Austin Egen

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Austin Egen (self-portrait)

Augustus Guido Maria Meyer-Eigen (born March 28, 1897 in Graz , Austria , † August 18, 1941 in Frohnleiten , Austria) was an Austrian pianist , singer and composer in the field of popular music . From 1931 he was also active as a singer under the pseudonym Heinz Egon .

Life

Augustus Meyer-Eigen grew up as the son of the actor August Meyer-Eigen (1863-1932), who was born in Ratingen near Düsseldorf , and the Graz opera singer Marie Rochelle (1862-1939), initially in Austria. He received his first music lessons from his mother. In 1911 the family emigrated to the USA. In 1921 Augustus was granted American citizenship due to false information. The name Austin Monroe Eigen and birthplace Milwaukee was entered on his passport . According to his own, now controversial, information, however, he initially wanted to become a diplomat and studied at Dartmouth College . He earned his living as a railroad worker. He laid the foundations for his later career during the war years, when he - without having studied music - sang his own songs in an army camp and began to compose.

From 1921 he used the stage name Austin Egen. In May 1922 he returned to Austria with his mother, who had already bought a house in Frohnleiten , Styria , in 1921 .

On March 17, 1923, Shimmy Shanghai Bay, written by him, appeared in a recording of the Dajos Béla orchestra at Odeon in Berlin. In the same year he moved to Berlin with his mother. There he appeared as a singer and pianist in numerous cabarets and pubs such as Mother Krause in Halensee . In 1924 Egen met the music publisher Curt Max Roehr and published his ragtime Monday Morning Blues in his record company ACME . In 1925 he played as a pianist with Roehr on the saxophone in an amateur jazz band, a year later he married Florence Herzog, Roehr's niece, and became a partner in ACME-AG.

During this time he also worked as a pianist on some recordings for the Eric Borchard Jazz Band and wrote an interlude for the Berlin version of the musical No, No, Nanette . In 1926 he wrote the music to accompany the silent film The Queen of the World Bath , directed by Victor Janson .

From 1927 onwards he made numerous recordings as a baritone singer with the Gramophone Company and Electrola , especially with German versions of American jazz tracks and his own compositions. He worked with the orchestras of Marek Weber , Stefan Weintraub , Arthur Young , Jack Hylton , Emil Roósz and Oskar Joost , composers such as Hermann Leopoldi , Walter Jurmann , Jim Cowler and Franz Grothe as well as the songwriter Fritz Rotter . From 1931 he accompanied a couple of recordings by the Bernard Etté orchestra and the song Eine Nacht in Monte Carlo with the Billy Bartholomew orchestra with his singing under the pseudonym Heinz Egon .

As an actor, he appeared in the films Liebeswalzer , Bokott , Tingel-Tangel , Kyritz-Pyritz , Die Liebesfiliale and So'n Greyhound .

During the banking crisis in 1931 , his father-in-law Roehr's companies had to file for bankruptcy, so that Egen also lost his shares. The rights to his works were taken over by Bosworth Musikverlag , which still holds them today.

In October 1932, Egen moved back to Austria with his family and mostly lived in Frohnleiten. In Vienna he appeared on the radio and made recordings with the Heinz Sandauer Orchestra at Columbia . He became a member of the Society of Authors and Composers AKM in Vienna , to which he also presented an Aryan certificate after the annexation of Austria in 1938 . In his spare time he also worked as a draftsman and sculptor . From 1939 Egen also ran a coffee tavern in Graz.

In 1941 he died of cirrhosis of the liver in Frohnleiten at the age of 44 .

Compositions

Songs

  • With Miss Lisbeth on the ground floor (with Rolf Marbot )
  • Bobby Cohn is out of intercourse for you (from the review Kisses at Midnight by Karl Farkas and Robert Katscher )
  • Women are my weak side
  • Donnerwetter - 1000 women , Berlin 1928
  • You're the dream of love (Dreamland Girl)
  • You're a violet blooming in secret (My Little June Rose)
  • You and I , Berlin 1927
  • A great night (with Charles Amberg and Fred Raymond from the revue "Die Welt um Mitternacht" )
  • Once comes love (with Franz Doelle )
  • Do you remember (My Raggedy Rose)
  • First they say "yes" and then they say "no"
  • The wise Marabou spoke (with Fritz German )
  • I saw her today , Berlin 1929
  • Mr. Boss, I want an advance payment (with Karl Michael May )
  • I don't need sugar
  • I fell in love with a girl on the Rhine (with Franz Doelle and Fritz Rotter)
  • I really like listening to music (from the revue The Train to the West )
  • I know two sweet sisters (with Edgar Allan )
  • I wait for the answer from your heart (with Hans May )
  • I don't want to know anything about Lilly
  • I wish for a man like you (with Bert Reisfeld from the sound film Liebesfiliale )
  • Yup! Yup! Yup! , Insert to the German version of No, No, Nanette , Berlin 1925
  • Yes, yes the women are my weak side
  • Everyone has a treasure, only I don't have one
  • The queen of the world bath
  • Get home safely! from the review Der Zug nach dem Westen , Berlin 1926
  • Come to the normal clock at five (with Rolf Marbot )
  • Come on let's drink brotherhood (We love, we kiss)
  • Come to the moonlight serenade (with Hermann Leopoldi)
  • Darling, go to the North Sea with me (with Will Rollins and Fritz Rotter)
  • Dear old Plato (with Kurt Beddo, T .: Emil Maas ) Vienna 1939
  • I dreamed of the Rhine tonight (alternatively Die Lorelei , from the big film Die Lorelei )
  • Don't make my heart so heavy
  • You give yourself roses when you are in love (with Franz Doelle)
  • Monday Morning Blues (This is the Blues) , from the Ronacherrevue Everything on the radio
  • There is no love without Shimmy
  • The rhythmic movement (with Hermann Leopoldi)
  • Don't say "you" to me when my wife is there (with Franz Doelle and Fritz Rotter)
  • Most beautiful of women (with Franz Doelle)
  • Little Lisa is cute (with Barney Zeemann )
  • I would like to look deep into the eyes of a thousand beautiful, sweet women (with Franz Doelle)
  • Violet blue eyes and a cherry red mouth (with Franz Doelle)
  • Forgive me and be good again
  • From A to Z , Berlin 1925
  • Why did the crocodile (with Kurt Beddo ), Vienna 1939
  • What the uncle doctor says you should always do (with Fritz Rotter)
  • What's wrong with your nose, sweet Emil? (with Franz Doelle)
  • You know what, you can visit me in the afternoon (with Walter Jurmann and Fritz Rotter)
  • If you want to kiss a girl
  • Why is Walter so smart for his age (with Will Rollins and Fritz Rotter)
  • We live, we love, who knows how long (with Will Rollins and Fritz Rotter)
  • Why did the good God create love (with Hermann Leopoldi)
  • At the feet of a sweet woman (with Willy Rosen )

Piano works

  • Shanghai Bay , Berlin 1923
  • Monday Morning Blues , Berlin 1924

Discography (selection)

Filmography

As a film composer

As a singer or an actor

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Egon Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  2. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg: Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the XIX. Century. List, Leipzig 1903, p. 673 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Monika Kornberger: Rochelle, Marie (own Rochel, Maria, married Meyer-Eigen). In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .
  4. ^ Bosworth Music Publishing House: Austin Guy Monroe Egen. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Egen, Austin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer-Eigen, Augustus Guido Maria (real name); Egon, Heinz (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pianist, singer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz , Austria
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1941
Place of death Frohnleiten , Austria