Tag Archives: Joan Crawford

Let the Sheet Hit the Wall

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Sheet music, that is. Or rather, the cover art.

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Collecting anything can be an expensive investment. And, if you are just starting out, take my advice. It is easy to start buying things that take up lots of space.  And space, that you probably don’t have.  So let the sheets hit the wall!

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But first a bit of music history. (And no, this is not an ancient 78, 45 or L.P.)

Art Deco Sheet Music

Stone tablet featuring Enheduanna (photo via lithub.com)

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Enheduanna (2300 B.C), an Akkadian princess, is credited with being the first author and composer to capture the essence of music in writing. As the High Priestess, she was a political appointee in Ur (Iraq) installed by her father Sargon 1, King of Akkad. Then tasked with uniting the kingdoms in order for them to accept her father as their ruler. Enheduanna combined the gods of the Akkadians with the gods of the Sumerians into one powerful goddess called Inanna. And she used lyrical poetry to promote Inanna and successfully join the two nations.  If the poetry was set to music, it is lost to time; only her lyric words exist. Her efforts predate “written” music by millennia. While credited with being the first author and composer, she was also a mathematician and astronomer making her the first S.T.E.M participant as well!

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You can read more about this fascinating woman HERE.

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The first known music, or rather the attempt to capture sound, didn’t appear until somewhere between 1450 – 1250 B.C.  Melody notations are found in harp-shaped picograms on cuneiform tablets.

Art Deco Sheet Music

First known written “music” (Getty images)

Flash forward and musical notes annotated on paper or stone were a way to pass on music from one person to another. But it was often rudimentary and meant to be memorized rather than used for performance.

Art Deco Sheet Music

Music notation is the line of occasional symbols above the main, uninterrupted line in this stone from Delphi. (Wikipedia)

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It wasn’t until 1473 that the first sheet music, as we know it, came into being.

Deco Sheet Music

1922 – to hear this song, click HERE (photo via Cooper Hewitt)

“Stumbling” upon  vintage sheet music at your local flea market is easy! They can be inexpensively framed. But no thumb tacks, please. And, you can display and change them out with little effort.  Available are movie tie ins, specific singer, fun graphics, orchestral leaders, and more! And best of all, you can find period sheet music for under $5.00 if not substantially less. (I’ve seen them for as low as $.25.) Though rare examples, as with any collectible, can be substantially more.

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My personal favorites are novelty song with have whimsical covers.

Art Deco Sheet Music

1928 – to hear this song, click HERE   (photo via Amazon)

Art Deco sheet music

1937 – to hear this song, click HERE (via thea.com)

Deco Sheet Music

1936 – to hear this song, click HERE (via thea.com)

 

 

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With so much available media today, we tend to forget that in the early days, there was no television or mass advertising campaigns as we think of them today.  Most people heard orchestral music at their local theaters played against silent films or at a live musical performances. If they liked the music, they’d go to their local music store and buy the sheet music.

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Then, radios became a regular household fixture, essentially the MTV of the day. Music reached larger audiences. And those listeners could opt to purchase the sheet music, a phonograph record, or all three. Marketing was in full swing.

Art Deco

1930 featuring Marilyn Miller – to hear this song, click HERE (photo via ebay)

With the advent of the “talkies”, audiences could not only hear the song but see the performer singing it. And movie studios, always out for a buck, produced sheet music as a form of mass marketing and promotion. Featured was the star that sang the song as well as the name of the movie, opera or an idealized illustrative setting (usually with the star’s picture inserted somewhere as well.)

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Ever aware of the “bottom line”, and as a way to reinforce the product, graphics for a specific movie or show reused designs. But with only the name of the song changed on the cover.

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Then the Big Band era followed suit. Usually featuring a photo of the band leader. And if the band had a popular singer, their picture also.  But it didn’t matter if the band leader had anything to do with the composition of the music.  If they made it popular, their likeness was slapped on the cover. And in show business, that’s “The Name”; a way to draw in the targeted audience.

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And then sometimes, caricatures of the stars are employed, But with more or less success depending on the skill of artist. You can find covers with whimsical cartoons as well.

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But if you want something more refined, they’re available, too.

Deco Sheet Music

1928 – Aileen Stanly – to hear this song, click HERE (capture from YouTube)

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And with such a large catalog available, and at reasonable prices, you are sure to find inexpensive art to suit your interest and liven up your home.

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And, they lay flat for storage!

Chris & Anthony (The Freakin’ ‘tiquen Guys)

I’m “puzzled” how you can be “board”

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The 1920’s and 1930’s were a time of change for this country. Movies gave people, young and old,  the sight and sound experience. However, with the economy in flux, movies were a luxury for many just getting by. Instead, family and friends spent time at home listening to big bands on the gramophone, serial soap operas, news and radio plays on the radio and in – wait for it – conversation. Conversation didn’t just happen around the radio.

Movies were great but talking and gossiping during them made you very unpopular.

A new, inexpensive craze was sweeping the nation.  Jigsaw puzzles and board games could be enjoyed by all. And when completed, you could trade the puzzles with your neighbors.

From “The Jig is Up” (via http://13909antiques.blogspot.com)

Anne Williams tells us in Jigsaw Puzzles: An Illustrated History and Price Guide that a map maker in England cut up a map and sold it as a game in the late eighteenth century, thus producing the first jigsaw puzzle. Chris McCann wrote the history of the Great Jigsaw Puzzle Panic of 1932-1933 which traces the popularity of this hobby in the Northeast United States. In September of 1932 Viking Manufacturing Company of Boston produced 12,000 puzzles which sold out instantly. In December they sold 200,000. In January one half million puzzles sold at newsstands for twenty-five cents each. Puzzle factories sprang up to compete, adding extra shifts to meet the new demand. Six million puzzles were sold at peak. This craze quieted in March of 1933 when FDR closed the banks for two weeks and people were forced to buy only vital necessities. Today there are an estimated ten million puzzles sold each year.

Early jigsaw puzzles did not have true interlocking pieces and sometimes, no picture to guide you! They covered a variety of subjects including storybook characters, historical scenes, fantasy bucolic visions of homes and gardens .

They brought far-off lands into the home as well as historical scenes used for educational purposes.

 As a collectible, vintage jigsaw puzzles are available from $8 to over $100 depending on condition and rarity.

As for board games, Senet, is the earliest known game, created in Egypt, and pictured in a burial fresco from 3300–2700 BC.

Backgammon originated in ancient Persia over is over 5,000 years old.

Flash forward a few millennia and England produced the greyhound racing game. In this game greyhounds race around a track chasing a hare. Two different sized dice are used and the smaller one represents the hare. The players moves their dog in turn, but the hare moves at each throw of the dice.

Two popular games in the 1920’s were American Mahjong, and Billy Whiskers, a loose forerunner of the game Sorry! (1934)

Introduced in 1925, Marseillais Chess is a variant of Chess.  It reached its popularity in the late 1930’s with its final game play rules established  in 1963! In essence, the game played as regular chess but with each opponent taking 2 turns each round. A rule established in 1963 was an exception to game play to avoid an unfair advantage to the white player.

Pegity, also introduced in 1925, is a version or tic-tac-toe for 2-4 players. The goal is to get four of your game pieces in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

The 1930’s saw  Scrabble, Monopoly, Sorry!, The Game of Life, Chutes and Ladders introduced. These games resonated with the public as shown by their continuing popularity.

As board games grew in popularity, Hollywood wanted a part of the action releasing MOVIE MILLIONS, the Glamorous Board Game, a 1930’s studio tie-in.

Vintage board games are a bit more expensive to collect than jigsaw puzzles,  Starting at $15, board games can top several hundreds of dollars.   Vintage Mahjong sets are among the most costly.

Unfortunately, a host of horribly offensive board games based on negative stereotype of Americans of African descent proliferated at this time. Names so offensive I decline to list them.

So the next time your device fails, the power goes out, or your kids say “there’s nothing to do”, break out a puzzle or board game and dabble in some one-on-one conversation the deco way.

 

Chris & Anthony (The Freakin’ ‘tiquen Guys)