Uploaded May 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Ruby Helder (1890-1938)
Eily Mavourneen
The Lily of Killarney (Sir Julius Benedict)
Recorded: c.1914?
The Newspaper article is from the Des Moines Register & Leader, Sunday, May 31, 1914 --
Helder trained with Charles Santley, who described her voice as a "natural, pure tenor voice of great beauty and power."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Helder
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Ruby Helder (1890-1938)
Eily Mavourneen
The Lily of Killarney (Sir Julius Benedict)
Recorded: c.1914?
The Newspaper article is from the Des Moines Register & Leader, Sunday, May 31, 1914 --
Helder trained with Charles Santley, who described her voice as a "natural, pure tenor voice of great beauty and power."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Helder
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![Tenor Frank POLLOCK: Hearts and Flowers (1915)
Tenor Frank Pollock (1878-1955)
Hearts and Flowers
Theodore Moses Tobani (composer)
Mary D. Brine (author)
Recorded: June 15, 1915 in New York
Portrait from Digital Commonwealth
Hearts and Flowers (published in 1893 by Carl Fischer Music)
(1) Out amongst the flowers sweet
Lingers pretty Marguerite
Sowing with her hands so white
Future blossoms, fair and bright.
And the sunbeams lovingly
Kiss sweet Marguerite for me
Kiss my little lady sweet,
Blue eyed gentle Marguerite!
(2) When I say, Oh Marguerite,
All my heart is at your feet,
Turn it to a garden fair,
See it blossom neath your care.
Till it yields for you alone
Wondrous fragrance all your own.
And its sweetest flowers shall grow,
For my Marguerite I know!
(3) Blushes deepen in her cheek,
Ere the shy red lips can speak,
Ah! but what if weeds should grow,
Mongst the flowers you bid me sow?
Love will pluck them out, I cry,
Trust me, Marguerite so shy,
Let my heart your garden be,
Give the seeds of love to me.
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From Wikipedia:
Hearts and Flowers published in 1893 has an association in popular culture as melodramatic photoplay music. The practice of using the selection as a dramatic cue is documented as early as 1911, although complaints that the tune was becoming overplayed crop up as early as 1913 and 1914, and by 1915, the piece was being called time worn. Soon thereafter, Hearts and Flowers (along with Gustav Langes Flower Song) became more commonly associated with underscoring an over-the-top parody of melodrama in film. Around 1919, musical accompaniment cue sheets start suggesting the tune a la burlesque to mock-dramatic scenes. Even into the late 1920s, Hearts and Flowers continued to be suggested as a burlesque dramatic piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_and_Flowers
The following is from the 2012-13 Holdridge Record Auction Catalog:
Frank Pollock (Abington, IL, 1878-1955): An 1896 graduate of Knox College, he made his debut as Robin Hood in the de Koven ope2retta with The Bostonians. He then studied in France with Sbriglia for half a year and returned to star in another operetta. He was heard by Marcella Sembrich, who urged him to return to Paris to continue studying, which he did, this time for a year with Jean De Reszke. He made his debut with the Paris Opèra-Comique in 1900 (parts sung there not known) and in Bellagio, Italy, shortly before that, where one of his roles was the Duke in Rigoletto. There he was heard by a representative of the King of Sweden, a result being his engagement with the Swedish Royal Opera as Romeo to Aïno Ackté’s Juliette. He mentioned that only he and Ackté sang in French, the rest of the cast singing in Swedish. The result, Pollock stated, was “a mutilation of the original [musical] notation beyond description, strange to the ear accustomed to the flowing phrases of the original French text.” While engaged by the Metropolitan Opera 1904-05, he was given no roles but appeared as a guest artist in a gala Die Fledermaus, shar- ing the stage with Sembrich, Caruso, Nordica, Eames, Frem- stad, Scotti, Van Rooy, Plançon and a number of others. What an evening that must have been! In addition, he was assigned the tenor part in two performances of Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Nordica, Homer and Plançon. He also sang “Una furtiva lagrima” from l’Elisir d’Amore in a Sunday night concert, joined that evening by Ackté, Nordica, Parvis and Giraldoni. In 1910 Pollock appeared in New York with Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera in Louis Ganne’s Hans, the Flute Player. Of Pollock’s participation, the NY Times reviewer raved, “Frank Pollock has a really splendid tenor voice which the audience realized as soon as it had heard him sing his first air. He was one of the strongest features of the cast and made much of a part that needed authority to carry it.” As a result of his success, Hammerstein chose him as a leading tenor for his London Opera House venture in 1911 in the title role of Offenbach’s Contes d’Hoffmann with Lina Cavalieri, Felice Lyne, Victoria Fer and Maurice Renaud. He was heard in New York, 1912, in a revival of de Koven’s Robin Hood with Bessie Abott and then in the premiere of de Koven’s Rob Roy with Henrietta Wakefield. Through 1916 he appeared in various operettas, such as Road to Mandalay, in which he co-starred with Edison recording soprano Leola Lucey. Miss Lucey was likely the center of attention. She had sprained her ankle shortly before the opening curtain and, there having been no understudy, she had to navigate around the stage in a wheelchair. Venues for Pollock in concert were as varied as the Long Island Garden City Hotel and the Philadelphia home of Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Stotesbury in a musicale for friends where Maria Barrientos and Pollock were the featured vocalists. How nice to be able to afford such entertainment! What happened to Pollock after the ‘teens seems to be a mystery.
**************************** Tenor Frank POLLOCK: Hearts and Flowers (1915)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ta_YghmjwoE/mqdefault.jpg)



