Opinion: I’m Looking for an Irish Husband
- John O'Brien
- September 28, 2023
- Edited 5 months ago
Table of Contents
By Sheila Ives
No, dear reader of iIrish, I am not the one looking for a husband, Irish or otherwise. That would be a “Kitty Carey straight from Tipperary,” who is the subject of this song I discovered while doing research on the wonderful website of the Library of Congress.
The song is from the 1913 Broadway musical, The Marriage Market, featuring the music of the legendary composer Jerome Kern, with lyrics by M.E. Rourke. I grew up listening to the music of Tin Pan Alley and early Broadway, so I am familiar with the music of Jerome Kern, the composer of over 700 songs, including such classics as, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and “All the Things You Are.”
However, I was unfamiliar with the lyricist, M.E. Rourke. Curious about his story, I abandoned the research I had been doing, and it was down the rabbit hole I went in search of Mr. Rourke.
Michael Elder Rourke (1867-1933) was born in Manchester, England, to Irish immigrant parents William Rourke and Mary Reynolds. He attended a monastery school for several years and then started his career as a news agent and playwright in London.
In 1903 he moved to New York City. There he began collaborating with the entertainer Al Jolson, author and playwright P.G. Wodehouse, and performers Frank Tinney and Fanny Brice.
Rourke wrote lyrics for several songs composed by Jerome Kern, and both partnered with other musical artists. During his long career, Michael Elder Rourke wrote lyrics for over 100 songs. In 1913 he started using the pen name Herbert Reynolds.
Although many of these songs have been forgotten, one, which he wrote with Kern, went on to become a bestseller and classic work. It was a song that would help catapult the career of Kern.
In 1914, Kern and Rourke (Herbert Reynolds) were asked to contribute songs for the musical comedy The Girl from Utah. Their song, They Didn’t Believe Me, was a game changer and impacted popular music for decades to come.
Instead of using the traditional waltz rhythm that was common in musicals, Kern chose to use a 4/4-time signature and syncopated rhythms. Reynolds abandoned the usual flowery sentimental words that had characterized musical comedy and wrote lyrics that were more conversational in style.
They Didn’t Believe Me became a #1 hit in 1915 for Harry MacDonough and Olive Kline. The song has since been recorded by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Elvis Costello.
The star performer in both The Marriage Market and The Girl from Utah was another Irish American, Donald Brian. Donald Francis Brian (1877-1948), the grandson of Irish immigrants, was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
HERBERT O’SULLIVAN
From an early age he showed musical talent. As a young boy, he was singled out to perform in the church choir. The choir director, Herbert O’Sullivan, was a voice teacher and offered to give him vocal lessons for free.
Brian also took tap dancing lessons with Dennis Ryan, who ran a local dance academy.
Brian’s singing and dancing abilities made him a versatile entertainer. He began performing throughout St. John’s with an amateur company, earning a sixpence or shilling per performance.
As Brian stated in 1943, “There were no films, not even radio at that time. Live concerts were the only form of entertainment and people with nothing else to do packed the church halls and community halls every night of the week. I must have sung and danced to every Irish ballad ever written.”
GEORGE COHAN
Brian’s father died in 1886, and his mother, seeking more financial security, decided to move to Boston, Massachusetts in 1893. She had been offered a job managing a clothing plant there.
Donald was reluctant to go but was convinced by Ryan that he would have more job opportunities as a performer there. He then had a fateful encounter with the great, multi-talented and influential artist, Irish American George M. Cohan (1878-1942), known for such classic songs as “Over There,” “Yankee Doodle Boy,” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”
Cohan was born in 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island, the only son of Jeremiah “Jere or Jerry” Cohan and Helen “Nellie” Costigan. George’s paternal grandparents were Michael Keohane and Jane Scott, who were from Bantry, County Cork. When Michael Keohane immigrated to the United States in 1841, he changed the spelling of his last name to Cohan.
Cohan’s parents were involved in vaudeville, and when their two children, son George and daughter Josephine “Josie,” were old enough, they began performing with their parents in their traveling vaudeville act, known as “The Four Cohans.” In Cohan’s obituary, November 6, 1942, in The New York Times, his closest friend, Gene Buck, former president of ASCAP, called him, “the greatest single figure the American theatre ever produced – as a player, playwright, actor, composer and producer.”
Cohan recalled in his first autobiographical work that he spotted Brian dancing on the sidewalk near the shop he managed. Recognizing the young man’s talent, he immediately offered him a job performing with “The Four Cohans.”
Two nights later, Brian gave his first professional performance, in a Boston theater. He then toured with “The Four Cohans” for 47 weeks, making $10.00 a week. Near the theater in St. Louis where they would be performing, young Brian saw a large billboard that foretold his future. It read: “And introducing Broadway’s next star, tap-dancer supreme, Donald Brian.”
Over the course of his career, he had leading roles in over 20 Broadway musicals. He gave his last live performance in 1943, in a touring production of the musical Abie’s Irish Rose. He died in 1948 in Great Neck, New York.
Brian was recognized as an exceptional dancer. At least some of the credit goes to his dance teacher in Newfoundland, Dennis Ryan, and to an old Scotsman named Peter McKeon, who taught him how to clog on stove lids and to dance a jig by practicing on blocks of wood.
After Brian’s death, he received words of high praise about his dancing from Fred Astaire, who stated, “Donald Brian was undoubtedly the most graceful and elegant dancer ever to appear on the Broadway stage.” Famed Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev, who had seen a short film of Brian dancing, proclaimed, “In my entire career, I have never seen a dancer so skilled.”
APPEARING IN CLEVELAND
Both Cohan and Brian appeared in Cleveland theaters during their careers, as they toured the country in traveling theater productions. As noted in a 1906 Plain Dealer article, “Mr. Cohan has long been a favorite in Cleveland. He won popularity when he presented his comedy skits at the Star Theater, and he accumulated local favor by his appearances at the Lyceum and more frequently at the Opera House.”
Brian’s first appearance in Cleveland was in 1914, in The Marriage Market at the Opera House. In 1925 he appeared at the Ohio Theater in the musical comedy No, No, Nanette.
When large numbers of Irish immigrants began arriving in the United States during the 19th century, they were often scorned and depicted negatively. The discrimination they faced was highlighted in the song “No Irish Need Apply.”
In the 1880s, Irish Americans Edward “Ned” Harrigan and Tony Hart developed their own musical skits and comedies about the Irish in New York. During the early part of the 20th century, artists such as Michael Rourke, Donald Brian, and George M. Cohan, made important contributions to the performing arts and helped develop a more positive image for Irish Americans.
The legacy of these artists, and countless other Irish American men and women who worked in the spotlight and behind the scenes, endures. In the 21st century, Americans of Irish descent continue to enrich the entertainment industry with their creativity, talent, and passion.
As I listened to some of the early recordings of the songs whose lyrics were written by Rourke, I was transported back to the small apartment where I grew up. My father owned a collection of 78 rpm records; I can still hear the needle hitting the shellac disc and the crackle and pops coming from the record. My father would often sing along to the words in his rich baritone voice. It is a memory I cherish.
Find this column and others from the October 2023 issue here!
