms no one could understand, to explain what he called my amazing popularity,” said McCormack.“The mystery can be explained In a few words, and simple words at that,” he continued. I have a heart; and when I put my heart Into my voice it goes out to other hearts. People like what they can understand; and they understand the emotional appeal better than the intellectual appeal.”Do you know John McCormack enjoys ragtime? He does—and he believes that everyone else vho tells the truth about It enjoys it when It is sung by Americana. And McCormack believes that none but an American can singmack, expresses something we all understand: it appeals to us with its liltMcCormack much prefers the concertstage to opera. He says that he dislikes to stick whiskers on his face and put on all the routine and prescribed costumes of the standard operas, walk on the stage and raise his hands with a silly gesture as he looks into the face of the prima donna—or the audience, as- * ew* W* CXIs more frequently the case witn operatic singers—and tell her. In a difficult aria, how much he loves her.”“I can’t help realizing how absurd it 1ST” he said. “I feel like laughing at myself and at the character I am playing.Once Mary Anderson said to me, ‘When you can stand perfectly still, and act, talk or sing, and convey what | you want to convey to an audience, you mav rest assured you are really acting.’ ”McCormack received a great, big check one day, and decided that tho event should be celebrated in the McCormack household. So he went to a very exclusive jeweller and purchased a $25,000 diamond necklace for Mrs, McCormack. The lady was to all appearances delighted with this wonderful gift. §he told her husband how beautiful It was, and what good taste and judgment he had shown in selecting It, and howmuch she appreciated his thoughtfulness.Mrs. McCormack wore the neoklaco at dinner that evening, and John told her how beautiful she looked In it..But in the morning the lady took the necklace, blarneyed the dealer Into taking It back, and back she came to Husband McCormack with a bank acoountfor $25,000.Some time, said Mrs. McCormack.referring to me ueciuace, out notnow.”t not |Next iveek Mr. Toye toill tell, in theconcluding article of this scries, of a frank and intimate talk with Mr. McCormack which followed Mr. Toye's asking Mr. McCormack, What about the stories that are told of your being a hard drinkerf
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