THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION AND TIN PAN ALLEY: ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY SONG IN THE UNITED STATES, 1917-1927 By BRIAN HOLDER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Brian Holder 2 To Lauren, Murphy, and Rufio. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of my supervisory committee and the many other professors who have guided me through my years at the University of Florida. Specifically I thank David Z. Kushner for his mentorship and inspiration. It has been an honor to study and work within his musicology program. Additional help and advice came from Robena Cornwell, Michele Wilbanks, and Mary Wood at the University of Florida Music Library, Jim Liversidge at the University of Florida Popular Culture Collections, the Performing Arts Reading Room staff at the Library of Congress, Nancy Mason, assistant to the Milne Special Collections at the University of New Hampshire, the Duke University Special Collections staff, sheet music collector and lecturer Lee Schreiner, and Bernard Parker, author and World War I song collector. I am very grateful for their assistance. My colleagues at Santa Fe College have also been very supportive during the preparation of this study. I appreciate their encouragement and understanding. I thank David Goldblatt for his willingness to both sing and accompany himself in performance of Let’s knock the bull out of the Bolsheviki. Finally I thank my mother, whose gift of the sheet music Johnny’s in town sparked an interest in the music of the First World War. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................12 Project Overview ....................................................................................................................12 Need for the Study..................................................................................................................16 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................18 2 TIN PAN ALLEY AND POST-REVOLUTION POLITICS ................................................25 Popular Music and Propaganda ..............................................................................................25 Demobilization and the Red Scare .........................................................................................30 3 INFLUENCE OF BOLSHEVIK IDEOLOGY.......................................................................43 Bolshevik anxiety and the Red Flag .......................................................................................43 Industrial Concerns.................................................................................................................48 4 IMAGES OF RUSSIAN CULTURE .....................................................................................60 Dance ......................................................................................................................................60 Beards and Vodka...................................................................................................................62 Fashion....................................................................................................................................65 Bolshevik ................................................................................................................................67 5 PARODY, IMITATION, AND MOCKERY .........................................................................87 Russian Rag ...........................................................................................................................88 Nikita Balieff and the Chauve-Souris.....................................................................................97 6 BEYOND THE RED SCARE..............................................................................................121 Assimilation and Nostalgia...................................................................................................122 Song of the Flame .................................................................................................................126 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................133 APPENDIX A BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE L. COBB ...............................................................................145 5 B DISCOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................152 C SHEET MUSIC SOURCES .................................................................................................163 LIST OF REFERENCES.............................................................................................................165 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................171 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 Charles McCarron and Carey Morgan, The Russians Were Rushin’, the Yanks Started Yankin’, mm. 45-64............................................................................................................41 2-2 “What A Year Has Brought Forth”, Literary Digest (22 November, 1919) 15.................42 3-1 Irving Berlin, That Revolutionary Rag, mm. 1-7...............................................................54 3-2 Irving Berlin, Look Out For The Bolsheviki Man, mm. 1-7. .............................................55 3-3 “Coming Out of the Smoke”, Literary Digest (11 October, 1919) 12...............................56 3-4 Douglas Fairbanks and A. Liebich, The Advancing Proletaire.........................................57 3-5 Leo Friedman and M.L. Jennings, We’ll Never Change the Blue and White to Red.........58 3-6 “At the Place of Decision”, Literary Digest (25 October, 1919) 13..................................59 4-1 Celia Aubert, Cossack Dance. ...........................................................................................72 4-2 “Oh, You Fox-Trotsky!”, Literary Digest (19 June, 1920) 27. .........................................73 4-3 Ben Russell and Henry Tobias, Katinka, mm. 59-66. .......................................................74 4-4 “Curses: It Won’t Explode In America”, Literary Digest (18 October, 1919) 12.............75 4-5 “Cause and Consequence”, Literary Digest (29 November, 1919) 18..............................76 4-6 George Gershwin and Herbert Stothart, Vodka, mm. 5-8..................................................77 4-7 George Gershwin and Herbert Stothart, Cossack Love Song. ...........................................78 4-8 Woman putting flask in her Russian boot, Washington, D.C. National Photo Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC- USZ62-97941.....................................................................................................................79 4-9 Gus Kahn, Harry Richman, and Ted Shapiro, Rose of the Volga......................................80 4-10 Meyer Gusman, James Kendis, Frank Samuels, and Harvey Samuels, Underneath the Russian Moon...............................................................................................................81 4-11 Ben Russell and Henry Tobias, Katinka: A Russian Fox Trot-Sky....................................82 4-12 George White and Arthur J. Jackson, Bolsheviki...............................................................83 4-13 Moe Jaffe and Nat Bonx, Bolshevik, mm 71-78. ...............................................................84 7 4-14 “President Paderewski Rides Into Warsaw”, Literary Digest (17 May, 1919) 29. ...........85 4-15 Moe Jaffe and Nat Bonx, Bolshevik, mm 43-52. ...............................................................86 5-1 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C# minor, op.3, no. 2, mm. 1-6. .................................107 5-2 George L. Cobb, Russian Rag, mm. 1-12........................................................................108 5-3 Rhea McMurray from the cover of the Russian Rag. ......................................................109 5-4 Charles F. Gall, Olga: Russian Rag.................................................................................110 5-5 The Six Brown Brothers Clown Band as featured on the cover of the Russian Rag.......111 5-6 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C# minor, op. 3, no. 2, mm. 15-17. ............................112 5-7 George L. Cobb, New Russian Rag, mm. 76-79..............................................................113 5-8 George L. Cobb, Russian Rag arranged for solo accordion. ...........................................114 5-9 Sergei Rachmaninoff and George L. Cobb from the cover of the New Russian Rag......115 5-10 Melody of Bolshevik as recorded by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, mm. 1-14. Transcribed by the author. ...............................................................................................116