In 1895, he was working for a Minstrel troupe as a 'stick-dancer', and a composer. (Ben wrote both the words and music.) In 1895, he had his first real hits. One was "You've Been A Good Old Wagon, But You've Done Broke Down", and the other tune was "Mister Johnson Turn Me Loose". ('Mister Johnson' was a negro euphemism for a policeman.)
Harney arrived in New York City ca. 1896, and started playing his piano rags at the Tony Pastor Music Hall. His act consisted of playing and singing his own tunes. He had a negro helper in the audience by the name of Strap Hill. Strap would sit in the audience and sing a 'shout'. (Is this one of the earliest examples of the use of a 'stooge' by an act?), Ben would repeat it on stage, and Hill would then go up onto the stage, and the pair would continue their performance together.
In 1897, Harney's publisher, Isidor Witmark, published Harney's 'Ragtime Instructor', a book of lessons on how to play piano rags. In the book, Ben promoted his thesis that rags were not a composition, but rather a style of playing. Any song might be 'ragged by placing the accent on the off beat'. In this work, Ben gave examples of rag-ing the classics, such as Rubinstein's "Melody in F"; Mascagni's "Intermezzo" from the Cavalleria Rusticana, and Mendelson's "Spring Song".
From all the foregoing, we see that Harney may have been one of the first White men to write piano rags and to put his ragtime effects on paper. He certainly did much to introduce piano rags to New Yorkers, and the rest of the country.
Ben's last vaudeville appearance was in 1923. He died of a Heart Attack, in Philadelphia, in 1938
While still in high school, Harnick wrote some parodies and comic poems for the school newspaper. He then met a fellow student who shared his love of writing, and the two finally sold some material to a Chicago comic. During this time, Sheldon was also working as a musician (violin) wherever he could find work.
In 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during WW11. In 1946, after serving three years, he was honorably discharged. While in the service, Sheldon often performed his own works at various USO shows and such. During this time, he met a fellow soldier, Saul Lerner, who was a theatrical agent in civilian life. After his discharge, he enrolled at Northwestern University, where he became friends with another student, Charlotte Rae.
After matriculating at Northwestern, he became resident in New York City, where his brother Jay was working in the chorus of the show 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'. Harnick's uncle set up an appointment with Jay Gorney ("Brother Can You Spare a Dime?", -a "Yip" Harburg lyric). Gorney was very encouraging. Then, Charlotte Rae who was working at the 'Village Gate' club, introduced him to "Yip" Harburg, and he too encouraged Sheldon to continue.
Some of Harnick's very first material appeared in Leonard Sillman's off-Broadway show 'New Faces of 1952'. (That show introduced some very young stars-to-be including Eartha Kitt.) Harnick had married a girl he met while at Northwestern Univ., and she was now helping to support the family by working in the Broadway show 'Top Banana', starring Phil Silvers. Interestingly, some of Harnick's Lyrics were used in the show 'Two's Company' (starring famed actress Bette Davis). The music was done by the show's young pianist David Baker.
Harnick next tried his hand at the "Pop" market, and started working with composer Phil Springer, who already had a few hits. But Harnick was to find that the best songs he did were the theatrical variety. His friend, composer Jay Gorney, encouraged him in this direction. At first, Harnick was writing both the words and the music, but it was Jay Gorney who told him that there were more good composers than lyricists. Gorney told him that people were always looking for a good lyricist. They were hard to find!
His first music partner was David Baker, the pianist with whom he had worked on the 'Two's Company' show. but not too much happened for them, and they split up amicably.
In 1956, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, had done the book and the lyrics for the show 'Shangri-La'. After they became committed to doing another play, 'Auntie Mame', Harnick was called in to do some secret repairs on the lyrics of Shangri-La. There, the actor Jack Cassidy introduced him to composer Jerry Bock, who had just split up with lyricist Larry Holofcener. Holofcener and Bock had written the score for 'Mr Wonderful'.
In 1958, the Harnick and Bock era commenced. Their first Broadway score for 'The Body Beautiful' opened in Dallas, TX, and ran for 60 performances on Broadway before closing. The critics panned the show, but the producing team of George Abbott and Robert Griffith liked what they heard. They immediately hired Jerry Bock to do the music for a new show they were preparing, called 'Fiorello!', but they weren't sure that they wanted Harnick. But, after going through lyricists Jerome Weidman; Yip Harburg; Steven Sondheim , and Marshall Barer, they finally settled on Harnick.
1959 'Fiorello!' opened on Broadway and enjoyed a run of 795 performances.
The Broadway show 'The Apple Tree' was their next effort. It ran for 463 performances.
Harnick then worked with Richard Rodgers on the play 'Rex', which unfortunately was a box office failure, running just 49 performances.
Harnick continues (2002) to be active in the theater, - to everyone's joy.
Among his TV work are scores for episodes in many series including "Cannon", "Death Valley Days", "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The F.B.I.", "The Joey Bishop Show", and "The Incredible Hulk". In 1960, he composed the suite "Bacchanale"; parts of which were recorded by the 'Frank De Vol Orchestra' for Columbia Records.
As a child, Harris' family moved to Milwaukee, WI, where Harris grew up attending the local schools. While still a child, he became so fond of minstrel shows, that he made a banjo for himself out of an empty oyster can and some wire. A little later, a touring vaudeville entertainer gave him a real banjo. He taught himself so well, that before long he was able to get jobs in the local theaters. He even gave lessons to younger pupils. In 1883, when he was just 16, he taught himself to play the piano.
Shortly afterwards, he convinced himself that he could write songs, - to order. He managed to contact producer Nat Goodwin and convinced him to interpolate "Since Maggie Learned to Skate" into Goodwin's show 'The Skating Rink'. He followed this with other songs:
Shortly thereafter, he had his hit song, a huge million seller, "After The Ball", for which he wrote both words and music. (See Note
below.)
Charlie Harris was certainly a prolific composer, yet only three of his other songs ever achieved national fame.
Charles Harris also wrote a few stage plays, including 'The Barker' and 'The Luckiest Man in the World'. He also wrote scenarios for several silent movies. Harris was also one of the co-founders of ASCAP, (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).
He died in New York City, in 1930, at age 63.
Postscript:
NOTE on "After The Ball" ("the granddaddy of all smash hits":
Soon after, the tune was interpolated into the Broadway show 'A Trip to Chinatown', (opened February 12, 1894 and ran 7 weeks) The lyric tells of a young woman whose sweetheart sees her kissing another man at a dance. Her sweetheart refuses to listen to her explanation. The devastated suitor spurns her but never marries. Years later, he learns that she was kissing her brother. In the play, performer J. Aldrich Libby sang it (and shared the royalties). The song 'brought down the house'. Within few years, the song had sold over 5 million copies of sheet music. (Harris's publishing house became a big success.) Harris later claimed that "After the Ball" had earned him $10 million. At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, John Phillip Sousa included it in his daily concerts.
Harnell (with co-author Ira Skutch) has written his autobiography Counterpoint: The Journey of a Music Man. (Xlibris Corporation (ISBN 0-7388-4990-1)) In that work, Harnell spoke of his alcoholic father, Philip, who had been a Vaudevillian briefly before becoming a baker. By age 13, Joe, playing in his father's Klezmer band, had mastered the Jewish, Italian and society repertoire
In the autobiography, Harnell mentioned that among his high school band mates were "Shorty" Rogers on trumpet, and Hugo Montenegro on drums. Other classmates included Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, Irving Fine and John Corigliano, all of whom were following careers in Classical music. (Harnell called himself a "pot smoking jazzer".) He went on to study composition with William Walton, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. From 1947 through 1951, he attended Tanglewood where his roommate was Lukas Foss.
He frequented New York Jazz clubs, and worked with such men as Muggsy Spanier, Wingy Manone, and Dizzy Gillespie. (In his book, Joe mentions the interesting fact that Wingy Manone would often smuggle marijuana across the Mexican border inside his prosthetic arm.)
In the 1940s, Harnell became a licensed Pilot. In the 1950s, he was playing in Broadway shows and gigs with society band leader Lester Lanin. In 1963,Harnell, -recording as 'Joe Harnell And His Orchestra', had a big hit with his Kapp Records release of "Fly Me To The Moon-Bossa Nova", a re-do of "In Other Words" (Bart Howard).
From 1967 to 1973, after working at an Ad agency, Harnell became musical director with The Mike Douglas Show. That's where he worked with such stars as Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and even Senator Barry Goldwater once performed on the trombone.
1973 was a somewhat eventful year for Harnell. In his book, Harnell mentions that in April of 1973, while still music director of the Douglas show, his troubles with alcoholism came to a head. A fellow musician (that he only calls "Eddie)" took him to his first AA meeting. Also in 1973, Harnell relocated to California and began to work in the Hollywood studios, eventually working on some
19 films, starting in 1976 with The Bionic Woman, and 1977s The Incredible Hulk, to 1994s Hebrew Language documentary (narrated by Gregory Peck) L'Hidato Shel Adolf Eichmann .
In 1986, he won an Emmy for his score to the TV science fiction mini-series, "V".
In his autobiography, Harnell credited his AA sponsor of 27 years, and his 4th marriage to Alice as being primary positive forces in his
life. (Significantly, the book is dedicated to Alice.)
Ben Harney
b. ca. 1872, d. Feb. 28, 1938 Philadelphia, PA, USA.
né: Benjamin Robertson Harney
Little is known of the early life of this great vaudevillian. He is remembered today as a pioneer writer of piano rags, but we have no knowledge of when he learned to play the piano. The first mention of him comes as a piano accompanist to a touring negro vaudeville performer. Later, he seems to have been a saloon piano player in Kansas City and St. Louis, and other midwestern cities.
Sheldon Harnick
b. April 30, 1924, Chicago, IL, USA.
Harnick has said that was exposed to a number of different influences in his youth that helped to shape his future. The violin lessons that he took at age eight was his musical side. His mother loved to write a poem celebrating each family occasion, and so too, Sheldon and his sister would also try to write a poem to celebrate different situations. He also had an uncle who was a singer in some Gilbert and Sullivan shows, and that's where Sheldon learned to love the theater.
1960 'Tenderloin' opened on Broadway, with a Harnick and Bock score.
1963 'She Loves Me' opened. Harnick and Bock score. With songs as:
"My North Avenue Drugstore"
'Fiddler on the Roof', had a run of 3,242 performances. With songs as:
"Tradition"
"Sunrise, Sunset"
"Do You Love Me?"
"Now I Have Everything"
"Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Find Me a Match"
The Broadway show 'The Rothchilds' followed.
The Rothchilds was the cause of some friction between Bock and Harnick. The shows original director Derek Goldby was replaced by Michael Kidd because some thought that he was a 'straight' show director not a 'musical' director. Jerry Bock did not feel that way, but Sheldon Harnick did. The two men drifted apart, but not acrimoniously. Albert Harris
This English composer emigrated to the West Coast of the U.S. where he found a career as a composer, conductor and teacher. During the 1950's, he was music director for NBC, and also taught music as a guest lecturer at UCLA.
Charles Kassell Harris
b. May 1, 1867, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., d. Dec. 22, 1930, New York, N.Y.
Harris is America's very first working music composer and lyricist. In the late 1800's, he opened an office in Milwaukee, and hung out a shingle that said "Charles K. Harris, Banjoist and Songwriter. Songs written to order."
"Let's Kiss and Make Up"
"Thou Art Ever In My Thoughts"
"Creep, Baby, Creep"
At first he allowed performers to use his songs without any payment. But it became clear that he would have to publish his songs if he was to make any money at songwriting. He opened a one room office on Grand Avenue, Milwaukee, and hung out his "Songs to order" shingle.
"Break the News to Mother", originally about a fireman, but revised
in 1897 reflecting the reality of the Spanish-American War.
The 1901 hit "Hello Central, Give Me Heaven" was the first of the Telephone song genre.
In 1903, Harris' waltz "Always in the Way" was a big success.
Some of his other songs are:
"I've Just Come to Say Goodbye"
"For Old Times Sake"
"There'll Come a Time"
"Better Than Gold"
"The Best Things in Life"
"I've a Longing in My Heart for You, Louise"
"Would You Care?"
"One Night in June"
"'Mid the Green Fields of Virginia"
"Nobody Knows, Nobody Cares"
Harris wrote a book called "How to Write a Popular Song". In it, he shared his rules for writing songs;
1. Look at newspaper for your story line.
2. Acquaint youself with the style in vogue.
3. Avoid slang.
4. Know the Copyright Laws.
(In his day, only 1 and 2 were valid. --Ed.)
In 1892, the actor Sam Doctor sang this song for the first time in a Milwaukee theater. The song was a flop, mainly due to Sam's forgetting the lyric halfway through the song.
Joseph Harnell
b. Aug. 2, 1924, New York (The Bronx), NY, USA.
Overview:
This 'Grammy' and 'Emmy' Awards-winning pianist, composer, arranger and conductor has worked as musical director for such stars as Frank Sinatra, Robert Goulet, Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Julius LaRosa, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Carol Lawrence, and Pearl Bailey.