Name Tell Taylor | Role Music composer | |
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Died November 24, 1937, Chicago, Illinois, United States | ||
William "Tell" Taylor (aka Tellie né Tell Roberts; born 28 October 1876 to Jane Roberts, on a farm near the Village of Vanlue, Amanda Township, Hancock County, Ohio — 23 November 1937 Chicago) was an American traveling vaudeville performer, tenor vocalist, playwright, music publisher, composer, and lyricist who had written over 200 popular songs. By far his biggest hit was "Down by the Old Mill Stream" from 1910, one of the most commercially successful Tin Pan Alley publications of the era. The song was published by Forster Music Publisher, Inc. of Chicago. Taylor performed vaudeville theaters and founded a Chicago music publishing house bearing his name. His other notable songs include "He Sleeps Beneath the Soil of France," "I Love You Best of All," "If Dreams Come True," "Little Old Home in the Valley," "Rock Me to Sleep in the Old Rocking Chair," "Some Day," and "When the Maple Leaves Were Falling." Taylor also wrote the Broadway comedies Tiger Lillee and In New York Town.
Contents
Career highlights
Theater
By 1892, at the age of 16, Taylor's name as a thespian began to be published in theater reviews of newspapers in and around New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. Among the plays of that year featuring Taylor was By Wits Outwitted, written by Edward Owings Towne, where Taylor played the audacious hero (Valentine Navaro), and Florence Modena playing the pretty heroine (Fernanda). Taylor also played the part of Bill Smith, a farm hand, in A Glimpse of Paradise, by Frank S. Pixley, a one-act play that often preceded the three-act By Wits Outwitted.Music publishing and songwriting
Before launching his Chicago publishing firm in 1907, Taylor had co-founded one of the original Tin Pan Alley publishing houses in New York City with fellow composer, Ernest R. Ball, and former New York City Mayor who then was a state senator, James J. Walker. In 1918, Earl Kelly Smith (1886–1954), who had been affiliated with Taylor's Chicago publishing house since 1908, opened a branch in New York City. In Chicago, Taylor composed songs and ran his own sheet music publishing firm from 1907 to 1922.Post publishing & singing
In 1922, Taylor sold his Chicago publishing firm and purchased a farm for his parents near his boyhood home, on the outskirts of Findlay, Ohio, and spent the rest of his life there. By 1936, his top selling composition, "Down By The Old Mill Stream," had sold 4 million copies.Death
In the fall of 1937, prior to embarking on a trip to California to discuss a motion picture about his life and career, Taylor entered a Chicago bar and ordered a drink. Tell sat at a table, put his head down to rest and, unexpectedly, died from a heart attack at the age of sixty-one. He was buried in Van Horn Cemetery, Findlay, Ohio.Posthumous lawsuit over song
In 1937, when the original copyright for "Down By The Old Mill Stream" was expiring, Earl Kelly Smith (1886–1954) filed an application to renew the copyright as co-composer. The renewal was granted. Jerry Vogel Music Company began publishing it. Forster Music, which had acquired the rights to the song from the heirs of Tell Taylor, filed suit to stop Vogel from publishing the song. In 1944, a U.S. District Court in New York ruled in favor of Forster.Popular songs
G.W. Setchell Publisher (George William Setchell; 1860–1923), Boston
Forster Music Publisher, Inc., Chicago
Tell Taylor, Chicago
Taylor Music Corp., Chicago
Musical theater (vaudeville)
Marriages
On November 4, 1907, Taylor married Buda Godman (née Helen Julia Godman; 1888– ), the daughter of Otho and Julia Godman (née Conklin) of Chicago. Buda had met Taylor about two years prior when Taylor had been a dinner guest at the St. Joseph's Convent and Academy in Adrian, Michigan, where Helen had been attending school. Taylor had just started his songwriting career and was appearing with a traveling stage company in Adrian. Buda and Tell had become good friends before dinner was over, but did not correspond afterward. Two years later, while attending the performance of "The Girl Question," by Howard, Adams, and Hough, at a theater in Chicago, Buda recognized Tell and sent a note to him backstage, and they became reacquainted. After spending much of their time together lunching and dining during the following week, they met once again for dinner at a downtown Chicago hotel, and sent for a judge to marry them in the hotel's parlor.
In 1910, Tell Taylor filed for divorce from Buda in Chicago. In late September of that year, the divorce was granted, with Tell accusing Buda of having "affinities" with other vaudevillains. In the divorce proceedings, Tell stated that "I married Buda when we both were drunk and I found out she was quite incapable of loyalty to anyone."
On July 8, 1913, Tell Taylor married again to Blanche Irene King (maiden; born 1887) in McLean County, Illinois. In 1921, Blanch filed for, and was granted a divorce from Tell Taylor in Chicago.
Selected performances
As cast member
- Milwaukee
- La Salle Theater, Chicago