Second Quarter 2019 Meeting -- Lair No. 3
On June 8, 2019, Lair No. 3 of the RR&R met at the Doylestown Maennerchor Society tor a Non-Challenge presentation by Dan Morrison titled "Second-Hand Smoke: The Elusive Author and Composer of American's Second Favorite Song." This presentation was about the beloved Rascal theme song, "My Last Cigar" and sought to answer two importation questions: 1) Who wrote the music? and 2) Who wrote the lyrics? As it turns out, both questions are surrounded in mystery.
In 1995, Bill Baierl presented to Lair No. 1 his research on James M. Hubbard, the man whose name graces the cover of "My Last Cigar" sheet music. Baierl traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, where Hubbard had last been spotted, to dig up the story. What he discovered is that Hubbard did not attend Harvard or Yale and that there was an earlier tune to the song, a tune that the Rascals do not sing.
In his report, Morrison claims Hubbard did not write the tune to which the Rascals sing the song -- that, in fact, the tune is an Appalachian folk song named "Dearest May." Hubbard did write an earlier, much less popular tune for the song, however. And as for the lyrics, no fewer than six men have been identified in print as the author of the words to the song, but none of the claims stands up to scrutiny.
For those who want to read the full story, you can read Second-Hand Smoke: James Maurice Hubbard and the Elusive Author and Composer of American's Second Favorite Song. And for those who like their information reduced to sound bites, here is a summary of Morrison's presentation:
So, who really wrote My Last Cigar? Here is what my masculine intuition tells me.
First, in 1841, Joseph Warren Fabens (1821-1874) wrote the 40 lines of "The Last Cigar" and published them under the pseudonym William Jenkins in a New England newspaper.
Second, circa 1844, in the environs of Yale College, the 23-year-old James M. Hubbard (1822-1900) met the 17-year-old Charles Condit (1827-1876) who passed off a 32-line version of Fabens's poem as his own and Hubbard wrote some fancy music for it, publishing in New York for the first time the song titled: "Twas off the Blue Canaries, or, My Last Cigar" in 1844
Third, from 1844 to 1860, the 1844 Hubbard-Condit-Fabens song limped along with a few publications and little notice.
Fourth, around 1860, a student at Amherst College familiar with the minstrel song "Dearest May" found it a natural fit for the Condit-Fabens lyrics of "My Last Cigar" and made the transposition.
Fifth, with the perfect melding of a heartfelt lyrics and a simple tune, "My Last Cigar" takes the East Coast colleges, and later the entire nation, by storm.
So, what do we do with James Maurice Hubbard? Though his name, and his name alone, has long been linked to America's second most popular song, the evidence shows that neither its words nor tune are his creations.
And so we, the lovers of "My Last Cigar," are left to sigh above the blighted heart, where once proud hope had been.
Josh Bruce sang the original 1844 J. M. Hubbard version of the song -- a tune none of us had ever heard before. He also conducted a group of Rascal singers who made "My Last Cigar," sung to the air "Dearest May," sound better than it's sounded in years.
Timons Esaias, Dan Morrison, and Eric Erb read cigar poems.
Assistant Director Leon Moscherosch presented the Jon Z. Landgraf medal for his 2018 Mass Challenge win to Calvin Morrison.
Among those present at this meeting were:
Rascals galore
Lair business meeting following festivities.
Timons Esaias
Ray Hull II