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Jacobs' Band Monthly
FrequencyMonthly
FormatPrint
Digital
Mobile device
FounderWalter Jacobs
Founded1916 (108 years old)
First issueJanuary 1, 1916 (1916-01-01)
CompanyWalter Jacobs, Inc.
CountryUnited States
Based in Boston
LanguageEnglish

Walter Jacobs, Inc., was American publisher of music trade magazines and sheet music. It was founded in Boston around 1908 by its namesake, Robert Walter Jacobs (1868–1945). It's magazines included:

  • Jacobs' Orchestra Monthly was its sister publication, which ran from 1910 through 1941 (Volumes 1 through 32).
  • Jacobs' Band Monthly was an influential American monthly music trade magazine published in Boston that endured for 26 years, from January 1916, through 1941 (Volumes 1 through 26).
  • Melody magazine was the third sister publication, which ran from 1918 to 1930. According to "Perfessor Bill," in March of 1918, The Tuneful Yankee ("a monthly magazine devoted to the interests of popular music, vocal, instrumental mechanical"), which ran from 1917 to 1918 and enjoyed good circulation in the northeast, was recast as Melody magazine, after having absorbed Christensen's Ragtime Review ("A monthly magazine for amateur and professional pianists"), which had been published from 1914 to 1918 by Chicago entrepreneur Axel S. Christensen (1881–1955) (fr). In reality, according to "Perfessor Bill," Jacobs appeared to have bought the Review's mailing list, and Melody magazine went forward using essentially Jacobs' staff, but expanded and with a new look. Melody became a leading journal of jazz.
  • Musical Messenger, a monthly first published October 1891 in Cincinnati by the Fillmore Music House, owned by Frederick Augustus Fillmore (1856–1925), who was related to Henry Fillmore. -1924. merged into Jacobs' Band Monthly in 1924. 1-20 No. 2, 1904-F 1924//. Merged into SHSW %12-20 Ja 1916-F 1924(2 r)% +fl $12/r in WI($15/r outside W
Issued in 3 periods: 1891–1897, founded by James Henry Fillmore (1849–1936) and edited by his brother, Charles Millard Fillmore (1860–1952). It was strictly a religious music publication. 1899–1902; and 1905–1924. The Fillmore Brothers also published The Choir
Selected articles


The Musical Messenger of this article is not to be confused with monthly magazine by the same name, The Musical Messenger, that ran from 1886 to 1891, founded in Montgomery, Alabama, by Amelia Tiligman.
  • Jacobs Music Publishing Co.

Brief history

1892

As early as 1892, Walter Jacobs taught and sold sheet music for mandolin, guitar, banjo, and piano music. His business, in 1892 was at 297 Tremont Street, Boston. In 1893, at 169 Tremont. Beginning 1895, it was a t 167 Tremont, until 1914.

In 1907, Cadenza ("the official organ of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists and Guitarists") moved to Boston when Carence L. Partee sold the magazine to Robert Walter Jacobs (1868–1945), [1] a banjo, mandolin, and guitar (BMG) teacher, composer, and publisher. [2] [3]

Incorporation in 1921

On March 3, 1921, Walter Jacobs, Incorporated, was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts with authorized capital of $250,000 (equivalent to $4,270,522 in 2023), denominated in two share classes: (a) 300 preferred shares and (b) 2,000 common shares; both with a par value of $100 per share. [4] [5]

The firm was located at 8 Bosworth Street. Walter Jacabs was, by then, a nationally known music publisher, editor, and publisher of the popular music magazines, Melody, Jacobs' Orchestra Monthly, Jacobs' Band Monthly and The Cadenza. The incorporators and officers were: Walter Jacobs, president and treasurer; Sarah Aldenia Daniels (maiden; 1882–1970), assistant treasurer; and Howard Parker Cobb (1888–1960) (an accountant, no relation to the ragtime composer, George L. Cobb), all of Boston.

Sale in 1943

Rather than selling his firm (i) after the Crash of 1929 or (ii) throughout the Great Depression that followed, Jacobs maintained the business until 1943, when he sold it all to Arthur Freed, who founded Variety Music, Inc., in Hollywood. In 1944, Solly Loft (né Harry Luft; 1907–1975) left MGM to work for the Walter Jacobs and Variety Music firms in Hollywood. At the time of his death in 1945, the firm was still being conducted in Hollywood as Walter Jacobs, Inc. [6]

Sale in 1947

Interest sold to 20th-Century Fox from Loew and Robbins Music Corporation (owned by MGM since 1934). [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Selected personnel

  • Clifford Vincent Buttelman (1886–1970): in late June of 1930, Clifford Vincent Buttelman (1886–1970) announced his resignation from his post of vice president of the Jacobs company. Buttelman, in 1930, become the first executive secretary for the Music Educators National Conference, and served in that capacity until 1955. He also, from 1930 to 1960, was editor of the Music Educators Journal. [1]
  • In 1917, George Linus Cobb (1886–1942) began a column, "Just Between You and Me," in The Tuneful Yankee, and continued writing for the magazine after the name changed to Melody in 1918.
  • On July 29, 1944, in Alton, New Hampshire — (i) at the age of seventy-six; (ii) a year after selling his business; and (iii) 9 months and 15 days before his death — Jacobs married sixty-one-year-old Sarah Aldenia Daniels (maiden; 1882–1970), the bookkeeper of his firm. Justice of the Peace Frank M. Ayer (1874–1963) performed the ceremony. [13] Jacobs had been living with Daniels and her extended family in Somerville, according to the 1940 U.S. Census.
  • Robert Bruce, editor of Melody in 1935

Digital access

Musical Messenger

Also Volume 12, 1916 via Google Books
Also Volume 14, 1918 via Google Books
Also Volume 15, 1919 via Google Books


Jacobs' Orchestra Monthly

Jacobs' Band Monthly

Volume 1, No. 1: January 1916 [14]
  • Volume 4, 1919 via Google Books; OCLC  656614534, 10046889
  • Volume 6, 1921 via Google Books
  • Volume's 4–7; 1919–1922 via HathiTrust

Addresses

1919: 8 Bosworth Street, Boston
1929: 120 Boylston Street, across the street from the Boston Common

References

  1. ^ a b "Robert Walter Jacobs,", Perfessor Bill (online blog of Bill Edwards: www.perfessorbill.com) (retrieved July 26, 2018)
    Note: Bill Edwards (né William G. Motley III; born 1959), is a prolific researcher of American music and musicians. He is the stepson of actor Sam Edwards (1915–2004).
  2. ^ The Guitar in America – Victorian Era to Jazz Age, Jeffrey J. Noonan, University Press of Mississippi (2008), pps. 33, 37, 224
  3. ^ "Walter Jacobs Buys The Cadenza," " New York Clipper, Vol. 56, No. 18, June 20, 1908, p. 458, col. 3 (top)
  4. ^ "Walter Jacobs Incorporated for $250,000," Jacobs' Band Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 4, April 1921, p. 22
  5. ^ Abstract of the Certificates of Corporations, Massachusetts (1921), p. 76
  6. ^ "Walter Jacobs" (obituary), Boston Globe, May 17, 1945, p. 19, col. 3 (accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/image/433940812)
  7. ^ "20th-Century Fox Buys Loew-Robbins Music Interest," Motion Picture Herald, Vol. 166, No. 10, March 8, 1947, p. 46
  8. ^ "Loew's Returns 150G to Big 3," Billboard, May 10, 1947, p. 19
  9. ^ "Divvy Up," Variety, February 5, 1947, p. 46
  10. ^ Consolidated Chronological Catalog: Robbins Music Corporation, Leo Feist, Inc., Miller Music Corporation, Harry Warren Music, Inc., Walter Jacobs, Inc., Variety Music, Inc., Robbins Music Corporation (1947)
  11. ^ Consolidated Chronological Catalog (Supplement No. 1): Robbins Music Corporation, Leo Feist, Inc., Miller Music Corporation, Lion Music Corporation, Pine Ridge Music Inc., Harry Warren Music, Inc., Walter Jacobs, Inc., Variety Music, Inc., Robbins Music Corporation (1953); OCLC  969905297
  12. ^ Combined Big 3 catalog: Robbins, Feist, Miller, Robbins Music Corporation (1958); OCLC  83193312
  13. ^ "Marriages Registered in the Town of Alton, N.H., for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1944", Annual Reports of the Town of Alton, N.H. – 1944, p. 37
  14. ^ "A Record of New Titles, Changed Titles, and Deaths in the Periodical World" (searching Jacobs' Band Monthly), Bulletin of Bibliography and Dramatic Index, Boston: The F.W. Faxon Company (Frederick Winthrop Faxon; 1866–1936), Vol. 10, No. 1, January 1918, p. 17