[78-L] Autographs

[Michael Biel]

From: Jeff Sultanof <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
> Some years ago when it was discovered that the Warner Bros.
> Secaucus, NJ warehouse had hundreds of pages of Kern, Gershwin,
> Porter and many other manuscripts (including orchestrations
> from the Princess Theatre shows)

For decades it was opined that the orchestral parts and scores from
dozens of important shows were missing and had to be re-created for the
many revivals that were being undertaken.  Martin Williams was one of
those who suggested that contemporary recordings that included
performers and band leaders from the shows might be the best source to
work from in the absence of true Original Cast albums.  This was part of
the reasoning behind the series of LPs he did for Smithsonian.  Some of
these were very controversial because he sometimes edited recordings
such as removing a refrain singer who had not been in the cast from of a
recording by the bandleader who was.  He defended himself at an ARSC
presentation reiterating his pronouncement that scholars could study
these records and devise the missing scores from them.  The very next
year Artis Woodehouse fell victim to this theory by unknowingly using
his edited version of a Gershwin piano solo of "The Man I Love" in her
detailed analysis of Gershwin's piano style--the very thing I had warned
him about.  

> One day a WB executive (whose name I will not reveal) came to the NY
> office with piles of checks that he showed us. Imagine hundreds of
> checks dating from 1921-22 made out to Jerome Kern, George Gershwin
> and Victor Herbert and which had been endorsed by these men. My boss
> and I were in near shock at the sheer importance of this find, as well
> as the dollar value these handfuls of checks were worth on the open market.
> P.S. - I never did find out what happened to them, and I don't ever
> remember hearing that they were donated to the Library of Congress
> along with most of the other manuscripts.

Back in the mid-70s Columbia phonograph collector and expert Howard
Hazelcorn showed me a stack of a hundred or two of canceled checks from
an Edison subsidiary company that were all beautifully signed by T.A.
Edison himself in the classic style you see on all his records and
machines.  He gave me my pick from the pile, and he eventually sold them
all at a price that we would now consider a wonderful bargain --
something like $25 or 3 for $50, but I don't remember exactly.  I have
mine framed with a first day cover of the 1947 Edison stamp signed by
Mina Edison.  

> Someday when I am old, I will write about my take on the "Secaucus
> find." Too many people still alive (although one of the dramatis
> personae, John McGlinn, died not long ago).  Jeff Sultanof

I would have thought that all the publicity at the time would have
precluded any nefarious doings like you are hinting at.  But write it
NOW and put it in a safe deposit box with a note that it go to the D.A.
in case of your mysterious demise!  You REALLY have us intrigued.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com