My Sweetheart Went Down With The Ship

The Titantic

In 1912 the great ocean liner "The Titantic" struck an iceberg in the Atlantic ocean and within a few hours over a thousand people perished in the icy waters because there were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all of the passengers and crew members. It was a great tragedy.
It was common in the early 1900's to write songs to commemorate the events of the day. This song was inspired by the loss of the Titantic and the people on board.
The man's photo on the cover is unidentified but is most likely the "plugger". A plugger was a professional singer that would take the song to music halls, saloons and social gathering places and sing the song. In other words...give it a plug. Pluggers were an important part of the music industry. Their photo was often included on the cover of the music. A popular singer could increase the sales of a particular song.

Gracie Allen's Platform

Gracie Allen For President!
Here is her platform!

Vote For Gracie

Vote For Gracie!

• Heads up Sarah Palin!



• Check this out Hillary Clinton!



• Want to run for president?

Well the first thing that you need is a good campaign song. Take a lesson from a woman who has been there - done that....Gracie Allen!


Gracie Allen ran for president in 1940. She lost to a guy named Franklin Roosevelt. Well, things happen for a reason. But, no doubt about it, Gracie had the best campaign song.


Gracie Allen and George Burns had a weekly comedy radio show. One of their sponsors was "Hinds Honey and Almond Hand Lotion". Gracies's song promoted her as the best candidate because she had the softest hands. Everyone would want to shake her nice soft hands because she used Hinds Honey and Almond Hand Lotion. Check out her platform, it includes soft hands for everyone.


Don’t Forget the Lyrics!

Vote for Gracie… Vote for Gracie!…

She’s the best little skipper in the land…

Vote for Gracie… Vote for Gracie…

Won’t you please give this little girl a hand? (That’s me)

Even big politicians don’t know what to do…

Gracie doesn’t know either… But neither to you.

So vote for Gracie…To win the presidential racie…

A hundred million strong, That’s right you can’t go wrong …

Vote for Gracie, keep voting all day long.

Vote for Gracie!… Vote for Gracie!…

'Cause her hands are the softest in the land…

Vote for Gracie!… Vote for Gracie!….

'Cause she stands for a lotion that is grand…

Why don’t you be like Gracie? Be fair to yourself…

Keep Hinds Honey and Almond right there on the shelf…

No more chapped hands…Let’s get together now and clap hands…

And for a thrill that’s new… I’ll tell you what to do…

Vote for Gracie and she’ll shake hands with you.

Vote for Gracie!… Vote for Gracie!…

If the country’s goin Gracie so can you…

Vote for Gracie!…Vote for Gracie!…

Uncle Sam let me paddle your canoe…

I’m just like Joan of Arc, I hear destiny call…

It’s a call to the ball park to throw out the ball…

Vote for Gracie!…To win the presidential racie…

A hundred million strong…That’s right you can’t go wrong…

Vote for Gracie! (Isn’t this fun?) Keep voting all day long!

Yankee Bird

Yankee Bird was a musical piece written with no lyrics. It's main selling point was the illustration on its cover. The illustration is Wilbur Wright, one of the Wright brothers, flying in his "Flyer". This was 1908. In this era, it was common to recognise historical events by publishing a musical piece about the event. Notice in the illustration that the "Flyer" does not have wheels or tires. This invention of the Wright Brothers had runners like a sled. A track was laid on the ground and the runners placed in the track for take-off. No wonder their first flight was on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, South Carolina. The sand helped to provide a soft landing for the Flyer.

Come Take A Trip On My Airship

"Come Take A Trip On My Airship" was published in 1903. Several years before man learned how to fly. The song expresses man's dream of flying and the romance associated with it. Before the days of real aviation, people dreamed of flying for the sheer joy of flying. They weren't trying to get from one destination to another. They just wanted to fly like the birds. The lyrics of this song invite a friend, lover perhaps, to come take a trip to the stars, to Jupiter and Mars.
This song has an enduring melody. In recent years it was used as the background music for a televison commercial produced by the GE Corporation.

Flight of the Airship

Imagine that you are living in the year 1900. You see birds fly. You would like to fly too. Airplanes have not been invented or designed. How would you fly? Attach wings to your body? Build a flying ship? What would it look like? How would it work? Where could it take you? To visit the moon? The stars?

"The AeroShip" is a musical piece with no lyrics but the cover of the sheet music illustrates a flying contraption that looks like an invention of Dr. Suess.....wings, balloons, a boat-like body, .....could it possibly get off the ground?
The key to understanding the significance of this piece of sheet music is knowing how to read the copyright years written in Roman numerals. this was copyrighted in 1903. Humankind is still in the dreaming stage of flying. This sheet music gives us an insightful glimpse of their dreams. These dreams of human flight are what eventually led to the invention of the airplane. If you can dream it, you can do it.
It would be a decade or more before the word "airplane" became part of our vocabulary. The Wright brothers (Orville & Wilbur) learned how to fly before the word "airplane" became part of the English language. Orville & Wilbur referred to their first invention as a "Flyer". At the time that this sheet music was published, the Wright Brothers' "Flyer" had not gotten off of the ground.
Thanks for your interest.

Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag

Music became an industry when Scott Joplin composed and published the Maple Leaf Rag. This piece of sheet music sold over 1 million copies and gave birth to music as an industry. From piano rolls and sheet music to modern day ipod downloads, music has been an industry from the early 1900's. Music reflects the culture and history of our nation. The sheet music business was the primary source of musical sales in the early 1900's. It is a treasure chest of information about history and historical events. The purpose of this blog site is to highlight the historical sheet music the reflected the events of the first half of the 20th century....the birth of aviation, World War I and World War II. and disasters such as the sinking of the Titantic, and the very first female to run for President, did you know it was Gracie Allen. It's all in the music.

Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" was the spark that ignited the music industry. During the time of Scott Joplin music was recorded on piano rolls. These piano rolls still exist and they allow us to hear the music as it was played by the composer's own hands. If you ever have the opportunity to visit St. Louis, you can go to the Scott Joplin House on Delmar Ave. Here they have several piano rolls made by Scott Joplin, the rolls are inserted into the player the piano, you pump the pedals to make the rolls turn, the music starts playing and the keys are moving up & down and actually recreating the music as it was played by Scott Joplin himself. If you can't make it to St. Louis, you can go to YouTube. There is a posting there of a Scott Joplin piano roll playing the Maple Leaf Rag. This was posted in 2006 and it has over 1,057,443 hits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc