Fabulous vintage oversized matte-finish 21.5 x 9.5 photo by Schutz, titled along the bottom, “American Composers & Authors visiting president Coolidge, at the White House, Washington, D. C., April 17, 1924,” picturing 14 legendary composers posing outside of the White House, signed along the right side in fountain pen by all 14: John Philip Sousa, Maude Nugent, William Jerome, Charles Harris, Oley Speaks, Harry von Tilzer, Harry B. Smith, Werner Janssen, Raymond Hubbell, Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Gene Buck, and Victor Herbert. Double-matted and framed to an overall size of 28.25 x 17. In fine condition, with a bit of light irregular ink adhesion to small portions of a couple of signatures, and some slight spreading to last name of another signature.
From the early days of radio, the use of phonographic records as a source of programming material stirred up controversy. In 1914, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) was formed to defend the rights of musicians and ensure that they would be compensated for any public use of their work. When Senator Clarence Dill introduced a bill that would exempt radio broadcasters from having to pay for the use of copyrighted music in 1924, ASCAP formed this fourteen-man delegation to appear before Congress on their behalf. On April 17, the group attended the hearings on the bill, during which Sousa blurted out, ‘The Radio Corporation of America gets money, doesn’t it? If they get money out of my tunes, I want some of it, that’s all.’ Thanks in part to the efforts of these men, Dill’s bill failed to pass, granting songwriters royalties for the radio transmission of their work. An extraordinary photo capturing fourteen of music’s leading figures, forging the way for musicians yet to come in the emerging technologies that would benefit from their work. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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