EVERYONE KNOWS THE SONG
... NO ONE KNEW THE MAN
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Blue Moon. The Real Story.
By Rodgers & Hart? Not Really.
From the Memoir:
". . .the 'Blue Moon' history, for all of its known convolutedness and remarkableness, actually begins much earlier, its unknown history even more remarkable and convoluted and its agency lying at that very intersection of those final Hart lyrics being either his “simplest or most banal.”
". . .the lyrics. . . .weren’t written by Hart; nor was the melody penned by Rodgers. Rather, the song was composed. . .by a 17-year-old, the son of Polish immigrants, in Troy, across the Hudson River from Albany in upstate New York. His name was Edward W. Roman."
"I know because I am his daughter and because I have always known this story. It’s been a part of my family for all of my growing-up years, the source of whispers about 'that "Blue Moon" thing' among the adults. . .and a matter of curiosity among the more curious of the youngsters, of which I was perhaps the most curious."
Edward W. Roman. Other Songs.
Six Unknown Songs Discovered
From the Memoir:
". . .I’ve been asked. . .didn’t the writer of a song as eternal as 'Blue Moon' write other songs? And to that question I would have had to answer, before I went through my father’s papers in the attic, that I didn’t know."
"But he had. A young club manager and amateur songwriter, Henry R. Dutton—whose name I had never heard until slipping his letter to my father out of its envelope—proposed right after the article about the lawsuit appeared in The Knickerbocker Press that they collaborate."
"Two appear to be complete: “Am I Really in Love?” which I would later learn Dutton copyrighted in 1936, both the melody and lyrics; and “All Because of You,” on which he copyrighted the music."
"The point is that from his skating-on-the-pond in January 1931 that resulted in 'Blue Moon' to the legal statement six years later. . .that the suit had been 'settled and dismissed,' my father was fully in pursuit of his passion."
Blue Moon. The Lawsuit.
Rodgers & Hart Lawsuit Settled? Really.
From the Memoir:
"In. . .The Knickerbocker Press, there’s a picture of my father, young and slim and serious and handsome, in his trademark wireless glasses and wearing a jacket and tie. He’s seated and holding a document with his attorney. . ."
“'Your father,' my Uncle Dom said. . .had gotten chummy with Chris after meeting my mother. Chris had heard the song on the radio; had learned that the sheet music alone had racked up $75,000 in sales in the first year; and insisted they sue."
"My Uncle Dom said Rodgers and Hart called my father, offering to settle for $1,200. . .I asked about the figure being the $900 that I had heard in my youth. But my Uncle Dom countered, no, it had been $1,200, two or three times what most people earned in a year in those days."
Selected Press Coverage of the Lawsuit
