176 PART 2 | FROM THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH WORLD WAR I
As the century’s end approached, the company had grown into a colossus that
took pride not only in its fi nancial strength but also in its service to the edifying
art of music. Ditson would eventually collapse under the weight of its lofty goals
and huge inventory.
In contrast, M. Witmark & Sons of New York City, founded in 1884, traveled
light. Undistracted by thoughts of duty, the Witmark fi rm originated in a hun-
ger for profi t and a personal snub. In the mid-1800s a traveling minstrel troupe
hired a fi fteen-year-old boy soprano named Julius Witmark. The youth struck a
deal with New York publisher Willis Woodward that, for a share of the proceeds,
he would sing a particular song in Woodward’s catalogue as often as possible
during the troupe’s upcoming national tour. Witmark made good on his part of
the bargain, and the song enjoyed strong sheet music sales. But all he got from
Woodward in return was twenty dollars and a dismissive pat on the shoulder.
Julius and his brothers retaliated by opening M. Witmark & Sons, using their
father’s name because they were all under legal age.
Catching the fl avor of Tin Pan Alley’s commercial origins, this story also
illustrates how its location in New York City allowed songs to be promoted. When
a theatrical troupe was in New York recruiting personnel, looking for new mate-
rial, and planning its next tour, a music publisher would enlist a troupe member
to plug one of his songs. As the troupe toured, the publisher made sure copies
of the song were on hand at each location. Then when that song later became a
hit, thanks in part to the singer’s efforts, the publisher reaped the rewards from
sales of the sheet music. In contrast to Ditson, Tin Pan Alley fi rms published only
popular songs, pouring much of their energy and money into promotion.
Music publisher Edward B. Marks, drawing on forty years’ experience,
published in 1934 a memoir that describes these fundamental changes in the
popular song trade in the 1890s. Marks saw the songwriters of early Tin Pan
Alley as careless businessmen who, instead of retaining rights to their songs
and collecting royalties, often sold them outright to a publisher for ready cash,
which they then squandered. Songwriters wrote “according to the market,”
Marks charged, and yet at the same time believed themselves superior to the
public “to whom they pander.” Publishers were also a mixed lot. In pre–Tin
Pan Alley years, Marks recalled, the leading fi gures had been old-school gen-
tlemen. But to survive in the “particularly insane business” of the 1890s and
later, it helped to be “more of a Bohemian.” A salesman at heart, Marks himself
relished life in the trade: the personal associations, rivalries, adventures, and
risks that fueled a high-energy enterprise, where the possibilities of fi nancial
bonanza or ruin were always present. To get performers to keep plugging the
songs in his catalogue, Marks visited an average of “sixty joints a week,” while
Joe Stern, his partner in the fi rm of Joseph W. Stern & Co., dropped in at some
forty more.
As Marks and his competitors scrambled to sell their songs in Tin Pan Alley’s
marketplace, the amusement world was changing in ways that deeply affected
the popular song trade. Aware that sizable audiences could now be reached
outside New York, theatrical producers began sending more of their shows on
regional and national tours (see chapter 10’s discussion of the early Broadway
musical). In August of each year, theater owners from around the country went
to New York and competed to lure “direct from Broadway” companies to their
towns. As the number of shows on the road increased, booking agents emerged
as middlemen to coordinate their touring. Six of these giants joined together inK New York’s West
28th Street, nicknamed
“Tin Pan Alley,” was the
home of many music
publishers, including
the Remick and Whitney
Warner companies, seen
in this photo from around- Also visible are the
offi ces of the New York
Clipper, the fi rst American
newspaper devoted to the
entertainment industry,
and the William Morris
Agency, a “talent agency”
representing performers
that is still active today.
172028_07_162-182_r3_ko.indd 176 23/01/13 10:19 AM