Bolton, Wodehouse, and Kern: The Birth of the Modern Musical

Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, and Jerome Kern changed the face of American musical theater; they basically invented the modern musical comedy. Before Bolton, Wodehouse, and Kern, Broadway shows fell roughly into two types: European-style operettas (The Merry Widow, Naughty Maria) or revue-type offerings, with the bare minimum of a plot interspersed with unrelated (or only tangentially related) songs and dances. To be sure, composers such as George Cohan and Will Marion Cook provided distinctly American-sounding songs to the best of these revues.

But Bolton, Wodehouse, and Kern took things a step further: in their conception, the musical comedy should have a tightly woven, coherent plot, and the songs should not just be catchy and entertaining - they should be vehicles to further the plot and/or reveal more about the characters. Bolton's scripts, Wodehouse's clever lyrics, and Kern's music, memorable and modern, were carefully integrated to form an entertaining, impactful whole.

The team only wrote five shows together, but their influence extended far beyond the sometimes limited run each musical had on Broadway. Their collaborations represent the peak of the "Princess Musicals," that string of shows performed at the smallish Princess Theatre between 1915 and 1919. Not all the trio's musicals ran at the Princess, but they were all in the modern, intimate style of the Princess shows.

In those days, there was no such thing as an "original cast album" - that concept had to wait until Decca recorded the Broadway cast of Oklahoma! in 1943. But as early as 1909, Victor Records began issuing recorded medleys of songs from Broadway shows in their "Gems" series: "Gems from Babes in Toyland," "Gems from The Belle of New York," etc. These usually filled one side of a 12-inch 78 RPM record, so each medley ran about four or four and a half minutes. Victor's Gems were recorded by the company's staff musicians, often very early in a musical's run, so that theater-goers who attended a show could then go to the nearest record store and buy a disc with their favorites.

Four of the five Bolton / Wodehouse / Kern shows got the Victor Gems treatment, and I'm presenting them all here. There are several caveats to keep in mind while listening. First, to fit five or six songs onto one record side, each song had to be abridged - so we only get a verse or two and maybe a chorus of each song. The lyrics are sometimes difficult to make out through the murky recording and surface noise, especially when ensemble singing is involved. And all of these records show the kind of wear you would expect from 110-year-old discs.

Here are the four medleys in chronological order. Each is backed on its record by a medley from an unrelated show; I have only included the sides by our famous triumvirate. Artist credit on all is "Victor Light Opera Company." I have listed the featured vocalists on each number. Enjoy these glimpses into the beginnings of the modern American musical.

Gems from "Have a Heart" - Victor 35624; recorded February 23, 1917

    I'm So Busy (full chorus)
    And I'm All Alone (Elsie Baker)
    The Road That Lies Before (Olive Kline and Reinald Werrenrath)
    Honeymoon Inn (Harry MacDonough)
    You Said Something (Olive Kline and Lucy Isabelle Marsh)

Gems from "Oh, Boy" - Victor 35651; recorded July 19, 1917

    Till the Clouds Roll By (full chorus)
     An Old-Fashioned Wife (female trio)
     You Never Knew About Me (Harry MacDonough and Marguerite Dunlap)
    Rolled Into One (Olive Kline)
    Till the Clouds Roll By (full chorus)

Gems from "Leave It To Jane" - Victor 35666; recorded January 2, 1918        

    Just You Watch My Step (full chorus)
    The Crickets are Calling (Lucy Isabelle Marsh)
    What I'm Longing to Say (Reinald Werrenrath)
    The Sun Shines Brighter (Olive Kline and Harry MacDonough)
    The Siren's Song (Elsie Baker)
    Leave It To Jane (full chorus)            

Gems from "Oh Lady! Lady!" - Victor 35672; recorded March 13, 1918   

    When All the Little Ships Come Sailing Home (full chorus)
     Not Yet (Elsie Baker)
    Before I Met You (Reinald Werrenrath)
    Some Little Girl (female trio)
    She Found Me and I Found You (Olive Kline and Lambert Murphy)
    When All the Little Ships Come Sailing Home (full chorus)