In 1931, an evening of moonlit ice-skating on a pond in upstate New York inspired a then 17-year-old, Edward W. Roman, the son of Polish immigrants, to compose one of the most iconic of the American standards.

This website makes critical information regarding his involvement with the song, “Blue Moon,” publicly available, much of it for the first time.

Upon Ed Roman’s death in 1992, letters, contracts, photographs, songs, poems, and press clippings found in his attic have lent considerable support for his authorship, as has exhaustive additional research.

The material provides invaluable insights into the history, culture, economics, and personalities of the 1930s, a decade during which radio, talking motion pictures, and the Big Bands forged the mass audience for entertainment that we know today. It offers a window into the era’s musically vibrant Hudson River Valley, whose nightclubs and hotels, church basements and fraternal lodges, roadhouses and dance halls, nurtured some of the most talented performers of the mid-20th century.

It’s vital that this information be accessible to everyone who values Ed Roman’s gift to the world, and to scholars advancing knowledge about the world in which he lived.