PBA Galleries

• Chas. B. Lawlor and James W. Blake. The Sidewalks of New York / Song and Chorus... (Howley, Haviland & Co. New York, c. 1894) 3pp. According to Fuld (1966), probably a later issue of the First Edition. Separated at spine, which is held together by a paste-on label; former owner’s name in pencil and vintage rubberstamp on front cover.
• Theodore Morse and Arthur Sullivan, Music; Words by D.A.Esrom. Hail! Hail! The Gang’s All Here / What –the-Deuce-do we care (Leo Feist, NY, c. 1917) 2pp.+striking pictorial cover by one of the anonymous “Rosebud” illustrators. Not the original appearance, but significant for its unverified identification of composer and lyricist.

For a century, Sidewalks of New York has been the virtual unofficial anthem of New York City. This original printing is of special historical interest because it confirms that the popularly-accepted lyric, “Me and Mamie O’Rourke” in incorrect. The Irish-born composer’s original lyric line was “Me and Mamie Rorke.”
“Hail! Hail!...”, an American take-off on a Gilbert and Sullivan song from the Pirates of Penzance, has a complicated bibliography to which Fuld (1966) devotes more than a page of indecisive inquiry – though he does not comment on the polite substitution of the lyric “Deuce” for the more commonly-used “Heck” or “Hell”. Curiously, the following year, after America had entered the World War, a “patriotic” song appeared, titled “We’ll sing, ‘Hail Hail the Gangs All Here’, On the Sidewalks of Berlin”.