Still more adventures in research

A way long time ago, during the British Invasion of the mid-'60s, I had a medium-size crush on a British rock-n-roller named Ian Whitcomb. His big hit was "You Turn Me On" and I remember he was a pretty enthusiastic showman on programs like Shindig and Hullabaloo. But even on his first rock album, he had what was probably an old British music-hall song called "Poor But Honest", and he later had a hit with an old Al Jolson tune, "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday on Saturday Night?" And of course, he went on from there to become a much-respected historian of old British music-hall tunes, with his own radio show: I saw him in concert at the Huntington Library several years ago, gray-haired, slender, and cute as ever. He passed away in April of 2020 - I have heard, from COVID, though on-line it's listed as complications from a stroke suffered 8 years previously.


He had an office and did research at the Huntington Library, and this book - After the Ball - is an enormously entertaining and well-researched history of popular music, from the origins of Tin Pan Alley in the 1890s (and what came BEFORE Tin Pan Alley) up to the 1960s. I have no idea if anyone out there is interested in the history of music, but it's great fun and makes a good break between reading student research papers at the end of the semester. (Not that the research papers aren't very good also...)

Back when I was attending the University of Bordeaux in the early '70s, the American students in Dorm B used to take "study breaks" in the evening - meaning we'd cruise to the kitchenettes on the 2nd and 4th floors and spend 15 or 30 or 45 minutes just talking to each other - something the French girls generally didn't do. Reading "After the Ball" is in the nature of "taking a study break." The other "study break" reading I'm doing is this:

a fairly horrifying but extremely entertaining survey of the more appalling things that people used to think would cure illnesses. (Crocodile-dung suppositories, anyone?) 

That said, it's pouring-down rain here in LA and time for me to get back to work. Study break's over.




 

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