178 PART 2 | FROM THE CIVIL WAR THROUGH WORLD WAR I
over performers who played their circuits that comedian Harpo Marx once said
that to him the head of the Keith-Albee empire seemed “more powerful than the
president of the United States.”
In what was fast becoming national show business, stage performers were
considered the most effective boosters of sheet music sales, and song publishers
competed fi ercely for their attention in New York City. For by 1900 Tin Pan Alley
publishers knew well the riches that one best-selling song could bring.THE ANATOMY OF A HIT: “AFTER THE BALL”
In 1892 banjo player and songwriter Charles K. Harris, living in Milwaukee, wrote
a song that became the hit of the decade. Harris recalled later that the number took
shape from an idea that had popped into his mind: “Many a heart is aching after
the ball.” With that line as a starting point, he fashioned a story in three long verses,
each followed by a shorter chorus. Then, since his own grasp of musical notation
was shaky, he solicited the help of a local arranger to provide a score and a piano
accompaniment. Disenchanted by earlier experience with New York publishers,
whose royalty payments he had found too small, Harris decided to publish the
song himself. His strateg y for plugging “After the Ball” (LG 7.3) proved excellent. A
road company was playing a Broadway show in Milwaukee, and Harris arranged
a meeting with the cast’s leading baritone. The singer agreed to sing the new song
in the show, and his fi rst performance drew a fi ve-minute standing ovation, with
six encores of the chorus. With strong fi nancial inducement from Harris—a prom-
ise of fi ve hundred dollars and a share of the income from sales—the singer made
“After the Ball” a part of every performance.
More than any American popular song before it, “After the Ball” was an eco-
nomic bonanza. Orders for the song poured in as the road company moved
toward New York. Oliver Ditson ordered 75,000 copies, and John Philip Sousa
programmed an arrangement of the song for his band at the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Before long, Harris was
earning $25,000 a month from sales, and on the strength of his success
decided to open a popular song publishing business in New York, where
he moved permanently in 1903.
The song’s sheet music cover pictures a dance fl oor fi lled with men
and women dressed in formal fi nery. Some couples whirl vigorously, oth-
ers are locked in close embraces, and others seem occupied with gossip
and fl irtation. The picture suggests the display of personal charms in a
competitive public arena, an image that separates “After the Ball” from
earlier songs of courtship and love. Moreover, the song is a waltz, a dance
in triple meter that called for partners to embrace and thus in 1892 carried
erotic overtones. Harris’s lyrics tell a story that dramatizes the misunder-
standings that can occur in the sexualized atmosphere of the ballroom.
“After the Ball” struck a responsive chord in its time. Perhaps audi-
ence members and amateur performers found appeal in the story or
the proverb-like moral delivered by the chorus. But it is the music that
brings emotion to a tale that might otherwise be taken as a sermonette.
W hile the lilting ball music maintains the illusion of calm control, the
words portray feelings as fragile as the glass dropped by the song’s
disappointed lover. The long narrative verse fl oats on sustained tonesK Once Charles K. Harris’s “After
the Ball” (1892) became a hit,
Harris brought out an edition with
an illustrated cover that hints at
the erotic overtones of the waltz
craze.LG 7.3172028_07_162-182_r3_ko.indd 178 23/01/13 10:19 AM