Whispering Jack Smith

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Whispering Jack Smith , actually Jacob J. Schmidt (born May 30, 1896 in New York City ; died May 13, 1950 there ) was an American pianist and cabaret singer who was known as a "whispering baritone " in the 1920s and 1930s became known and appeared on theatrical stages, as well as in some music films.

Act

Schmidt was the sixth child of the German immigrants Charles Henry Schmidt and Anna (née Staab). Due to an injury from a poison gas attack that he sustained during World War I , Schmidt was unable to sing loudly, which supposedly led to his whispering style of singing. Through this he became known and the pseudonym "Whispering Jack Smith" was derived from it. His style was well received by the audience, so that he found many imitators. He first worked for the McLaughlin Agency in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . He signed his engagements as Jack Smith. His performances were influenced by jazz .

HMV EG 962 I kiss your hand, Madame (In Dreams I Kiss Your Hand, Madame)

Aside from his musical career, he started around 1917 in vaudeville and as a singer in smaller productions on Broadway and made his way as a singer without a permanent job. He got a job as an English song plugger for 'Liedinterpretierer, Liedwerber' at the music publisher Irving Berlin . His job was to play and sing popular pieces to motivate customers to buy the sheet music. From 1923 he was employed as a pianist at the New York radio station WMCA and his work concentrated on radio recordings. He had worked in an early sound film about The Revelers in December 1926 , but he became much better known for his recordings in the mid-1920s.

In August 1925, unpublished test recordings were made ( Alone at last and My sweetie turned me down ). On September 15, 1925, his first record Cecilia and I care for her and she cares for me was released, around 45 other titles under the label of the Victor Talking Machine Company and His Master's Voice followed. On April 28, 1927, the recording of the song Me and My Shadow (music: Dave Dreyer , Al Jolson ; lyrics: Billy Rose ) was made by Larry Spier Music LLC. In 1928 he recorded a version of the song I kiss her hand, Madame in English and German. A recording of the song Ramona could be heard on the B-side . He died in 1950 after a heart attack and was buried in the Saint Raymond's Cemetery.

reception

  • The piece The Whispering Baritone (sung by Oskar Karlweis ) from the music review Es ist im Luft by Marcellus Schiffer and Mischa Spoliansky from 1928 is dedicated to him and his singing.
  • Eugene Schmidt, a great-nephew of the artist, began collecting materials about his relatives and about the actress Peggy O'Neil in 2005 and wrote down events from their lives in a novel. "Whispering Jack" and "Sweet Peggy O" met in the 1920s.

Filmography

He was active in three films as Whispering Jack Smith.

  • 1930: Happy Days
  • 1930: Cheer Up and Smile
  • 1930: The Big Party

literature

  • Michael Pitts, Frank Hoffmann, Dick Carty, Jim Bedoian: The Rise of the Crooners: Gene Austin, Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Nick Lucas, Johnny Marvin and Rudy Vallee . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. 2001, ISBN 1-4617-0712-9 , pp. 14-17 (English, books.google.de ).
  • Don Tyler: Hit Songs, 1900–1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era . McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-2946-2 , pp. 474 (English, books.google.de - reading sample).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jim Cox: Musicmakers of Network Radio. 24 Entertainers, 1926-1962 . McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-8962-6 , pp. 277 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ I kiss her hand, Madame  in the  Audio Archive - Internet Archive
  3. ^ Cecilia  in the  audio archive - Internet Archive
  4. ^ Whispering Jack Smith - gramophone and shellac records portal 78rpm. grammophon-platten.de, accessed on January 14, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Original versions of Me and My Shadow written by Dave Dreyer, Al Jolson, Billy Rose. SecondHandSongs, accessed January 15, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ramona by Jack Smith; Mabel Wayne; L. Wolfe-Gilbert  in the  audio archive - Internet Archive
  7. ↑ Jacob “Whispering Jack Smith” Schmidt in the Find a Grave database . Accessed January 13, 2019.
  8. ↑ Len Platt, Tobias Becker, David Linton: Popular Musical Theater in London and Berlin: 1890 to 1939 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-05100-3 , pp. 195–197 ( books.google.de - reading sample).
  9. ^ Eugene Schmidt: Whispering Jack & Peggy 'O' . LLC Tate Publishing & Enterprises, Mustang, Oklahoma 2014, ISBN 978-1-62854-928-7 .
  10. ^ Edwin M. Bradley: Happy Days . In: The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932 . McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2004, ISBN 0-7864-2029-4 , pp. 267–268 ( books.google.de - reading sample).
  11. ^ Edwin M. Bradley: Cheer Up and Smile . In: The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932 . McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2004, ISBN 0-7864-2029-4 , pp. 159–160 ( books.google.de - reading sample).
  12. ^ Edwin M. Bradley: The Big Party . In: The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932 . McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2004, ISBN 0-7864-2029-4 , pp. 132–133 ( books.google.de - reading excerpt with illustration).
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Whispering Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Jacob J. (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pianist and cabaret singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1950
Place of death New York City