“The International Jew” Study Hour presents:  Carolyn Yeager and Hadding Scott  read and comment on Chapter 48, “How the Jewish Song Trust Makes You Sing.”

Jews did not create the popular song, but they debased it. Before it became a Jewish industry, popular songs were created by individuals who worked for satisfaction, not the product of song factories whose goal was to “corner the market.” This chapter compares pre-1918 popular songs with Jewish jazz, an example of which was the self-proclaimed “King of Jazz” Joe Frisco (pictured right).

Another Jewish contribution was “The Vamp” – it started with Morris Gest’s immoral theatre spectacle “Aphrodite.” Eddie Cantor, when singing Irving Berlin tunes, knew just how to roll his eyes at the suggestive parts of the lyrics to bring down the house, such as in You’d Be Surprised, about Johnny who wasn’t much in public, but when he got Mary home, or in any other private location, “you’d be surprised.”

The Music Publishers’ Association was organized by S. Silberman and M. Goodman, and eventually included all the Jewish song manufacturers. It still exists today.

Image: Joe “Frisco” Rooney (real name Louis Wilson Joseph) was a stuttering Jewish comedian whose jazz dance style named “Do the Frisco” was usually performed to the “Darktown Strutters Ball.”  He shuffled his feet, rolled his hips and contorted his body. Variety called it the “Jewish Charleston.”

Note: We are using the Noontide Press publication of The International Jew — The World’s Foremost Problem which can be found online here as a pdf file.