Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1920 — WRITER GETS ONLY $100 FOR “DARDANELLA" [ARTICLE]

WRITER GETS ONLY $100 FOR “DARDANELLA"

New York, July 2.—“Dardanella” is one of the most popular songs ever written in America. Royalties on the piece are reported to have reached $250,000. And Johnnie Black, who composed it, got SIOO. * “Madelon” is the most popular song that has been written in France in a generation. It has made hundreds of thousands of francs for the publishers. The French poilu who wrote it got r nothing—not a centime! —m royalties. — =- — —j“— “ Madelon” was written before the war. It was one of a thousand songs that were heard occasionally. Nobody paid any attention to it. Then the armies were mobilized, the French poilus took it up. The demanded it to march to. • They sang it , It was played by the bands, over and over and over. It spread all over France. Literally all France sang it, whistled it, played it, marched to Every returned Yank can whistle Since the war the French Chamber of Deputies has made it an official national song. A French newspaper has raised a fund for the poilu writer who was glad to give his composition to the publisher just to see it printed. Accepts Small Check. When Johnny Black took Dardanella” to the publishers, they told him it was unusual. Johnny felt proud. When the publisher offered him a check for SIOO, he accepted. Then he became aware that everybody was ringing it and playing it —that it was a hit! Now he is suing for a share of the royalties. These cases would seem to prove that song writing—by the ‘unknown” song writer, is an unprofitable business. But there sr®. •*" ceptions—like Mrs. Thekla Hollings-

worth Andrew, of Joplin, Mo. Listening to a new song hit one day, she said:' “I could write that kind of tiling.”. And she did. “Kiss Me, Dear!” she called it. She went to New York and offered it to a publisher. The trifle he offered made her angry and she went back to Joplin, Mo., and had it published at her own expense. Eight thousand —the entire first edition—were sold in no time in that one neighborhood and more thousands are being printed. But—as has been said—Mrs. Andrew’s case is exceptional. “The strangest case we ever heard of, in fact,” say the dealers who are handling it.