Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
My Wife is on a Diet/Eddie Cantor's Tips on the Stock Market
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-78-2097
Victor.22189
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
Victor
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Citation:
Moses and Frances Asch Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Cantor was a popular comedian and vaudeville star.
Local Numbers:
RSN 18828
General:
Company catalog card included.
U&U caption in file box.
Currently stored in box 3.1.72 [220A].
Orig. no. A-3.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Mack Gordon (1904-1959) was a prolific and successful songwriter, lyricist, and composer. He composed songs for stage and screen. He and Harry Warren won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1943.
Scope and Contents:
The papers document the life and career of songwriter Mack Gordon. They include business records, both personal and business correspondence, contracts, royalty statements, commercially published sheet music, a script for the motion picture Three Little Girls in Blue, photograph albums, a scrapbook of clippings, original music manuscripts, notes and writings that may have served as mnemonic devices for song ideas, an excerpt from the Paramount short film, The Collegians, funeral materials, name change documents, and a passport. The production and creative files give insight into Gordon's creative process, and ideas for lyrics, song titles, and word play are found throughout these files.
The collection is organized in seven series.
Series 1: Production and Creative Files, 1931-1950, undated. This series contains files relating to motion picture and theatrical productions, both produced and unproduced. This series also contains unidentified lyric notes, instrumental sketches, and themes.
Series 2: Business Records, 1931-1975, undated. This series contains business records, royalty contracts, telegrams, correspondence and other business records pertaining to Gordon and his work for theatrical and motion picture companies.
Series 3: Original Music Manuscripts, 1940-1952, undated. This series contains original music manuscripts written by Gordon.
Series 4: Commercial Sheet Music, 1928-1959, undated. This series contains commercially published sheet music. The sheet music was bound by Gordon into volumes he titled, Majors & Minors, there is also a folder of unbound sheet music.
Series 5: Personal and Family, 1935-1977, undated. This series contains personal documents such as passports, life insurance documents, name change documents, the auction catalogue from the sale of furnishings at Gordon's Pacific Palisades home. This series also contains personal correspondence from singer Sandra Werner to Gordon.
Series 6: Photographs, 1933-1956, undated
Series 7: Audio-Visual, 1926
Arrangement:
The collection is organized in seven series.
Series 1: Production and Creative Files, 1931-1950, undated
Series 2: Business Records, 1931-1975, undated
Series 3: Original Music Manuscripts, 1940-1952, undated
Series 4: Commercial Sheet Music, 1928-1959, undated
Series 5: Personal and Family, 1935-1977, undated
Series 6: Photographs, 1933-1956, undated
Series 7: Audio-Visual, 1926
Biographical / Historical:
Mack Gordon was a prolific and successful songwriter, lyricist, and composer who composed songs for stage and screen. Born Morris Gitler (he legally changed his name to Mack Gordon in later life) in Poland on June 21, 1904, his family immigrated to the United States in 1908 and settled in New York. His early career was as a performer in vaudeville and minstrel shows, but by the early 1930s he had formed a songwriting partnership with pianist Harry Revel. Gordon wrote for the Broadway stage and eventually made his way to Hollywood where he worked at a number of different motion picture studios.
In addition to Revel, Gordon worked with such well-known composers as Harry Warren, with whom he won his only Academy Award for Best Song for "You'll Never Know" from Hello Frisco Hello, and Josef Myrow, to name just three. Some of his more famous songs are "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "At Last," and "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?". He was nominated for the Academy Award nine times and became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He died on February 28, 1959 in New York City (some biographies have his date of death as March 1), and is entombed at the Corridor of Immortality at the Home of Peace Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California.
Provenance:
Collection donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution by Jack Gordon, son of Mack Gordon, in 2015.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection includes over 200 replies (160 of which comprise the book) to Mrs. Moore's letter requesting a quotation or a bit of poetry important to the recipient; a copy of her book, "Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies," and materials relating to the speeches both Mrs. Moore and her daughter gave about this collection of letters, such as notes, clippings, etc.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents a book written by Mildred Moore entitled Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies, published in 1940 by the Bookwalter Ball Greathouse Printing Co., Indianapolis. The collection encompasses over 200 replies (160 of which are included in the book) to Mrs. Moore's letter requesting a quotation or a bit of poetry important to them. Also included are a copy of her book, Famous personalities and Their Philosophies, and materials relating to the speeches both Mrs. Moore and her daughter gave about this collection of letters.
2
Series 1 of the collection, the letters received in response to Mrs. Moore's inquiry, has been classified by occupation of the respondent and then arranged alphabetically by name within that classification. Apparently selected at random, the people she contacted were drawn from a wide variety of occupations and interests and include actors, athletes, community leaders, physicians, politicians, royalty, and many others. They are as diverse in background as Babe Ruth and the Prince of Wales, Huey Long and Winston Churchill. Most of the responses are signed by the individuals to whom Mrs. Moore's letter was addressed. Some of these have value as autographs, for example, Helen Keller, Marie of Roumania, and Adolph Hitler.
Series 2 is the book itself, arranged alphabetically with a page devoted to each personality. On each page are brief comments by Mrs. Moore about the person, and his or her favorite quotation and its source. When a second page has been devoted to an individual it is a reproduction of the handwritten response to Mrs. Moore's request (16 out of 160 entries). Sources of the quotations range through the centuries from Confucius to several people alive at the time of the book's publication (1940), but most frequently quoted are the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.
The material in series 3 is devoted largely to notes of Mary Lou White (Mrs. Moore's daughter) relating to the many speeches she made to women's clubs, fraternal organizations, and similar groups concerning her mother's collection, her publicity and that of her mother. There are also a few references to Elizabeth Wenger, who, according to Mary Lou White's notes, was repeating Mildred Moore's endeavor with respect to a later generation.
Series 4 contains replies to a letter requesting a favorite quotation sent to residents of Fort Wayne by Mrs. Moore. Most of these are dated 1932 1933. They have been arranged alphabetically by respondent.
The correspondents include Babe Ruth, the Prince of Wales, Winston Churchill, Huey Long, Helen Keller, Marie of Romania, and Adolf Hitler, and others, such as those listed below.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into four series.
Series 1: Responses to Mildred Moore's letter to famous personalities
Series 2: Publication developed from responses to letter to famous people (book)
Series 3: Development of speeches by Mary Lou White (notes)
Series 4: Responses to letters to prominent Fort Wayne area residents
Biographical / Historical:
Mildred Moore, the pen name for Mildred Galloway, later Mrs. Forest L. Moore, was born on a farm outside Cromwell, Indiana. She read constantly as a child and often wrote verse to express her feelings. Prior to November 13, 1930, when she began writing a column called "This, That And The Other" for the Cromwell Advance, a Fort Wayne newspaper, and one in Waterloo, Indiana, she had worked for several years as a secretary and bookkeeper for the Fort Wayne YMCA.
In 1931, having become interested in what motivated people and in their philosophies, Mildred Moore began to write to famous people seemingly selected at random requesting a quotation or a bit of verse that had been important to them and the development of their philosophy. The resultant book, Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies, includes 160 responses to over 200 letters to people with some claim to fame during the 1930s. Interestingly, the rate of response and acquiescence was very high with few refusals. A few indicated no favorite verse or quotation.
Mildred Moore made speeches about her collection of letters to several hundred groups in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Her daughter, Mary Lou White (Mrs. Charles F. White), also spoke to numerous groups about the letters after her mother's death.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Charles F. White, 1991, April 26.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Probable copyright restrictions on some material in this collection.
