I read with interest Tom Sendall's piece on Al Piantadosi in the
200625 edition of the MMD.  Coincidentally, in my ongoing project
of researching and writing about all of the music that appeared on
the cob roller organ, I have just completed write-ups on two pieces
composed by Piantadosi which Tom (and hopefully some other MMD readers
as well) might find interesting.

Cob #1181 - Honey Man (Al Piantadosi),
Scarcity: Scarce

This Tin Pan Alley ragtime song again dates from 1911 and was subtitled
"My Little Lovin' Honey Man".  The tune was written by Al Piantadosi
(1884?-1955), the words were by Joe McCarthy (1885-1943) and there is
a copy of the sheet music for the song in the University of Maine Sheet
Music Collection, accessible online at
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ 

Piantadosi was a New York native who was a piano player in a
Bowery saloon in 1906 when he wrote the tune to "My Mariuccia Take
a Steamboat", an Italian-themed novelty song that motivated Irving
Berlin, then a singing waiter at a rival establishment, to collaborate
with one of his fellow waiters in writing what became his earliest
published song, the competing "Marie from Sunny Italy".

Piantadosi later toured in vaudeville as an accompanist and worked in
the music publishing business before starting his own music publishing
firm.  He also wrote the tune to "I Didn't Raise my Boy to Be a
Soldier" (on cob #1197).

McCarthy (full name Thomas Joseph McCarthy), a Massachusetts native who
lived in New York City, was a Tin Pan Alley lyricist who later co-wrote
the words to "Ireland Must Be Heaven, for my Mother Came from There"
(1916) (reportedly inspired by his mother's response to a census taker;
on cob #1229), as well as the lyrics for a number of Broadway musicals.

References: Jack Burton, The Blue Book of Tin Pan Alley (Watkins Glen,
New York, Century House, 1951); William H. Rehrig (Paul E. Bierley,
Ed.), The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and their
Music (Westerville, Ohio, Integrity Press, 1991); obituary articles
about McCarthy in the December 22, 1943 edition of the Boston Globe
and the December 25, 1943 edition of The Tablet (a Brooklyn Catholic
newspaper)

Note: It has been argued that 1884 is not Piantadosi's correct year of
birth based on his month and year of birth having been stated as August
1882 and his age stated as 17 in a 1900 U.S. Census record in which the
family's name was inexplicably and incorrectly spelled as "Pafrafilo"
but which clearly referred to Piantadosi and his family, based on a
comparison of his parents' first names and ages and the first names and
ages of some of his younger siblings to the corresponding entries for
the same family members in the 1910 U.S. Census record.

Although this is a minor and arguably insignificant detail, it led
me to check other sources for his year of birth and I found that all
sources I located giving his age -- the 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940
U.S. Census records, the 1915 New York State Census record and the 1916
New York City record of Piantadosi's marriage -- point to an 1884 or
perhaps 1883 birth year, depending, as usual, upon whether his age as
stated at a given point in time was the age he had already attained at
his last birthday or his age as of the date of his birthday in that
calendar year.

His World War II draft registration card, a U.S. Social Security
Applications and Claims Index entry and his tombstone in Forest Lawn
Memorial Park, Glendale, California, all include a date of August 18,
1884, but his World War I draft registration card and a California
Death Index entry give the date as August 18, 1883.  In any event,
the 1900 U.S. Census record, which misspelled even the family name,
should certainly not be used as the sole basis for an assertion that
Piantadosi's correct year of birth was 1882, even if it is the earliest
record providing his age or birth year.

Cob #1197 - I Didn't Raise my Boy to Be a Soldier (Al Piantadosi),
Scarcity: Less Common

The 1915 song in lively march tempo on this cob is another one related
to World War I, but unlike the preceding it is American in origin and
is not a patriotic piece that was revived during wartime but rather
a Tin Pan Alley anti-war song that achieved great popularity before the
United States became involved in the war.

The lyrics were by Alfred Bryan (1871-1958), a prolific Tin Pan Alley
lyricist who collaborated with a number of different composers during
his long career, the music was by Al Piantadosi (1884?-1955), whom we
have previously encountered as the composer of the tune to "Honey Man"
on cob #1181, and there is once again a copy of the sheet music for
the song in the Connecticut College Sheet Music Collection, accessible
online at https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/ 

The cover includes the words "A Mother's Plea for Peace" above the
title, a drawing of a young man hugging his elderly mother by the
fireside with a cloud above them in which lines of troops are marching
and a battle is raging, and, oddly, a large photograph to the left of
them of a Native American chief in a feather headdress holding what is
apparently a peace pipe.

The singer is the mother and she objects to her son becoming a soldier
and perhaps shooting "some other mother's darling boy" or dying in
vain; she says that nations should arbitrate their future troubles and
lay aside the sword and gun, and that there would be no war if all
mothers would say "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier".

Both the tune and words of the first line of the song are based on the
familiar first line of Irish poet Thomas Moore's song "The Minstrel
Boy" on cob #165, but "The minstrel boy to the war is gone" has been
changed to "Ten million soldiers to the war have gone".

Although the song became very popular at a time when many Americans
were still hesitant about becoming involved in the war in Europe, there
were also many who disagreed with its sentiments, and it prompted a
number of "response" songs with titles such as "I Didn't Raise my Boy
to Be a Coward" and "I Didn't Raise my Boy to Be a Slacker".  Both
1917, with copies of the sheet music in the Library of Congress
collection, accessible online at https://www.loc.gov/ 

Richard Dutton
New Jersey