Dave Stamper
Encyclopedia
Dave Stamper was an American
songwriter
of the Tin Pan Alley
and vaudeville
eras, a contributor to twenty-one editions of the Ziegfeld Follies
, writer for the Fox Film Corporation, and composer of more than one thousand songs, in spite of never learning to read or write traditional music notation. He may have written "Shine On Harvest Moon", a claim supported by vaudeville performer and writer Eddie Cantor
. He was also a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP.
dance hall for two years before becoming a "song-plugger
" for publisher F. A. Mills. Stamper was twenty when he met singer Nora Bayes
and her husband Jack Norworth
becoming her accompanist and touring widely for the next four years. After Stamper left Bayes' employment, he resumed working as a song-plugger and vaudeville pianist. In 1910 he met Gene Buck
, an artist who painted cover images for sheet music. The two started collaborating, with Buck providing lyrics for Stamper's melodies. Their first published songs were In the Cool of the Evening, Daddy Has a Sweetheart (and Mother Is Her Name) and Some Boy.
Stamper's first marriage to Gertrude Springer ended in divorce after the birth of two children, Maurice and Regina Stamper. On 16 July 1926 he married "vaudeville and revue comedienne" Edna Leedom who had performed in the Follies of 1923, 1924 and 1925. The marriage ended within two years. On 16 August. 1928 he married Agnes White, a Follies performer who was in Stamper and Buck's musical Take The Air (1927). The couple were married for 40 years and produced one daughter, Susan Stamper, a dancer. One of their grandchildren is singer/songwriter Happy Rhodes
.
Stamper did not learn to read or write traditional musical notation, creating his own numerical notation.
, and Irving Berlin
. The music of the Follies of 1917 was written by Stamper and Raymond Hubbell and he was described as "an old hand" for his work with Louis A. Hirsch by the Follies of 1918. In addition to his 1918 Follies work, he wrote all the music for Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic with Gene Buck, a series that also had editions in 1919, 1920 and 1921.
The Follies of 1919 found Stamper branching out into writing lyrics as well as writing comic sketches. 1919 was a very busy year, with Stamper writing songs for the Follies as well as the Midnight Frolic and the Ziegfeld Nine O'Clock Review both of which appeared in a theater on the roof of the New Amsterdam theater.
Stamper continued as principal songwriter for the Follies of 1920 through 1925, with an additional summer edition in 1923. He returned for the Follies of 1931, the last edition produced by Florenz Ziegfeld
himself.
deciding to enlist to fly, and Dave Stamper having to prove to British police and a Judge that his pages covered with numbers were sheet music rather than a code.
Stamper was fully occupied with work for Ziegfeld until 1927, when Gene Buck hired Stamper to write the music for Take The Air (1927). He also worked for the Schubert organization
on Lovely Lady (1927) before returning to Ziegfeld for the 1931 Follies.
He finished out his work on Broadway with Provincetown Follies (1935) which only ran for 63 performances and Orchids Preferred (1937) which closed in a week.
(1929) often called the first filmed operetta. The film Words and Music
(1929) featured The Hunting Song, Take a Little Tip and Too Wonderful for Words all written with lyricist Harlan Thompson. In 1930, he contributed Only One and The Gay Heart written with Clare Kummer and Once In A While written with Clare Kummer and Cecil Arnold
to the "singing cowboy" movie One Mad Kiss. and the Bela Lugosi
film Such Men Are Dangerous.
and Jack Norworth
. Stamper's claim was supported by vaudeville comic Eddie Cantor
in his 1934 book Ziegfeld, The Great Glorifier and David Ewen's All the Years of American Popular Music.
Stamper was working as a pianist rather than as a songwriter at the time the song appeared but never learned how to read or write using traditional music notation thus he would have not been able submit the song for copyright, or produce sheet music to prove his claim. Bayes and Norworth compelled Stamper at one point to wear stage make-up to appear Japanese, apparently to keep him from being interviewed by reporters.
Stamper and Buck's song The Shakespearian Rag appears in T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land
:
Ring Lardner
and George S. Kaufman
mentioned Stamper in their play June Moon
:
John Hyams played Stamper in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld
starring William Powell
, which won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. His songwriting partner Gene Buck was played by William Demarest
, best known as "Uncle Charley" on the TV show My Three Sons
.
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
of the Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
eras, a contributor to twenty-one editions of the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
, writer for the Fox Film Corporation, and composer of more than one thousand songs, in spite of never learning to read or write traditional music notation. He may have written "Shine On Harvest Moon", a claim supported by vaudeville performer and writer Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
. He was also a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP.
Biography
Stamper was born in New York City on November 10, 1883, and took up piano at age ten. At seventeen, he left school and became a pianist at a Coney IslandConey Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
dance hall for two years before becoming a "song-plugger
Song-plugger
A song-plugger was a piano player employed by music stores in the early 20th century to promote and help sell new sheet music, which is how hits were advertised before quality recordings were widely available. Typically, the pianist sat on the mezzanine level of a store and played whatever music...
" for publisher F. A. Mills. Stamper was twenty when he met singer Nora Bayes
Nora Bayes
Nora Bayes was a popular American singer, comedienne and actress of the early 20th century.-Early life and career:...
and her husband Jack Norworth
Jack Norworth
Jack Norworth was a U.S. songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.Norworth is credited as co-writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wrote the lyrics of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in 1908, his most long lasting hit. But it wasn't until 1940 that he actually witnessed a Major...
becoming her accompanist and touring widely for the next four years. After Stamper left Bayes' employment, he resumed working as a song-plugger and vaudeville pianist. In 1910 he met Gene Buck
Gene Buck
Edward Eugene Buck was an American illustrator of sheet music, musical theater lyricist, and president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers .-Early career:...
, an artist who painted cover images for sheet music. The two started collaborating, with Buck providing lyrics for Stamper's melodies. Their first published songs were In the Cool of the Evening, Daddy Has a Sweetheart (and Mother Is Her Name) and Some Boy.
Stamper's first marriage to Gertrude Springer ended in divorce after the birth of two children, Maurice and Regina Stamper. On 16 July 1926 he married "vaudeville and revue comedienne" Edna Leedom who had performed in the Follies of 1923, 1924 and 1925. The marriage ended within two years. On 16 August. 1928 he married Agnes White, a Follies performer who was in Stamper and Buck's musical Take The Air (1927). The couple were married for 40 years and produced one daughter, Susan Stamper, a dancer. One of their grandchildren is singer/songwriter Happy Rhodes
Happy Rhodes
Happy Rhodes is an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and electronic musician with a four-octave vocal range. She has released 11 albums since 1986.- Family :...
.
Stamper did not learn to read or write traditional musical notation, creating his own numerical notation.
The Ziegfeld Years
In 1912 Stamper began writing songs for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913, contributing Just You and I and The Moon, Without You and Everybody Sometime Must Love Somebody. He is credited as "additional music" for the Follies of 1914 and 1915, but he wrote the majority of the music for the Follies of 1916. and was on an equal billing with Louis A. Hirsch, Jerome KernJerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, and Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
. The music of the Follies of 1917 was written by Stamper and Raymond Hubbell and he was described as "an old hand" for his work with Louis A. Hirsch by the Follies of 1918. In addition to his 1918 Follies work, he wrote all the music for Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic with Gene Buck, a series that also had editions in 1919, 1920 and 1921.
The Follies of 1919 found Stamper branching out into writing lyrics as well as writing comic sketches. 1919 was a very busy year, with Stamper writing songs for the Follies as well as the Midnight Frolic and the Ziegfeld Nine O'Clock Review both of which appeared in a theater on the roof of the New Amsterdam theater.
Stamper continued as principal songwriter for the Follies of 1920 through 1925, with an additional summer edition in 1923. He returned for the Follies of 1931, the last edition produced by Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
himself.
Other Musicals
While his work with Ziegfeld encompassed the majority of his working life, Stamper and Gene Buck worked for other producers as well. He had songs in two plays - When Claudia Smiles (1914) and Broadway and Buttermilk (1916) prior to traveling to London with Buck to write songs for Zig Zag! which ran for 648 performances at the London Hippodrome. Stamper returned to London in 1918 to write songs for another review Box O' Tricks with Frederick Chapelle, which ran for 625 performances. During his first trip to London, Buck befriended a man who turned out to be a German spy. Two results of this event were fellow passenger Eddie RickenbackerEddie Rickenbacker
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines.-Early...
deciding to enlist to fly, and Dave Stamper having to prove to British police and a Judge that his pages covered with numbers were sheet music rather than a code.
Stamper was fully occupied with work for Ziegfeld until 1927, when Gene Buck hired Stamper to write the music for Take The Air (1927). He also worked for the Schubert organization
Jacob J. Shubert
Jacob J. Shubert was naturalized American theatre owner/operator and producer and a member of the famous theatrical Shubert family....
on Lovely Lady (1927) before returning to Ziegfeld for the 1931 Follies.
He finished out his work on Broadway with Provincetown Follies (1935) which only ran for 63 performances and Orchids Preferred (1937) which closed in a week.
Hollywood
In 1928, Stamper was signed by Fox Film Corporation as a staff composer, remaining there until 1930. He contributed Dance Away the Night and Peasant Love Song to the film Married in HollywoodMarried in Hollywood
Married in Hollywood is an American musical film. The only known footage to survive is a 12-minute fragment from the final reel in Multicolor at UCLA Film and Television Archive. The film is also known as Maritati ad Hollywood in Italy and Pantremmenoi sto Hollywood in Greece...
(1929) often called the first filmed operetta. The film Words and Music
Words and Music (1929 film)
Words and Music is a 1929 American musical comedy film, directed by James Tinling, and starring Lois Moran, David Percy, Helen Twelvetrees, and Frank Albertson...
(1929) featured The Hunting Song, Take a Little Tip and Too Wonderful for Words all written with lyricist Harlan Thompson. In 1930, he contributed Only One and The Gay Heart written with Clare Kummer and Once In A While written with Clare Kummer and Cecil Arnold
to the "singing cowboy" movie One Mad Kiss. and the Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
film Such Men Are Dangerous.
Shine On Harvest Moon
Stamper claimed to have written Shine On Harvest Moon, while the writers of record were his former employers Nora BayesNora Bayes
Nora Bayes was a popular American singer, comedienne and actress of the early 20th century.-Early life and career:...
and Jack Norworth
Jack Norworth
Jack Norworth was a U.S. songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.Norworth is credited as co-writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wrote the lyrics of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in 1908, his most long lasting hit. But it wasn't until 1940 that he actually witnessed a Major...
. Stamper's claim was supported by vaudeville comic Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
in his 1934 book Ziegfeld, The Great Glorifier and David Ewen's All the Years of American Popular Music.
Stamper was working as a pianist rather than as a songwriter at the time the song appeared but never learned how to read or write using traditional music notation thus he would have not been able submit the song for copyright, or produce sheet music to prove his claim. Bayes and Norworth compelled Stamper at one point to wear stage make-up to appear Japanese, apparently to keep him from being interviewed by reporters.
In popular culture
Stamper's caricature was on the wall at Sardi's restaurant.Stamper and Buck's song The Shakespearian Rag appears in T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land
The Waste Land
The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...
:
Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
and George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
mentioned Stamper in their play June Moon
June Moon
June Moon is a play by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. Based on the Lardner short story "Some Like Them Cold," about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started, it includes songs with words and music by Lardner but is not considered a musical per se.At its center is Fred...
:
John Hyams played Stamper in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 musical film produced by MGM. A fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin...
starring William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
, which won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. His songwriting partner Gene Buck was played by William Demarest
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...
, best known as "Uncle Charley" on the TV show My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
.