[78-L] Oldtimers query (Sanderson)

[David Sanderson]

On 4/5/2019 12:11 PM, Donna Halper wrote:
> 
> For David Sanderson (who was wonderful to me, and gave me a Grey Gull
> 78 for my collection), the earliest email I have for you is on 4
> January Ron Leggitt wrote:
> 
>> While searching through the Ford Motor Company Archives last month
>> I came across the original copy of what I thought was a very
>> strange letter. It was so strange that I just had to make a
>> photocopy of it.
>> 
>> This letter dated October 27, 1931, was to Henry Ford from a Mr.
>> Seth Parker. The letterhead states - "NBC ARTISTS SERVICE of the
>> NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY, Inc., 711 Fifth Avenue, New York,
>> George Engles, Managing Director."
>> 
>> The typewitten letter in part states - "Dear Mr. Ford: Being the 
>> employer of the Seth Parker cast, it has been called to my
>> attention that you are an excellent jew's harp player.  Jew's harp
>> players are at a premium in the country today due to the business
>> depression making so many of them cast aside the jew's harp for the
>> harmonica. [new paragraph] We are badly in need of an A-1 jew's
>> harpist. It will be possible to pay you $60 a week, plus railroad
>> fare, you of course to pay the room and board and tips. [new
>> paragraph] Also the cast is very desirous of having Mrs. Ford along
>> to back up the singing. As you would be a prominent member of the
>> cast and of course would like to have Mrs. Ford along, we could pay
>> her expenses, plus railroad fare and tips. [new paragraph] This is
>> a very serious offer, Mr. Ford, and I hope it comes at a time when
>> you can use the money to good advantage.  If you happen to be a
>> little up against it, we could advance a little for you to meet us
>> while enroute. [new paragraph] Sincerely hoping that in the very
>> near future we may offer to the public a jew's harp solo. I remain
>> very cordially (signature) Seth Parker"
>> 
>> At the time that Henry Ford received this letter he had been a 
>> billionaire for several years.

What a wonderful compliment, Donna; thank you. It emphasizes once again
the value of these forums, and the value of making space for intelligent
discussion without corporate intrusion.

I'm somewhat smarter now than I was then, and can confirm that Henry
Ford did indeed play the jew's harp, carried it with him in a wooden
case he had made for it, part of the contents of his pockets when he
died. He would have wished to play the fiddle, I think, but it just
never worked out. He got so he could sit in a bit for standard tunes,
even hired a teacher for a while, at least according to a film clip
that's around. But dancing was his strength, and he was determined to
spread the terpsichorean gospel. He and his senior staff would go out
for lunch, then come back to Ford's dance hall, where they would undergo
a daily dose of dance instruction, men partnered with men as required, a
fringe requirement not a fringe benefit.

Ford grew up in rural Michigan going to local dances. He loved dancing
and the music that went with it; he and Mrs. Ford were very good dancers
indeed. His interest was reawakened in 1923, when he met a Michigan
dance fiddler named Jasper Bisbee on one of his elaborate "camping
trips" with friends. The contact with Bisbee sparked one of the Ford
projects, which started with Bisbee and Ford's memories and quickly grew
into a full-scale operation to revive old time dancing in the United
States. So Ford hired an orchestra, and went to Boston to hire Benjamin
Lovett as dancing master. Lovett moved to Dearborn, stayed 20 years or
so, and was responsible for teaching and training, and some recording.
The Ford Orchestra recorded for Victor and Edison, made a custom set of
78s with a "Ford Engineering Lab" label, and played on radio for about
15 years.

Ford's revival had a real effect on the teaching of traditional dancing
in the schools and colleges, although a lot had already gone on before
WWI under Elizabeth Burchenal's leadership, including a set of dance
recordings she produced with the Victor orchestra between about 1915 and
1925 (also connects with the Victor Schoolhouse player).

"Seth Parker", now, was Philips Lord, from Jonesport, Maine. He had a
weekly radio show, "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's," which featured
mostly singing, with a group of performers trying with varying success
to speak in Maine dialect. It was popular, spawned a film "Way Down
Home", an early Bette Davis vehicle, and eventually included a world
tour on a schooner, with location broadcasts. Lord ended up in the 1940s
as the creator/producer of "Gang Busters".

The letter is authentic, but pretty clearly a joke. And by 1931 Ford was
already heading off in other directions, likely towards the Soybean
Project of the late 1930s.

Going back to that period, I ended up hooked on Mellie Dunham, the
fiddler Ford invited to Dearborn in late 1925, thereby creating a
sensation that made Mellie one of the most famous people in the country.
Mellie was local, from Norway, Maine, the next town here. I got to know
one of the last of Dunham's 9 grandchildren, a remarkable musician then
in her 80's. This ended up with a Dunham sesquicentennial in 2003, had a
dance, got a gubernatorial proclamation for Mellie Dunham Day, and made
something of a splash. The more permanent result is the Dunham biography
I researched and wrote, which got around some in old time country music
circles, available for reading on my Web site if anyone wants a look (
http://www.dwsanderson.me/dunham_biography/dunham_biography.pdf ).

Turns out to be quite a story. Here's a 72-year-old farmer and snowshoe
maker (friends with Robert Peary, Dunham made the snowshoes for Peary's
Polar expedition), plain dance fiddler, almost instantaneously exploded
into national fame - when Mellie and his wife left Norway for Dearborn,
they were seen off by the Governor of Maine, schools were closed, they
had a parade, and the national newsreel cameras were there. The New York
Times featured a third-page photo of Mellie walking down Main Street in
Norway.

When they left Dearborn they stopped in New York, where between
sightseeing expeditions Mellie cut a deal with Carl Fischer for a book
of fiddle tunes and sheet music for his waltz "Rippling Waves", then
signed a contract with Keith Vaudeville for a tour of the Northeast and
Midwest. Keith took them to Boston, where they concocted a 20-minute act
(to strict vaudeville time limits) with a group of dancers. Let me try 
your patience with bit of by bio with a first-person description of the 
Dunham opening in Boston:

> The result of those few days of hard work in Boston was described by
> a Norway summer resident who saw Mellie’s first show. This is one of
> the first of the remarkable eyewitness descriptions of the shows, 
> written back to Norway and printed in the Norway Advertiser. We
> retain the original punctuation: “Frank Newhall of Saugus, Mass., was
> interested in the Dunhams having been coming to Norway for the past
> fifteen years and wrote the following to Miss Edith M. Smith of the
> James Smith Shoe Store: ‘Well, Mrs. Newhall and I saw Mellie Dunham
> and Mrs. Dunham at Keith’s Theatre, Boston, this p. m., (their first
> performance). Please let me describe to you as near as I can what
> took place. The theatre was packed to the doors but we had advance
> seats down near the front. When it came Mellie’s turn, they first 
> gave a moving picture statement as to who he is and where he has
> been, then the orchestra started to play (When you and I were young,
> Maggie) the curtain went up very slowly and showed the interior of a
> barn. A sign over the door said “Mellie’s Barn Dance,” while the
> orchestra was still playing Mr. and Mrs. Dunham came in through the
> door, arm in arm. The audience, well they just went wild. All the
> women cried and I must admit my heart was in my mouth (and so was
> everybody else in the same condition). They just acted natural. Not a
> bit stage struck or affected in any way. Here they were in a city
> that is jazz crazy representing the true old American stock and
> everybody in that audience knew it and welcomed them. Following
> Mellie and his wife through the door came six couples. Three couples
> were old timers and three couples much younger. They danced
> perfectly. Mrs. Dunham left the stage, Mellie stood at one side with
> his fiddle and tells the audience the first dance will be a Virginia
> Reel and the audience goes wild again. [Here Newhall lists the other
> numbers Mellie played:] ‘Henry Ford Feature Dance. ‘Rippling Waves
> Waltz ‘Quadrille - “For the old and young.” ‘Portland Fancy ‘“Turkey
> in the Straw,” sometimes called “Old Zip Coon.” ‘Mrs. Dunham comes
> back on the stage and the crowd won’t let them go. Cheering, crying
> and applauding. It brought them all back home. After a while Mellie
> held up his bow and said “The next dance will be an intermission” and
> they both left the stage. The ovation lasted five minutes longer. 
> ‘Afterwards they had a Christmas tree on the stage for the children
> and both Mr. and Mrs. Dunham helped distribute the presents to the
> kiddies and every man and woman in that vast audience was made
> better by being in their presence.’”

So by this time Mellie had become a symbol of the vanishing rural 
America of the 1920's, larger than simply a musician. He was on the road 
for 5 months, performing at Keith's largest venues, something he had 
never done before. He was part of the show for that week or weeks, 
sharing the program with major figures from everywhere: the great Bill 
Robinson in Boston, Bert Lahr and his wife in New York, Chinese 
magicians, female impersonators, the New York Hippodrome water ballet 
(they had a 70,000 gallon tank). And two or three times it was the 
Dunham act that stopped the show.

So, quite a story, and a project that I have found very worthwhile. I 
continue to collect Dunham memorabilia - some 200 newspaper clippings 
from on-line sources, the Model T radiator cap with the brass fiddler 
mounted on it, childrens toys including the Mellie Dunham Wood Sled and 
the Mellie Dunham Farm Wagon. I look for a label from the Mellie Dunham 
Fudge Bar, but still have only a copy of one - the bars were reputed to 
be quite palatable. Anyway, at least as much as most of you are likely 
to want to know; thanks for your patience.


-- 
David Sanderson
East Waterford Maine
dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com
http://www.dwsanderson.me