Dan on the Record — Michael A Flanagan Irish Music Heritage Inc

by Dan T. Neely

When we think about Irish music and politics, we typically think of songs from the Republican tradition. However, they say that “all politics is local,” and with so much of the early Irish recording industry happening in New York, it’s possible to find evidence of local politics, and in the case of the Flanagan Brothers, specific political affiliation.

Mike’s granddaughter Eileen once told me that her mom Ellen, Mike’s daughter, remembered “You Can't Keep A Good Man Down,” which the Flanagan Brothers recorded for Columbia in 1928, as one of the songs of Smith’s 1928 presidential campaign. A paean to Smith, the song states:

It would be only just and fair

To help him get the Chair

Then the east side, west side

Will go dancing round the town

Oh, USA will have Al some day

You can’t keep a good man down

Eileen even managed to find evidence of the brothers playing at a rally in support of Al Smith’s 1928 campaign bid in Philadelphia, adding to what we know about where they performed. His daughter Kathy remembers hearing stories about him riding in a limousine to Philadelphia.

In the 1928 presidential election, Smith, a Democrat and the then-governor of New York, ran against Herbert Hoover. The two made a fascinating contrast. Smith, on the one hand, represented urban America. He was Catholic, pro-immigrant, and an outspoken opponent of prohibition. Hoover, on the other hand, was a Quaker, a devout, moralistic man and a product of rural America who fashioned himself the “peace and prosperity” candidate. It was a particularly vicious election and one that Hoover ended up winning in a landslide.

Part of Smith’s campaign strategy, though, targeted ethnic urban neighborhoods. Despite his campaign’s disappointing outcome, it was a successful approach that brought Jewish, Italian, Polish, and especially Irish immigrant communities of these areas largely to Smith’s side.

Music seems to have been an important part of how Smith (and really, lots of other politicians) attempted to mobilize to the Irish community. We know he had an early close relationship with Irish song and had a particular affection for the work of the great Ed Harrigan, a founding father of modern musical theatre. According to historian William H.A. Williams, Smith was Commodore of the Harrigan Club, “a banqueting, drinking, and singing society that included a number of prominent New Yorkers, especially politicians” (Williams 271, n.20). In his work, Williams mentions that some of Smith’s favorites from the Harrigan repertory were “Danny By My Side,” from Last of the Hogans (1891) and “Babies on Our Block” from The Mulligan Guards (1879), a pair of songs from shows that recognized and celebrated the Irish-American working class. Popular Irish ditties from vaudeville and tin pan alley that recognized Irish-American identity, Harrigan and beyond, were the stuff that helped tie the local saloon to Tammany Hall.

The music the Flanagan Brothers recorded in 1928 reflects this kind of musical taste. A bit of background here: although Joe and Mike first went into the studio in 1921, it wasn’t until 1926 that the duo first put their voices to record. The songs they recorded in 1926 and 1927 were generally of a comic nature and were sometimes worked into novelty sketches. This type of material continued into 1928 with examples including “Kelly’s House Party,” “Brian O’Lynn,” “Let Ye All Be Irish Tonight,” and was common until their final recording sessions in 1933, when they recorded the “Half Crown Song” (Co 33528).

But in 1928, Joe and Mike began to recorded pro-Irish songs like “Ireland's 32” (Co 33230), “Flanagans At St. Patrick's Parade” (Co 33230), and “The I.R.A.” (Co 33243), each of which expressed a more conspicuous awareness of Irish Identity in America and of politics in Ireland. It was a new direction.

In addition, Joe and Mike recorded a number of popular Irish songs that reflected a more directly political direction, including “The Sidewalks Of New York” (Co 33233) and “You Can't Keep A Good Man Down” (Co 33263). “You Can't Keep A Good Man Down” wasn’t just an extolment of Smith for the campaign trail but, it was melodically related to “The Sidewalks Of New York,” Smith’s theme song, which the Flanagans also recorded in 1928 (Co 33233).

In addition, although it was an old vaudeville number, “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” (Co 33233) the B-side to “Sidewalks,” was also associated with Smith. So much so, in fact, that Gosch & Hammer in their 2013 book The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, quote the gangster years later as saying "a guy like Al Smith, he's a 'Sweet Rosie O'Grady' kind of guy – like the guys we grew up with.” These tracks show the Flanagans were all-in on Smith and his campaign, and were making an effort to cover all their musical bases, including the saloons, Tammany Hall, and everywhere in between.

But wait! There’s more! The day the Flanagans recorded “You Can't Keep A Good Man Down” was also the day they cut “Kelly’s House Party,” the focus of our last post. Looking back at that tune, we find the Flanagans again down the Al Smith rabbit hole. The songs being sung there? Popular songs from Irish-America, the sort that would have been welcome in Smith’s campaigning. That sly reference to “Hennessy V.S.”? It’s a nod towards Smith’s anti-Prohibition stance.

But here’s where it gets even more interesting: the “Jim Egan” that dances a step as Joe plays away? He recorded three solo sides on the very same day “Kelly’s House Party” was recorded: “The Daughter Of Rosie O’Grady” (Co 33354), a song about a working class Irish girl derived from “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” (and a song that Bugs Bunny sang in the 1947 cartoon “A Hare Grows in Manhattan” in a scene that seems to play on a nostalgia for Smith and a New York of yore); “Little Annie Rooney” (Co 33259), a song popularized in 1890s New York by Annie Hart, known as “The Bowery Girl,” that is also the title of a 1925 silent feature about an Irish girl growing up in the slums of New York (the song also happens to appear as part of a medley in the 1935 Max Fleischer cartoon “Musical Memories,” immediately after the Al Smith caricature sings a verse of “Sidewalks of New York” https://youtu.be/-geoILmqpRY?t=117); and finally, “Al Smith” (Co 33259), another paean to the man they say they couldn’t keep down:

by Daniel T. Neely

I’m a fan of the music of the Flanagan Brothers. The music was great, of course, but what I find really interesting is the range of things they recorded. For the first few years following their first records in 1921, all they recorded were dance tunes. But around 1926, they started to do comic sketches. These records are engaging and funny, but some of them tell a story that speaks about Irish New York in a fascinating way. One such track is “Kelly’s House Party.” Recorded in May 1928 for Columbia Records, it’s a sketch that takes the Flanagans to a party. However, it turns out to be more much than that.

The track opens with the sound of Mike snoring away and his older brother Joe trying to rouse him. Turns out there’s a party down at “Kelly’s” that Joe wants to attend. However, Mike’s in no mood – he’s sick from having “eaten so much oatmeal he could hardly stir about.” This oatmeal binge of his was serious business, as it even seems to have affected his sense of time. “One day last week” Mike groans in true W.C. Fields fashion, “I didn’t [get a] wink a sleep for three nights.”

Joe’s keen to make it over to Kelly’s, so he dangles the cure – the promise of a couple bottles of “Hennessy Three Star” (what today would be “Hennessy V.S.”- uh, hello prohibition? ) – and Mike’s demeanor changes precipitously. Learning Kelly’s place is “just downstairs,” Mike drops his act and looks hopefully toward the possibility of some “Irish dames with Irish bacon.” His newfound exuberance results in a verse of “Where the River Shannon Flows,” with Joe gently chiding his sodden ruse in the background. “Why, you’re not stick at all, – all you need is a little nourishment.” As if the “oatmeal” wasn’t enough.

It’s an interesting choice of song on Mike’s part. On the one hand, it’s an unremarkable selection, as “Where the River Shannon Flows” was an immensely popular song in Irish America and recorded several times, most famously by the great John McCormack. But there’s an interesting parallel here: the song was c omposed in 1904 by James I. Russell for a vaudeville act James had with his brother John in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called the Russell Brothers. The Russell Brothers were perhaps most renowned for a sketch called “Maids to Order,” in which they bickered, dressed as Irish servant girls. This sort of comic sketch was the basis for Steve Porter and Len Spencer’s 1901 recording "Backyard conversation between two [jealous] Irish washerwomen,” which was issued several times over the years. That record and the Russell Brothers “Maids to Order” sketch, were stylistic antecedents for the kind of skit featured on this and other Flanagan Brothers records.

The brothers then arrive at Kelly’s place, with Mike singing “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?,” the widely recorded British music hall song that was adapted to the American stage for the 1909 musical The Jolly Bachelors, before slipping into a parody of the already comic song "Mick McGilligan's Daughter, Mary Ann.” “She’s cross eyed and she’s lazy,” Mike sings, “she drives the whole world crazy!” It seems Mike’s condition has much improved from earlier.

Next, we hear banter and men and women laughing. Joe calls to Nellie for a song, and she coquettishly gives a couple of lines from the 1926 hit song “Bye, Bye, Blackbird” before Joe cuts her off, telling her to “gargle your throat with scissors, it’s good for your voice” in a good natured way. Then, they turn to someone named “Murphy,” who sounds as though he had been gargling with scissors, for something to “stir up” the party. He tells Joe “just to be sociable, I’ll fight the best man in the house.” Wisely, Joe passes and then turns to one “Jim Egan” for a few steps. Guided by Joe’s accordion playing, he delivers, his footwork augmented by a wood block (perhaps a conceit for the recording process). The track concludes with a bit of appreciation from all assembled, who shout “oh, let’s give three cheers for Kelly! Kelly from the Emerald Isle!”

So, what was going on with this record? Were these partygoers real. If so, how did they relate? “Even though this recording was a studio creation, l’m sure it was based on real life parties they had attended,” Kathy Loerzel, Mike’s daughter explains. “Parties were always in plentiful supply growing up with my mom and dad.” Loerzel recalled that “Kelly,” our party’s host, was a reference to James “Smelly” Kelly, one of New York City’s unique characters. A New York City transit worker with a great gift of smell, his job was to go into the subway and use his nose to uncover hazards such as gas leaks. “Uncle Jimmy” married Mike and Joe’s sister Margaret in 1922 and lived in the Bronx across from Yankee Stadium. He used to take Mike’s kids to the roof of his building to watch the games!

Loerzel also recalled that Nellie was Mike and Joe’s sister, and although she couldn’t quite tell if it was Nellie’s voice on the track or Mike doing an impression of her, Nellie Flanagan was surely the individual being referred to. And since this is the case, it leads me to wonder if the “cross eyed and lazy” Mary Ann in the “McGilligan” song was a reference to Mary Ann Flanagan, another of the family’s sisters?

And what about Murphy? Loerzel recalls that “Dad used to speak about playing at boxing matches in The City in between bouts. They would play in the ring between the featherweights, bantam, etc. He knew a lot of the fighters in their heyday.” A boxing historian might have keener insight, but Eileen Pasquini, Mike’s grand daughter wonders if the man’s voice belonged to the boxer “Harlem” Tommy Murphy? Murphy was no longer fighting in 1928, but he was surely a celebrity in the Irish community and perhaps a friend of Mike & Joe’s. An appearance from such a figure might have helped boosted sales.

And after a bit of digging, it’s crystal clear that Jim Egan was more commonly known as James Egan, a well known step dancer in NYC, who also sang, made a few records, and was the proprietor of a music shop at 630 Columbus Avenue. Interestingly enough, advertisements for his shop mentioned Flanagan Brothers records from time to time, but if we take a deeper dive here we learn that both the Flanagans and Egan recorded for Columbia in May 1928, and that the matrix numbers (or, the numbers record companies etched into the shellac that show the order in which the records were made) for these recordings are in sequential order. This puts the Flanagans and Egan in the studio on the day, each recording for themselves and then coming together for “Kelly’s House Party”:

James Egan

109356: “Al Smith” (Co 33259)

109357: “Little Annie Rooney” (Co 33259)

109358: “The Daughter Of Rosie O’Grady” (Co 33354)

Flanagan Brothers

109360: “You Can't Keep A Good Man Down” (Co 33263)

109361: “Bells Of Athenry-Hornpipe” (Co 33263)

109362: “Kelly's House Party” (Co 33265)

109363: “McIntyre's; Miss Ramsey” (Co 33265)

This is just a brilliant connection. It shows how alive and connected Irish music was in New York in those days. Was Egan’s inclusion intended to help promote Egan’s shop? Or maybe to promote his records, which were probably released around the same time as the Flanagans’ records? Or perhaps they had him dance to acknowledge the dancers, who at the time were not commonly included on recordings. We might never know the answer to these questions, but who knows? As we’ve seen, there’s a lot to take away from a recording like this!

Until next time!