September Full Moon: 1941 Trip to the Moon

Rare 40's optimism has us all travelling to the moon on nothing more than a lump of U-235, apparently the only thing we need is a good insurance agent. No word as to why we'd want to meet on the moon next Tuesday. Probably moon business of some sort.

This Blue Moon is celebrated by a piece from E. M. Cook, composer, and one-hit wonder. Well, the internet would have you believe. about Mr. (I assume it's Mr., but it just as well may be Ms.) Cook. Cook published Blue Moon Two Step in 1913 and it's a pretty typical little rag. The tempo's nice and the syncopation good, but unlike it's namesake, it's nothing unusual. I do love the cover, though, and you can hear a MIDI of it here.

Thirsty Thursday - Once in a Blue Moon

Somewhere in the nearly 1000 posts I've written for this blog I've touched on the subject of the blue moon. A blue moon is defined as the second full moon within a single calendar month, and the next blue moon will be coming on July 31, 2015. So, to welcome our dear cerulean sphere, I'm recommending a taste of moon juice - a blue moon cocktail.

According to Imbibe Magazine, the blue moon was the house cocktail of a New York establishment called Joel's Green Room. Joel's was a bohemian hangout, pimped by its owner, Joel Rinaldo, as being to New York what Maxim's was to Paris. According to Joel its cabaret floor show featured 20 singers and the restaurant seated "1000 diners including 500 show folks always at Joel's after the show." If you were into more cerebral pursuits, any of the waiters would happily sell customers a copy of a book penned by Joel himself on what he called the "polygeneric theory of life", basically disavowing the legitimacy of the theory of evolution. Yes, in short, Joel was a huckster.

What can be said for certain is that Joel's Green Room did pull in actors and actresses from the New York theater scene. Most of them probably starred in supporting roles or featured in the chorus, but there were exceptions to the rule. O. Henry and Emma Goldman wound up at Joel's and there's even a story of Enrico Caruso singing O Sole Mio to a Charlie Chaplin violin accompaniment, though like Joel's theories on the origin of man, nothing can be proved.

The Blue Moon supposedly was described by N.Y. columnist O. O. McIntyre as "high powered in action", whatever that means. It was a Prussian blue persuader, the lubricant for Bohemia in New York, and its true recipe is lost to time because Rinaldo never wrote it down. There are multiple versions printed in various publications, all with their own interpretation, but none truly is the original. So, I present two versions, first the Imbibe translation which is boozier and then the Cocktail Parade version printed in 1933.

Imbibe's Blue Moon

2 oz. dry gin

1/2 oz. Crème Yvette or crème de violette

1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

Add the above to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake, and serve with a twist of lemon in a martini glass.

Cocktail Prade's Blue Moon (or Contented Cow)

1/3 Gin

1/3 Whole Milk

1/3 Grenadine or Heavy Raspberry or Strawberry Syrup

Add the above to an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake, and serve in a martini glass.

My personal opinion is the Imbibe version probably is more accurate, in spite of being reconstructed much later. I know that milk played a role in many drinks of the 20's and 30's, but grenadine, raspberry, or strawberry syrup would produce a pink drink, not the purple-blue described by period drinkers. Either way, here's purple in your eye old moon.

May Full Moon: Gasoline

It's May, a time when the air is filled with birdsong, the scent of flowers, and the sound of race cars...at least here in Indianapolis. What better month to dedicate to the 1913 pop song, Gasoline? Yes, I know I usually choose a moon-related song to feature for the day of the full moon, but it's the month of the Indy 500 and concessions have to be made!

The Indy 500's first running was in 1911, just two years before Paul Pratt and J. Will Callahan's Gasoline was released. It was a time when the automobile was transitioning from noisy novelty to mainstay requirement and, if you comb through archives of old magazines, manners books, and other media, you know the attitude toward all things automotive was less than appreciative. Knowing this, it's probably not surprising the lyric takes on a cynical tone:

"Gasoline! Gasoline!

Ev'rywhere you go you smell it,

Ev'ry motor seems to yell it.

Gasoline! Gasoline!

That's the cry that echoes thro' your dreams.

Gasoline! Gasoline!

In this land of milk and honey

'Tisn't love—isn't money

Rules the world, now ain't it funny?

Gasoline! Gasoline!"

Of course, gasoline isn't the drink of choice for today's Indy cars. In fact it's been a long time since Gasoline Alley actually dispensed gasoline. Still, it seemed a good choice for the month of may. Now in June I'll get back to the usually crooning at the moon...and hopefully find a recording to put on the site too!

April Full Moon: Hula Dreams

Ah, April in Indiana, a time when the weather definitely isn't exactly fit for grass skirts, though it does make us dream of the South Pacific, warm breezes, and the moonlight glittering on the turquoises water.

Hula Dreams was written by Lee Roberts was a prolific composer with possibly his most famous composition being Smiles. He would eventually become vice-president of QRS Music where he recorded hundreds of piano rolls under his own name and the pen name Stanford Robar. His partner (both on Hula Dreams and on Smiles), the partially blind lyricist J. Will Callahan, also contributed lyrics for the 1913 pop song Gasoline which will be our full moon song for the month of May when all of Indiana turns to thoughts of auto racing.

I wish I could have come up with the music for Hula Dreams, but nobody seems to have added it to the YouTube archives.

March Full Moon - Moonlight (1921)

Con Conrad published his first song in 1912 and produced the Broadway show Honeymoon Express starring Al Jolson the very next year. His meteoric rise turned into something more like a comet, because he wouldn't see much success until 1920 and then three years later he turned his attention mainly toward composing for the Broadway stage. It is this phase of Conrad's career that brings us Moonlight, the title tune of a Broadway show starring Maxine Brown, Glen Dale, Ernest Glendinning, Allyn King, Robinson Newbold, and Helen O'Shea. Never heard of any of them? Well, that's probably not suprising since the show ran for less than a year and had only 174 performances. Glendinning turned out to be the most prolific of the cast, appearing in 36 other productions and even the 1922 Marion Davies talkie When Knighthood was in Flower.

The number is a plucky foxtrot, a tempo that wouldn't be recognized by modern ballroom denizens who tend to have a narrow interpretation of what that term means. Still it conjurs the goofball antics of 20's musical theater and makes me think of Bertie Wooster and his Drones Club pals hanging around the stage door in their tuxes and top hats.

January Full Moon - In the Glory of the Moonlight (1915)

Here's a little recording to celebrate the full moon. In the Glory of the Moonlight was released in 1915, a time when World War I was just getting wound up and it'd become clear that the boys weren't going to march in, kick the kaiser's butt, and march home again. The music-buying public had turned to sappy sentimental strolling songs that depicted a simpler time, a time when a fellow could walk along the canal with his best girl in the moonlight.

Percy Wenrich composed ragtime and pop music at the turn of the last century. He was a native of Joplin, MO and came to New York to work the Tin Pan Alley scene in 1907. Unless you're a ragtime or vintage music enthusiast you probably wouldn't recognize many of Wenrich's compositions. The two exceptions might be Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet (1909) and When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose (1914). My personal connection with Wenrich? In 1911 he wrote his hit Red Rose Rag for his wife, Dolly Connolly, the lyrics to which were penned by Edward Madden. Now, I'm sure Ed and I aren't really related, but you never know.

Wenrich and other stars of the ragtime era had a bit of a comeback in the late 30's with the release of The Songwriter's Parade, a review that toured the eastern seaboard on the Loew's and Keith circuits. Eventually, Percy faded from the scene and he died in 1952 at the early age of sixty five.

In the Glory of the Moonlight is a nice slow ditty for a walk in the park. Of course if you'd probably need a parka tonight, but the sentiment is there. Here's the recording from the Library of Congress. The volume leaves something to be desired and the player's nothing to look at, but you get to hear the song none the less.

February Full Moon - Moon Winks (1908)

With February the time for lovers and, therefore, much winking I thought I'd select an appropriately flirty tune. Moon Winks is billed as a three-step, what those of us who have a passing familiarity with more modern dance terminology would call it a waltz.

As always when writing one of these little missives, I started combing the web for information on George Stevens. I came across a lot of Moon Winks sheet music covers and even came up with a good YouTube video with commentary by a vintage platter collector who goes by the handle of Ifmudge. There's some nice information about the disc and the bandleader featured on the recording and I recommend taking a listen.


Sadly, though, even after enjoying the tune I still didn't know anything more about the illusive Mr. Stevens. I spent some time exploring the bottoms of various internet rabbit holes, chasing copyright information for different interpretations of the song Moon Winks until I eventually checked the Catalog of Copyright Entries - Musical Composers, Part 3 from 1932.

Yes, the problem was that George Stevens was actually the pseudonym for Frederic J. A. Forster, the author of Moon Winks. A breakthrough worthy of eureka? Well, not really. Though I now knew that Mr. Stevens was actually Mr. Forster, the mystery more-or-less remained. I managed to discover he was born in 1878 and died in 1956 and even found his short death notice as seen on the obituary page in the May 11, 1956 issue of the Indiana Gazette:

Frederic J. A. Forster, 80, founder and president of a music publishing firm, publisher of such songs as “The Missouri Waltz,” “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More,” and “Down by the Old Millstream,” died Wednesday. SAN DIEGO. Calif

It seems a sad thing, a man who filled more than one couple's evening with the lovely music that sparked romance and set hearts pattering should find his end as a side note on the obituary page. Still, every waltz must have its end and so many times love is a bittersweet thing. Take your loved one out under the February moon tonight, bundle up warm, and stare up at the winking moon and be thankful for this moment, because when it comes right down to it that's all you really have.

January Full Moon - Indiana Moon (1923)

If you're a frequent visitor to my blog you'll know that I spent the last year sharing the names of each month's full moon. It was a fun jaunt through the Old Farmer's Almanac, but one that left me searching for a second act. Well, for better or worse, the decision I came to for 2014 was to feature one moon-related song a month through the year and, where possible, one that included the name of the month in which it was being featured.

Though I didn't have any luck finding a January moon song, I figured I'd start things off with something that directly links to the name of this blog. Indiana Moon with music by Irving Berlin and words by Isham Jones. Take a listen and see what you think of this Vocalion version from 1923.

Once in a Blue Moon

Today is the day for any unlikely event you care to see come to pass because tonight will be a genuine blue moon. A blue moon is the second full moon occurring in a calendar month, and that’s what you’ll get (weather permitting) tonight. The origin of the term blue moon is a little less clear. According to Wikipedia (oh dispenser of undisputed truth):

“The suggestion has been made that the term "blue moon" for "intercalary month" arose by folk etymology, the "blue" replacing the no-longer-understood belewe "to betray". The original meaning would then have been "betrayer moon", referring to a full moon which would "normally" (in non-intercalating years) be the full moon of spring, while in intercalating year, it was "traitorous" in the sense that people would have had to continue fasting for another month in accordance with the season of Lent.”

This explanation seemed a little contrived for me, though. I mean a lot of the English language can trace its origin back to biblical references, but Lent is a once-a-year thing and to have a moon named after something that's rare at best doesn't sit well with me. Digging into the Old Farmer’s Almanac confirmes the belewe reference, but also gives a second possible origin of the term:

“…in the March 1999 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, author Phillip Hiscock revealed one somewhat confusing origin of this term. It seems that the modern custom of naming the second full Moon of a month "blue," came from an article published in the March 1946 Sky & Telescope magazine. The article was "Once in a Blue Moon," written by James Hugh Pruett. In this article, Pruett interpreted what he read in a publication known as the Maine Farmers' Almanac (no relation to this Farmers' Almanac, published in Lewiston, Maine), and declared that a second full Moon in a calendar month is a "Blue Moon."

However, after reviewing the Maine Farmer's Almanac, Hiscock found that during the editorship of Henry Porter Trefethen (1932 to 1957), the Maine Farmers' Almanac made occasional reference to a Blue Moon, but derived it from a completely different (and rather convoluted) seasonal rule. As simply as can be described, according to Trefethen's almanac, there are normally three full Moons for each season of the year. But when a particular season ends up containing four full Moons, then the third of that season is called a Blue Moon! To make matters more confusing, the beginning of the seasons listed in Trefethen's almanac were fixed. A fictitious or dynamical mean Sun produced four seasons of equal length with dates which differed slightly from more conventional calculations. So, basically the current use of "Blue Moon" to mean the second full Moon in a month can be traced to a 55-year-old mistake in Sky & Telescope magazine.”

Regardless of which origin you believe, the term blue moon has influenced everything from beer to music to literature. It has a kind of poetry, a wistfulness and quiet desperation that nests deep inside so much good literature. A current favorite of mine is the poem The Blue Moon by James Francis Carlin MacDonnell.

The Blue Moon

 

Memory is as blue

As the small flax-flower’s dew,

The twilight’s distant skies

And your far eyes:

Blue as the meadows seen

In reality as green;

Blue as the broad moon-light

That is really white. 

Memory is as blue

As the world that relates to you,

From the heavens over all,

To your blue shawl:

Blue as the roads that may

Once more be dusty grey,

For one whose sight of mind

Is color-blind. 

Memory as blue

As the winds that sally through

The dark blue shadows, deep

In your blue sleep:

Blue as your lips, to be

That red reality,

Which I shall meet when the light

Of the moon is white.

So, get out there under that old blue moon with the one you love and make the most of this August night!