“Written As An Ad.” Kansas City Journal, August 27, 1897, page 1.
From Advertisement to Song
Today popular songs are often used as the music for television advertisements. Companies have found that the popularity and familiarity of music may induce consumers to buy their products. While researching my family’s history I found and interesting story where the reverse happened, a song started out as an advertisement and then became popular.
In 1895 a musical score was composed for a poem that had been used in a magazine advertisement for the Wabash Railroad. A poem being used to sell railroad travel sounds a little unusual in today’s world, but back then, just as today, advertisers tried to find innovative ways to grab the public’s interest. At that time, since there wasn’t the variety of entertainment that we have today, when new sheet music came out I’m sure it was similar to the release of a new movie or video game.
The Article
On August 27, 1897 an article with the heading “Written as an Ad" was published on the first page of Kansas City Daily Journal. The article reported that net sales had reached over one hundred thousand copies for the song. The name of the song was “In the Shadow of the Pines."
The story behind the song was that in about 1895 the general passenger agent for the Wabash Railroad, Mr. C. S. Crane, paid Miss Hattie Loomis $1000 for a poem to be published in Godey's magazine, a popular ladies magazine of the time. The magazine was originally named Godey's Lady Book and was published monthly from 1830 to about 1898. Godey’s focused on fashion, education and health and included poetry and songs in each issue. At its most popular Godey’s had a readership numbering 150,000. Godey’s was considered innovative because women worked at the magazine and the format of the magazine is still used today by many women's magazines. A copy of the magazine published sometime in early 1895, with this particular Wabash railroad advertisement wasn’t to be found, but other issues of Godey’s Magazine are available online at Google ebooks.
The Wabash railroad system produced other advertisements aimed specifically at women in several magazines of the time period. A 1905 ad in Good Housekeeping magazine depicts a man and a woman sitting in a railroad car; the man is ardently talking and reaching towards the woman, who appears to be ignoring him. This style fits in with the poem Miss Lummis wrote for her Wabash advertisement since the theme is about broken love and the song’s refrain implores “come back to me sweetheart and love me as before.”
Good Housekeeping Magazine, 1905
The poem Miss Lummis wrote for Godey’s contained the word “Wabash” as an acrostic in the first verse, that is the first letter of the first word in each line of the poem spelled out the word “Wabash.” The newspaper article reported that the second and third verses of the poem contained the name and address of the general passenger agent, Mr. Crane.
We wandered in the shadow of the pines my love and I,
As the wind was blowing freshly from the sea,
But a sudden fitful darkness stole across the summer sky,
And a shadow came between my love and me.
Some hasty words were spoken and then almost unawares
Hasty answers to unthinking anger led.
Further Reading:
Newspaper article, “Written As An Ad.” Kansas City Journal, August 27, 1897, page 1; Library of Congress, Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063615/1897-08-27/ed-1/seq-1/
Godey's Magazine, January 1898 Google ebooks:
http://books.google.com/books?id=J7o7AAAAMAAJ&dq=Godey%20magazine%201898&pg=PA124#v=onepage&q=Godey%20magazine%201898&f=false
Next: More about the article, the composer, and the song.
