The Tale of a Monkey

Today's music video is "The Tale of a Monkey," featuring music by Leo Edwards and lyrics by Vincent Bryan. It was one of a series of "animal fable" songs performed by Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic.

When Aileen Crater joined the cast toward the end of the Broadway run, the show had a solid and talented Cynthia Cynch—and Crater soon became Mrs. Fred Stone, too.

Sheet Music cover for "The Tale of a Monkey" (1905).

When Julian Mitchell updated the show for its "Edition de Luxe," which premiered in spring 1904, he gave Cynthia a second number in the first act, "The Tale of a Cassowary." It was eventually replaced by "The Tale of a Monkey," which was not in the show very long. It in turn was replaced by "The Bullfrog and the Coon," which proved to be quite popular.

"The Tale of a Monkey" was probably written specifically for Aileen Crater. Vincent Bryan, the lyricist of the song, was a good friend of the Stone family.

"The Tale of a Monkey" might have been planned as a duet for Crater and Fred Stone. The chorus of the song states: "It was quite plain, he had no brain," which easily describes the Scarecrow; and Fred Stone had done a "monkey act" in his vaudeville days in which Stone played a monkey, but there is no evidence the song was ever performed with Stone's assistance.

Vincent Bryan wrote lyrics for many of the most enduring songs in The Wizard of Oz:

"Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"
"Football"
"T'was Enough to Make a Perfect Lady Mad"
"Down on the Brandywine"
"Under a Panama"
"Sitting Bull"
"The Nightmare"
"Budweiser's a Friend of Mine"
"Pocahontas"
"Pepita Maguire

If you would like a PDF of the sheet music for "The Tale of a Monkey" you may download the sheet music by clicking here.

Copyright © 2019 David Maxine. All rights reserved.

Alas for the Man Without Brains

I'm happy to announce our new Vintage Broadway YouTube channel. More songs and videos will be added in the coming weeks, but you can watch and listen to our first selection right now—the Scarecrow's introductory number, which has two different titles. Theatre programs list the song as "Alas for the Man Without Brains," but the two sheet music publications name the song "The Scarecrow." Click the video below to watch:

Witmark sheet music design for The Wizard of Oz.

This was one of the earliest written songs for the Baum and Tietjens musical extravaganza The Wizard of Oz. The lyrics first appeared in Baum's 1901 first draft script. But there is some evidence that the music is from a song called "For I am a Great Promoter," written by Baum and Tietjens for their unproduced and uncompleted 1901 comic opera The Octopus.

The song "The Scarecrow" was initially published by M. Witmark & Sons as part of the 1902 sheet music release for the show, featuring the usual cover design seen at left, though these Witmark Wizard of Oz song sheets come in a variety of background colors.

But "The Scarecrow" sheet music is most commonly seen in its newspaper supplement form, issued shortly after the Broadway opening. The selection of this song as a giveaway, no doubt, was due to the popularity of Fred Stone and his portrayal of the Scarecrow.

There is a horrible lyric typo in both versions of the sheet music. The line "The farmer lack of skill displayed . . ." becomes "The farmer each of skill displayed . . . ," which makes no sense. The typographer probably just misread someone's handwritten lyrics and mistook the loop of a cursive l for an e and a hastily written k for an h. But it's a shame Witmark failed to correct the mistake, especially when they reset the music for the newspaper version.

Newspaper sheet music supplement version of "The Scarecrow" ca. early 1903.

Copyright © 2019 David Maxine. All rights reserved.

A Make-Up Lesson from Fred Stone

Fred Stone was born on this day, August 19th, in 1873. As you probably know, he created the part of the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. To celebrate, I'm sharing a photo of him very late in life, applying his Scarecrow make-up to his daughter Dorothy in 1952. He was seventy-eight.

Fred Stone applying Scarecrow make-up to his daughter Dorothy, July 1952.

Dorothy Stone was born in 1905 while Fred Stone was still touring with The Wizard of Oz; and she was indeed named after Dorothy Gale. She made her theatrical debut when Fred carried her onstage during a performance when she was an infant. Her mother was Allene Crater, who played the part of Cynthia Cynch in The Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy Stone had quite a career herself, making her Broadway debut in Jerome Kern's Stepping Stones. We'll talk more about Dorothy's illustrious career in future posts. But today, on Fred's birthday, let's share in this fond moment.

Dorothy had been hired to play the part of the Scarecrow in the Sacramento Music Circus production of The Wizard of Oz in July 1952. This production used the MGM songs and was probably the Muny version. But for this production Fred Stone, the very first Scarecrow, gave her a make-up lesson. He always followed Baum's description and made one eye larger. He also drew the smaller eye off-center. One of his "tricks" was to keep his eyes mostly closed, as he had drawn the Scarecrow's small pupils on his eyelids, and it helped duplicate the Scarecrow's face from the original book illustrations by W. W. Denslow.

In reality the make-up job he is showing her is nowhere near as intricate and successful as his actual make-up in the early 1900s. But it is still a great father and daughter moment! Below you can see her in a publicity photograph with her husband Charles Collins, who played the Tin Woodman, and Joan Elms, who played Dorothy. And she is posing with her eyes about three quarters closed to achieve her father's "circle around the dot" eye make-up technique.

Dorothy Stone, Joan Elms, and Charles Collins.

So Happy Birthday to the very first Scarecrow, Fred Stone!

Copyright © 2019 David Maxine. All rights reserved.