[78-L] Autographs

[Jeff Sultanof]

Dr. Biel,

I promise that I will put down some things in a couple of days concerning
this subject. I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of this, but I
saw some things firsthand that really upset me. The good news is that the
music is safe and is either at the Library of Congress or Yale (Cole
Porter), thanks primarily to Robert Kimball and Elizabeth Aumann. I will
also say that I still remember holding scores in Frank Saddler's handwriting
with notes attached written by Jerome Kern ca.1917. Imagine holding the
original manuscript of the Overture for Showboat, and a 1921 orchestration
by Maurice DePackh of a Gershwin song for some show that closed after a few
performances.

Jeff Sultanof

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:03 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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