Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1917 — Who’s Who In Popular Music. [ARTICLE]

Who’s Who In Popular Music.

The Music Trades. There is an old saying that “A prophet is not without honor save in his own country,” but when “Jimmy” Hanley gets back to his home town he will receive a rousing welcome (brass band and all the trimmings), for his popular song “Indiana,” has endeared him to all who call the Hoosier State “home.” Hanley was born in Rensselaer, Ind., Feb. 17, 1893, of old American stbck, and received his early education in a parochial school. He attended Campion University, in Prairie du Chien, Wis., with the intention of becoming a grekt lawyer, but soon found that the long training that all legal lights must necessarily undergo did not appeal to his artistic temperament. He therefore went to Chicago and enrolled at the Art Institution in that city in the hope of developing into a famous cartoonist and collecting a nice, juicy envelope every pay day from some newspaper. Alas! for all his carefully laid plans, art and he could not agree,” so he took a course at the Chicago Musical College and learned the A, B, C’s and K, X, Y, Z’s of the piano. After finishing his studies he went on the vaudeville stage for two years, both as a straight man and pianist, with Alex Carr. After this steady work he felt that he was entitled to a vacation, so he packed his grip and took a ship to London. London did not receive him very cordially. In fact he “went broke” there. This cured him of the wanderlust, and he settled down in New York with the intention of becoming a songwriter and furnishing the great American public with lilting tunes that would haunt it until the wee small hours of the morning. Bernard Granville of the Ziegfeld Follies was just about to enter the music publishing business at this time, and made Hanley his star writer and protege. But Jimmy found that writing popular songs did not take up all of his time and decided to look into the musical-come-dy end of the game. He walked into the Shubert offices one day, announced himself as “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere,” and demanded a hearing. J. J. Shubert was so impressed with lis nerve that he granted him an audience and gave him contracts to write “Yvette” and the Winter Garden show “Robinson Crusoe, Jr.,” in which Al Jolson starred. One day Hanley chanced to be in Shapiro, Bernstein & Co’s, office and was introduced to Ballard Macdonald, the lyric writer, who liked his style of melodies and made an appointment with him to finish up several little ideas. Hanley has since been connected with the above firm as Macdonald’s partner, and has written among others “The Whole World Comes from Dixie,” “War Babies,” and the sensational hit “Indiana,” which is sweeping the country and looks like the biggest hit of the season.

James F. Hanley is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hanley, of Chicago, but formerly of Rensselaer. James is therefore a nephew of Judge Charles W. Hanley.