Description

Joe Morris Music Co [Published Date: 1912] Sheet music, large format (10 x 13.5"). Paper covers, 6 pages (including covers). For voice and piano. With inset photo of Ruby Raymond and Bobby Heath. Beautiful floral and cupid with bells cover design by Starmer. In acceptable+ condition with a few small nicks and tears and light creasing along edges. Some bleeding of the red title onto the other pages and light to moderate overall scuffing, aging and soiling to pages as well, but otherwise unmarked. Dave Manley and Rennie Cormack were active in the early 20th-century music scene, collaborating on works such as Melody Chimes. While little is known about their personal lives, including their birth and death dates, their professional contributions to popular music are notable. Manley primarily worked as a lyricist, and Cormack, a composer, produced several works during his career, including Come to the Beautiful Ragtime Ball (1915) and other pieces with lyricists like Al Dubin. Despite their contributions to early popular music, detailed biographical information on both figures remains unknown. A note about the cover art : Some of the most creative and eye-catching cover art of the ragtime-era were done by one of the prolific, but elusive, Starmer Brothers. Their work was of consistently high quality and they were turning out nearly a quarter of all large format covers from the late 1890s to around 1919. The identity of the artists was unknown until an invoice was discovered with a printed heading describing "Starmer" as artist and medical draughtsman. Not much else is known about the Starmer family.