Gus Edwards - In My Merry Oldsmobile 1905

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Uploaded by on May 13, 2011

"In My Merry Oldsmobile" is a popular song from 1905, with music by Gus Edwards and lyrics by Vincent P. Bryan.The song's chorus is one of the most enduring automobile-oriented songs. The verses, which are slightly suggestive (by 1905 standards) and contain quaint terms for lovemaking, are seldom heard today. Gus Edwards (18 August 1879 -- 7 November 1945) was an American songwriter and vaudevillian. He also organised his own theatre companies and was a music publisher. Edwards was born Gus Simon in Hohensalza (Inowrocław), German Empire. When he was seven, his family moved to the United States, ending up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. During the day, he worked in the family cigar store, and in the evenings, he wandered looking for any sort of show business job. He found work as a singer at various lodge halls, on ferry boat lounges, in saloons, and even between bouts at the athletic clubs. There is a story that in the early 1890s Edwards met up with famed prizefighter John L. Sullivan, by then working in vaudeville, who was so impressed with the youngster that he decided to employ him in his act. As a very young boy, Edwards worked as a song plugger at Koster and Bial's, at Tony Pastor's theatre, and at the Bowery Theatre. In those old vaudeville days, song publishers would often hire a very young boy to sit in the theatre, and immediately after a vaudeville star had sung one of the publisher's songs, the youngster would stand up in the audience, and pretending to be completely overcome by the song, break out in an "extemporaneous" solo of the same tune. In this way, the young Edwards would often sit in a balcony seat, and then stand and repeat a song that vaudeville stars such as Maggie Cline, Lottie Gilson or Emma Carus had just sung.

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  • Very cool post...thanks ^_^

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