Smiles, "The Cyclonic Song Hit"

(source: Jerome H. Remick & Co. ad. in Variety September 27, 1918)

Here is a song that bring joy to a weary heart--that fills to o'erflowing the bosom burdened with war-time anxiety. A song that hits on all six cylinders of musical success-for here is music with a captial E--the singingest, smilingest song sensation in a month of Sundays. A success? Well-you should smile. The greatest fox trot ever written.

Although Lee S. Roberts (1885-1949) lived all but around 15 years of his life in the San Francisco Bay AreaLee S. Roberts (1885-1949) lived all but around 15 years of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, he achieved his greatest fame during 1910s when he lived and worked in Chicago for the QRS Company.

Roberts was already a prolific composer when he came upon the inspiration for the song "Smiles." He attended a business convention where he heard an inspirational speaker describe the importance of smiling. That brought to Robert's mind the lyrics that would become the chorus of "Smiles"

There are smiles that make us happy, and smiles that make us blue.

This phrase became the kernel for a melody that he jotted down on a borrowed piece of paper in 20 minutes. The following day he mailed the melody and a couple of sentences of lyrics to J. Will Callahan, a frequent collaborator. Callahan, who lived in Bay City, Michigan, had been a lawyer but turned to writing song lyrics because his eyesight was failing. He asked his wife to repeatedly play the melody on the piano, then after four hours he dictated the finished lyrics to her.

Roberts first self-published the song in 1917 and unsuccessfully tried to promote it. He then sold it to the Jerome H. Remick company - a major music publisher of that time. Initially, they also had trouble getting dance and hotel orchestras to perform it. The song's fortunes changed when legendary song plugger Jack Robbins found the published song sitting on the stockroom shelves at the Remick offices. He saw potential in the song and successfully promoted it leading to his own first great success.

Placement in the Broadway musical The Passing Show of 1918 was probably the decisive step leading to the success of "Smiles." This production was a variety show in eight scenes produced by the legendary J. J. Shubert at the Winter Garden. The show opened on July 25, 1918 and ran through November 9, 1918. It was a three hour whirlwind of comedic skits, songs and dance numbers and featured the brother and sister team of Fred and Adele Astaire. The music was credited to Sigmund Romberg and Jean Schwartz, but a number of other songs were interpolated into the show. "Smiles" was sung in the fifth act in the middle of the show by Nell Carrington with a girls chorus.

Cover to "Smiles" by Lee S. Roberts and J. Will Callahan (source: Dorothy Starr Collection)

It's hard to gauge the immediate impact of the song within the larger production. The song was not mentioned in the reviews of the show in the New York Times and Variety. That may have been because it was not included the production at the show's opening. It was only mentioned in passing in the Billboard review.

image source: Talkmachine Talk / New Victor Records August 1918

It was a released by Victor Records in August 1918 and according to Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories it was the best selling record of the week of September 9, 1918. This recording by Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra featured vocals by Harry MacDonough. Gracyk believes that this was the first dance recording to feature vocals.

The Joseph C. Smith Orchestra, Harry MacDonough, vocals, performing "Smiles" (Victor 18473)

"Smiles" was also a 1918 hit for vaudevillians Albert Campbell and Henry Burr and operatic tenor Lambert Murphy.

Albert Campbell Henry Burr singing "Smiles" (Columbia A2616)

Lambert Murphy singing "Smiles" (Victor 45155) 

Prince's Band (not that Prince!) played an instrumental arrangement of "Smiles" the same year.

Prince's Band performing "Smiles" (Columbia A6077)

All four of these recordings are from the acoustic era of sound recording -- the period before the use of microphones and amplification.

Lee S. Roberts and Max Kortlander also teamed up to create a piano roll version of "Smiles"

By 1920 "Smiles" had earned its writers $60,000 - equivalent to a million and a half dollars today.

"Smiles" also had a rich afterlife. It was used from the 1920s as the theme song for the Ipana Troubadours' radio program. It was sung by Helen Morgan playing a burlesque singer in the early talking film Applause (1929). Judy Garland sang it in the vaudeville themed film For Me and My Gal (MGM 1942) and Betty Hutton sang it in Somebody Loves Me (1952). It was also used as a recurring theme in the film Ice Palace (Warner Bros., 1960). It also made appearances in Stella Dallas (1934), The Dolly Sisters (1945), What Price Glory (1952), Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952), Elmer Gantry (1960), and Ice Palace (1960).

In addition to being a hit song of Tin Pan Alley, "Smiles" became a standard to be interpreted by many artists over the years (to be explored in the next blog entry).

Bibliography:

Bloom, Ken. American Song: The complete musical theatre companion, 2nd ed., 1877-1995 (Schirmer Books, 1996.

Ewen, David. American Popular Songs from The Revolutionary War to The Present (Random House, 1966).

Ewen, David. All The Years of American Popular Music (Prentice-Hall, 1977).

Gracyk, Tim. Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925 (Haworth Press, 2000).

Green, Abel, "Top Songs for 20 Years," Variety August 21, 1935.

"Jack Robbins Dies; Music Publisher," New York Times December 17, 1959

Jasen, David A. A Century of American Popular Music (1899-1999): 2000 best-loved and remembered songs (Routledge, 2002)

The New York Times Theater Reviews, v.5 1912-1919 (New York Times, 1975.

Norton, Richard C. A Chronology of American Musical Theater (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Popular Music, 1900-1919: An Annotated Guide to American Popular Songs, Including Introductory Essay, Lyricists and Composers Index, Important Performances Index, Chronological Index, and List of Publishers, Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, editor (Gale Research Inc., 1988).

Wickes, E.M., "The Doughboy Has Put Dough in Ragtime," Melody: A Magazine for Lovers of Popular Music August 1920.

Wickes, E.M., "It Pays to Be Different," Billboard June 25, 1921