[78-L] Seeking background information, history of Mezzotone Record Company Inc.
Thomas Stern
sternth at attglobal.net.invalid
Fri Apr 24 20:13:36 PDT 2020
FWIW
Cyclone RECORDS
Manufactured by ANTILLIAN MUSIC FEATURES INC N.Y.
505 A COME UP 'N SEE ME SOMETIME(Lewis Alter-Arthur Swanstrong)
MAE WEST
JOSEF CHERNIVASKY Orchestra
505 B THAT'S ALL BROTHER THAT'S ALL(Mae West)
MAE WEST
LENNY MARVIN Orchestra
My Man Friday Mezzotone
Album 11 (102A), 45rpm PR 22 DPC-718
Page 54
Mezzotone Album 11 (102B) PR 22
DPC-718
Imaginary Love
Mezzotone Album 11 (101B)
Frankie& Johnny
Mezzotone Album 11 (100B) PR 22
DPC-718
Come Up& See Me Sometime Cyclone 505A Mezzotone Album 11 (100A)
45rpm PR 22 DPC-718
That's All Brother That's All Cyclone 505B Mezzotone Album 11 (101A)
45rpm Cyclone 505B PR 22 DPC-718
Slow Down Mezzotone Album 21 (LP)
45rpm PR 22 DPC-718
Put It Off Until Tomorrow Mezzotone Album 21 (LP) 45rpm
PR 22 DPC-718
A Guy What Takes His Time Mezzotone Album 21 (LP) 45rpm
Pardon Me For Loving and Running Mezzotone Album 21 (LP)
PR 22 DPC-718
He's a Bad Man Mezzotone Album 21 (LP)
Proscenium PR-22 W.C.Fields & Mae West LP (2 different covers)
AMERICAN ALBUM RECORDS AAT 120 LP
W.C. FIELDS....HIS ONLY RECORDING
....PLUS EIGHT SONGS BY MAE WEST
SIDE 1 - W.C. FIELDS
1. THE TEMPERANCE LECTURE
2. THE DAY I DRANK A GLASS OF WATER
SIDE 2 - MAE WEST
1. FRANKIE & JOHNNY
2. MY MAN FRIDAY
3. PAGE 54
4. THAT'S ALL BROTHER
5. PARDON ME FOR LOVING AND RUNNING
6. PUT IT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW
7. SLOW DOWN
8. COME UP AND SEE ME SOMETIME
DPC - DEMAND PERFORMANCE cassette (Glendale, CA) 1986 Mae West Naughty But
Wise
MEZZOTONE - album 11 3-78rpm Album of Mae West Songs
MAE WEST
*LENNY MARVIN Orchestra
#JOSEF CHERNIVASKY Orchestra
# 100A COME UP 'N SEE ME SOMETIME (Lewis Alter-Arthur Swanstrong)
* 100B FRANKIE & JOHNNY
* 101A THAT'S ALL BROTHER THAT'S ALL(Mae West)
* 101B IMAGINARY LOVE(Jack Lawrence)
# 102A MY MAN FRIDAY(Jack Lawrence & Irving Drutman)
* 102B PAGE 54(Mae West)
MezzoTone - album ?? 10"-LP [100-101-102 A/B] (RED
COVER)
Album of MAE WEST Songs [no catalog number, no liner notes]
[another copy with #1 on front cover]
[gold/black label; orange/black cover]
Lenny Marvin Orchestra
A1 Come Up 'N' See Me Sometime 2:48
A2 That's All Brother, That's All 2:57
A3 My Man Friday 2:52
B1 Frankie and Johnny 2:17
B2 Imaginary Love 2:45
B3 Page 54 2:35
MezzoTone - album 21 10"-LP 1952 ??????????? (BLUE
COVER)
MezzoTone - album ?? 3-45rpm (BLUE
COVER)
LENNY MARVIN Orchestra
[black/silver label; blue cover]
MW 45-2B Slow Down
My Man Friday
Put It Off Until Tomorrow
That's All Brother, That's All
The Guy That Takes His Time
Come Up 'N' See Me Sometime
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
JOSEF CHERNIAVSKY
obit NYT 4NOV1959
grad St.Petersburd Conservatory of Music
settled in US 1920
Thomashefsky's Broadway Yiddish Theatre conductor and composer
Yiddish Art Theatre orch leader
Universal Pictures music director
conductingtheatre orchestras in Chicago
Cincinnati music director for Crosley Radio Corp
1940-1948 dir radio orchestras for NBC NY and Boston
widow Lara
son Will Lorin
daughter Mrs.Sally Fox
sister and two grandchildren
???
Saginaw Symphony Orchestra Director
Josef Cherniavsky (1895-1959)
1951-1959
1927 SHEET MUSIC
THE BELLS OF AVALON
Lyric by Mitchell Parish
Music by Joseph Cherney
Ukulele Arrangement by M.Kalua
photo: JOSEF CHERNIAVSKY
(c)1927 MILLS Music, NYC
1928
Yiddish Radio -
Yiddish Radio Project:
http://yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/history/?content=photos&pg=1
Libby's Hotel was the site of the first known Yiddish-radio broadcast, The
Libby Hotel Hour, in 1926. The hotel stood at the intersection of Chrystie
and Delancey streets on the Lower East Side.
14. Wevd Station ID
20. Wbbc Station ID - Brett Childs
27. Wcnw Station ID
Libby's Hotel:
http://apps.netbiscuits.com/178809/HIMobile/articleDetail.aspx?articleid=151
78
The Libby Hotel broadcast from the first Yiddish radio station, WFBH (from
the top of the westside Hotel Majestic) featuring famous entertainers,
orchestras, live theater and such luminaries as Sol Hurok, Rube Goldberg and
George Jessel. Bernstein spared no expense, hiring as his musical director
Josef Cherniavsky, leader of the Yiddish-American Jazz Band and widely known
as the Jewish Paul Whiteman.
THE STARS LOOK DOWN-JOSEF CHERNIAVSKY-1937
"THE STARS LOOK DOWN" Words and Music by JOSEF CHERNIAVSKY, BILL LORIN and
BEN BARON.
PUBLISHER: mills music inc.
WORDS & MUSIC BY: JOSEF CHERNIAVSKY, BILL LORIN and BEN BARON
COPYRIGHT: 1937
Billboard Jul 25, 1942
Cherniavsky to New York
BOSTON, July 18.=Josef Cherniavsky, musical director of WEEI, CBS outlet
here, leaves for New York at termination of six-month contract. Cherniavsky
was
also leader of 15-piece orchestra which had been heard on two shows,
Musical Camera and This Is Our Fight. He has developed a tremendous
followig.
Billboard Jan 29, 1944
NORFOLK USO CENTER TURNS VAUDE HOUSE
NORFOLK Va, Jan 22-William B Wilder, 0perator of the Wilder theater
chain in Virginia, will open the Center Theater i9n the 1900 seat auditorium
of the city's new USO recreation center next Friday (26).
Theater will be operated on a vaude-film policy, with weekly
changes, and features similar in a modified way to Radio City Music Hall
or the ROxy. There will be a permanent house orchestra of 15.
JOESF CHERNIAVSKY has been signed as guest conductor for four weeks.
A permanent line of 12 girls will be furnished by Fanchon & Marco.
Opening show features Bonnie Baker, Happy Felton, Shirley Wayne,
Whitson Brothers, and Winik and Mae. All shows will be produced in New York
and nut for first week is $17,500.
Wilder is operating the house under a contract with USO board of
management, which provides for reduced admissions to service personnel.
James P Johnson
Jazzfest and "Pop" Concert featuring James P. Johnson
Carnegie Hall
New York, New York
May 4, 1945
Conductor, Josef Cherniavsky
Assisted by 50 Star Players and Singers; 5 Piano Solos
Billboard Oct 4, 1947
TRC To Open N.Y. Office
Chicago, Sept. 27. Tele-Radio Creations, Inc., locak package and
transcription company, will open a New York office i a few weeks,
Josef Cherniavsky, head of the company, said this week. Cherniavsky will be
in charge of New York branch, while Charles Buffer will head the
Chi office; Firm is making an entrance into the New York market
to sell live network packages. MY LUCKY BREAK, variety program;
HURDY GURDY MAN, mystery airer, and PIONEERS OF PROGRESS, dramatic series
will be pushed in New York. At present the company is
peddling the Jim Ameche transcribed series, IT REALLY HAPPENED.
New York's Unknown Libby's Hotel and Baths
In the late 1920's, the stock market was soaring, businesses were enjoying
record profits and developers were constructing new buildings at a record
pace. Mortgage companies began offering mortgage-backed securities, a new
type of investment.
One of the new buildings was the 12-story Libby's Hotel and Baths, built in
1926 at the corner of Chrystie and Delancey Streets in New York's lower east
side. It was the first all-Jewish luxury hotel with an ornate swimming
pool, modern gym, Russian-Turkish baths and lounges open to the entire
community.
The developer was Max Bernstein, an immigrant from Slutzk, Russia, who
arrived in New York with his family in 1900 when Max was 11 years old. The
streets where Max grew up on the lower east side were filled with pushcart
vendors, some with horse-drawn wagons, kids playing street games and
tenement dwellers socializing on the stoops. Unfortunately, when his mother
Libby died within one year, Max ran away from home and spent the night in a
small park nearby. In later years, Max said that his dream of building
Libby's Hotel on the corner of Chrystie and Delancey Streets came to him
that night.
After years of owning a series of restaurants, each of them named Libby's,
Max was able to acquire land on his favorite corner where he built the hotel
that opened on April 25, 1926. Max was apparently a natural-born publicist
because he invested an extraordinary amount of energy and money in an
extensive promotional campaign in the many Yiddish-language dailies. On
opening day, the New York Times joined the other papers in reporting the
grand opening. The Libby Hotel featured a spectacular two-story lobby with
a richly colored plaster ceiling supported by fluted marble columns. The
hotel had meeting rooms, ballrooms and two kosher restaurants. Max held
charity events and swimming classes for neighborhood children.
The Libby Hotel broadcast from the first Yiddish radio station, WFBH (from
the top of the westside Hotel Majestic) featuring famous entertainers,
orchestras, live theater and such luminaries as Sol Hurok, Rube Goldberg and
George Jessel. Bernstein spared no expense, hiring as his musical director
Josef Cherniavsky, leader of the Yiddish-American Jazz Band and widely known
as the Jewish Paul Whiteman. For its first two years, the hotel seemed to
be a huge success but by the end of 1928, the roof fell in. The magazine of
the National Yiddish Book center, the Pakn Treger*, wrote in its Spring 2009
edition:
A glut of new hotels had opened in New York. Many, in order to remain
solvent, began to cater to Jews, siphoning off Max's clientele. Max might
have been better able to compete if his emotional state was not already in a
downward spiral; on October 20, 1926, in a tragic echo of the loss that
prompted Max to create the hotel, his wife Sarah died. In a later court
trial, Max would testify that the grief he experienced left him unable to
function.
Furthermore, his primary creditor was the American Bond and Mortgage Company
(AMBAM), an unreputable predatory lender. Just prior to the 1929 stock
market crash, AMBAM foreclosed on the hotel and, in a strange twist of fate,
Mayor Jimmy Walker appointed Joseph Force Crater, a Tammany-connected lawyer
as the receiver. According to Judge Crater, AMBAM may have had inside
knowledge of the city's plan to widen Chrystie Street. In any event, AMBAM
now claimed that the hotel was worth $3.2 million (after valuing Libby's
Hotel at only $1.3 million for foreclosure). Through eminent domain, New
York City took ownership and paid AMBAM $2.85 million. The city then
demolished the buildings in the block including Max Bernstein's Libby's
Hotel and Baths.
But, there's more to the story. In 1931, AMBAM was convicted of a similar
scheme regarding the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. The same Judge
Crater was the receiver for the Mayflower foreclosure. He disappeared four
months later and has not been found since. Chrystie Street was widened, the
Great Depression set in and ultimately, the site was turned into the Sara
Delano Roosevelt park by Robert Moses.
When Max Bernstein died on December 13, 1946, the New York Times obituary
wrote: "Max Bernstein, 57, Once Hotel Owner. Built $3,000,000 Edifice in
Slums, only to see Memorial to Mother Razed."
That would be the end of this fascinating story except that the Pakn Treger
article reported the following sequel:
The story of Libby's faded into obscurity until the summer of 2001, when a
section of the pavement near the corner of Chrystie and Delancey Streets
caved in, creating a sinkhole. The hole grew large enough to swallow an
entire tree and began to encroach on city streets and the nearby senior
center in Sara Delano Roosevelt Park. In those innocent days before
September 11, the sinkhole seemed to be the biggest threat facing lower
Manhattan.
City engineers did not know the cause, so they lowered a camera into the
void. To their astonishment, 22 feet below the surface they found an intact
room, complete with bookcases. When they searched records at the Municipal
Archives, they learned that Libby's Hotel had once stood there and that they
had discovered a room in its subbasement. In a New York Times article from
September 1, 2001, New York City Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern was
quoted as saying, "It reminds me of Pompeii."
In contrast to Pompeii, no attempt was made to reach the room or excavate
it. The city engineers chose to fill it with grout, burying the room and
its mysterious contents. A new tree was planted, and the park repaved.
Today, the steel skeleton of an unfinished luxury high-rise tower, its
construction halted due to the economic crisis, looms over the site. Two
new sinkholes, carefully avoided by pedestrians, are the only reminders of
the once-great Libby's Hotel and Baths, the Jewish Ritz with a shvitz.
Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC has just published the book "Great American
Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry." It contains 359 pages, 25
illustrations and 16 chapters devoted to each of the following pioneers:
John McEntee Bowman, Carl Graham Fisher, Henry Morrison Flagler, John Q.
Hammons, Frederick Henry Harvey. Ernest Henderson, Conrad Nicholson Hilton,
Howard Dearing Johnson, J. Willard Marriott, Kanjibhai Patel, Henry Bradley
Plant, George Mortimer Pullman, A.M. Sonnabend, Ellsworth Milton Statler,
Juan Terry Trippe and Kemmons Wilson. It also has a foreword by Stephen
Rushmore, preface, introduction, bibliography and index.
Visit www.greatamericanhoteliers.com to order the book.
*"Ritz with a Shvitz" by Shulamith Berger and Jai Zion, Pakn Treger, Spring
2009/ 5769 Number 59
-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Donna Halper
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 7:51 PM
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Seeking background information, history of Mezzotone
Record Company Inc.
On 4/24/2020 5:54 PM, Taylor Bowie wrote:
> The same Sam Manning who recorded in the late 20s?
Could be. This Sam Manning also wrote songs and was still performing in the
1940s. Could it be the same guy?
--
Donna L. Halper, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
Lesley University, Cambridge MA
_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
More information about the 78-L
mailing list