You Can't Stop Me From Lovin' You
New York: Shapiro, Bernstein & CO., Inc., 1931. Presumed First Edition, First printing Thus. Sheet Music. 6 pages. Small portion of top center of pages torn/chipped. Item has wear/soiling. Front is Silver and Black with mostly white lettering, except for the some title, composers and lyricists, and publisher's information). Front cover contains: "Lew Leslie's Rhapsody in Black: A Symphony of Blue Notes and Black Rhythm Starring Ethel Waters. Entire production conceived and staged by Lew Leslie. Songs by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh and Mann Holiner & Alberta Nichols." Striking art-deco cover graphics design in black, white and silver done by Barbelle. Albert Wilfred Barbelle (1887–1957) was an American artist known well for his work in advertising, particularly cover art for sheet music of Tin Pan Alley. The second song in this item is Rocky Mountain Lullaby with word by Marvin Lee and Music By Robert A. King. The music for this is on page 2. Pages 3-5 have You Can't Stop Me From Lovin' You. Page 6 has snippets of six songs with brief commentary and photos of the sheet music covers. While the cover mentions Fields and McHugh, who apparently contributed to Leslie's Rhapsody in Black, neither of the two songs includes were by them. Alberta Nichols (December 3, 1898 – February 4, 1957) was a popular songwriter of the 1930s and 1940s. Together with her husband, lyricist Mann Holiner, they composed over 100 songs, of which their most famous was "A Love Like Ours". Her career spanned writing for vaudeville, radio, musical theater and the movies. In 1931 Nichols and Holiner collaborated with Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin and L.E. Freeman for the Broadway show "Rhapsody in Black" Lew Leslie (April 15, 1888 or 1890 – March 10, 1963) was a Broadway writer and producer. Leslie got his start in show business in vaudeville in his early twenties. Although white, Lew Leslie was the first major impresario to present African-American artists on the Broadway stage. He became famous for his stage shows at the Cotton Club and later for his Blackbirds revues, which he mounted in 1926, 1928, 1930, 1933 and 1939. Blackbirds of 1928 starring Adelaide Hall, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Tim Moore and Aida Ward. It was his most successful revue and ran for over one year on Broadway, where it became the hit of the season. The sell-out show transferred to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France, where it ran for three months before returning to the U.S., where it commenced an American road tour. Adelaide Hall starred in the show for just over two years. The Blackbirds revues helped advance the career of several famous artists, including Florence Mills, Adelaide Hall, Tim Moore, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Aida Ward, Edith Wilson and Lottie Gee. Leslie started his show business career in vaudeville, first as an impressionist then in a double act with Belle Baker to whom he was married for a while. Leslie then put on a revue starring Belle Baker and Bea Palmer at the Café de Paris, which later became the Plantation Club where Leslie staged Plantation Revue, the second edition of which, in 1922, starred Florence Mills and her husband, dancer Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson. Leslie also staged Dixie To Broadway (1924), again starring Mills and Thompson, and then came his Blackbirds revues, which began in London in 1926 with a show also starring Mills. At first, these revues were only moderately successful but they paved the way for the sensational hit, Blackbirds of 1928. In January, 1928, Blackbirds opened at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York under the heading Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, starring Adelaide Hall. On 9 May 1928, the show transferred to the Liberty Theatre, Broadway and was re-titled Blackbirds of 1928. Along with Adelaide Hall, the show also starred Aida Ward and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The show ran until August the following year, playing a total of 518 performances. The songs were composed by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, both of whom worked on revues at the Cotton Club. Their "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" became a perennial favorite. Leslie’s shows that followed included several editions of Blackbirds. Ethel Waters appeared in the 1930 edition in New York, while the 1934 show had Robinson, and the 1936 show featured an appearance by the Nicholas Brothers. The last of the series, Blackbirds of 1939, included Lena Horne. Interspersed amidst these revues were other Leslie ventures, including The International Revue (1930) and Rhapsody In Black (1931). Although not among the leading Broadway moguls of the '20s, Leslie helped make an important contribution to the integrating of the Broadway musical. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: Songs, Composers, Lyricists, African-Americans, Performing Arts, Black Rhythm, Ethel Waters, Negro, Marvin Lee, Robert King, Rocky Mountain, Lullaby
[Book #83113]
Price: $35.00