Hide Article Text (OCR)
STAR CAST APPEARS BEFORE A ALL STAR ENATE COMMITTEE: Farious Figures: of Broadway Pread for Protection. of Copyrighted Compositions Against Use on Radio. WASHINGTON BUREAU THE KANSAS CITY STAR (610 ALBEE BUILDING By @ Staff Correspondent.) Wasimnotox, April 17.— Broadway came to Pennsylvania avenue today. It came without false whiskers, without makeup and without stage props to fight for an intangible commodity, car ried on the thin air, America’s kings of jazz, responsible, for the dubbing of Broadway, with its multitude of cabareta and dance halls, “run Pan Alley,” America’s writers of sacred music, America’s writers of war songs and great marches, America’s writers of drinking songs, appeared in an all-star cast—but not on the stage of a theater. . Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Irving Berlin, Charles K. Harris and a score of other famous creators of music made a strange debut today in a com mittee room of the white marble sen ate office building across the street from the capitol. They came to oppose a bill introduced in the senate by Sen ator ©. C. Dill of Washington, which would allow broadcasters to use their copyrighted compositions without pay ment, SONG WRITERS PROFITS STAVR. DROPPED. They protested their “brain children” often are “strangled at birth” by the in cessant broadcasting by stations throughout the United States and, as a result the American public grows so tired of “song hits’ before they can be captualized they will neither buy sheet music nor phonograph records. As a result, go the senate committee on pat ents was advised, song-writing has dropped 60 per cent in value in the last year. As a sort of a curtain raised to the “spoken drama or “tragedy” presented at Capitol Hill today, the same artists who came here to plead their cases be fore congress appeared in the roles which made them famous at the National Press Club... In the realm of song and dance, they responded to the demands of the club members for, the pieces that made them famous. DORROW BASS-VIOL FOR HERBERT, Victor Herbert had no bass-viol. They sent down to a vaudeville theater and borrowed one from the orchestra with the understanding it must be returned in twenty minutes or the regular show would not proceed.Mr. Herbert sat through the musical evening, his big, round face wearing a continual smile at Gene Buck; at ‘twelve: Foll 8 shows, “intredicited ag “a youngste tke: out a! ‘meager music.” — * When Irving Berlin sang his new song, “Lazy,” the newspaper men wait ed until the moment he finished to yell for his first great hit, “Alexander's Rag-Time Band. When Charles K. Harris, whose songs have been great successes for three ‘decades or more, appeared there, were insistant shouts for the plece played’and sung by everyone at the time of the world’s fair in Chi cago in 1898—“After the Ball.” The crowd joined in the retrain, and as Harris, still youthful in appearance, as a medley of old-time favorites, such Just Break the News’ to Mother” aka “Always in the Way,” there was many an eye in which a tear glistened. Harry Von Tilzer, writer of thirteen song hits in one year, sang his “Down, Down, Down, Where the Wurzburger Flows.” Irving Caesar sang some of his successes from Greenwich Village. Follies; Con’ Conrad ‘played and sang a medley including “Mamma Love Papa,” and “Margie; Walter Donald son, “Caroling in the Morning! Ray mond Hubbell, “Poor Butterfly” and, “Just My Style”; . Olie Speaks, “On the Road to Mandalay. Others who were introduced by Gene Mick were William Jerome, author of “Bedelia”, Jerome Kern, author of Fred Stone's present...musical show and “Sally; Silvia’ Hein, “When Dreams Come True”: and* “All Dressed Up;” Marty B. Smith, author of 165 comic operas: Otto ‘Harbach, “Going Up and “Kid Boots, ”: he hag been’ try hic e xistence by writing EACH SHOWED BAQ OF TRICKS It was a sort‘of an old home week for the.r authors,.. and each ‘one showed his “bag of tricks’ or appeared as one of the “models in the wax works, Gene “Buck* expressed it, just as if he relished it::Today most of the artists remained off-stage,while their case was pleaded for them before the senate com mritten by’ representatives of the Americ an Society’ of Composers, Authors and Producers,’ “First.. the? ‘cabaret. tried to steal ‘our: property; then: “the . motion — picture. at tempted. it;and. now the fadto.is.trying it,” ward ; Buck ‘in ‘arguing. against the Dill b. “We insiat the people who take out, property, and. ‘derive: revenue from ‘it must pay. The man who gives a eee ithe, world, through.’ ‘a book;: BONE, in dhe + many didn . Concerning:the speewadise lane. made nine = ‘there .were a Y “e xposers and on w hile there “Mr Herbert his antagonists in debate, and dismissed him with that remark. Mr. Songa said that was one of the funny things that had happened in the house,and said there might not have been any ‘humor in congress had it not been for the song writers. ‘Augustus Thomas, who followed Mr. Ousa, said he remembered the ex change, because he was a page boy in the house of representatives the day it occurred. He said “Sunset? Cox ”was the man Mr. Butler addressed. E. C. Mills, as chairman of the execu tive committee of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Producers, said while radio is “the greatest bene faction science has given to man kind,” it is the, “unfair competitor of every ‘other fo of entertainment.” He said the radio is keeping 10 million people home in the evening and giving them free entertainment. Mr. Mills said the authors as well as the broad casters looked forward to the time when a charge could be made to the people 1 Getting the service, RADIO RUNED “I LOVE you,” “I Love You,” said Mills, looking at Senator Dill. “Now senator,” he added, “there is nothing personal in that. That 's the name of a song that should have been a great money maker to its author. But it was strangled at birth by the radio, .I heard it eleven times over the radio In one night. The song was ex hausted so far as I was concerned right then. Certainly no one would buy it after hearing it often. “It used to be a song hit meant the sale of 3 million or 4 million copies of the sheet music but now if we sell 700, 000 we think we have made a great suc cess,
Newspaper Details
Kansas City Times
Kansas City, Missouri, US
Fri, Apr 18, 1924
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Rilee M.
USA 02 Feb 2026
Other Publications Near Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce
Kansas City Journal
Kansas City Evening Star
Kansas City Times
Kansas City Weekly Kansas City Star
