[Dixielandjazz] Eddie Morton - Shore News Today

[Robert Ringwald]

Singer Was a Beloved Part of Wildwood's Past
by Jacob Schaad Jr.
Shore News Today (New Jersey), April 17, 2012
The colorful career of Eddie Morton has been mostly forgotten in Wildwood.
In his 68 years that took him to the Great Depression, Morton worked as a cop on
the Philadelphia streets, then turned to songwriting and song plugging, moved on
to share the vaudeville bill with some of the headliners of his time and finally
settled in Wildwood as a restaurateur and community activist.
Until recently little of this has been brought to light, hidden in the dusty archives
of museums, libraries and other storage places rarely visited. That is until Ryan
Barna, a Pennsylvania writer and researcher, came along and rediscovered this fascinating
figure of American theatrical history. After much research, Barna has put together
in one package a CD of 27 of Morton's original songs written and sung by Morton between
1911 and 1926, plus a comprehensive biography of Morton's life. Some of his research
took place on the home front of the George F. Boyer Museum of the Wildwood Historical
Society.
It wasn't easy to find all this, Barna admits, and missing are about 23 of Morton's
50 songs, probably because he never recorded them. Among the missing are his popular
"I Never Raised My Boy to Be a Soldier," which still is heard today occasionally
at special events.
Many of the recorded songs that Barna has found have a comedic touch as reflected
in their titles and have probably been in his act when he shared the billing with
such stars as Ed Wynn, Douglas Fairbanks, Eddie Cantor and the Marx Brothers.
Among the titles are "Just a Little Bit of Monkey Left in You and Me," "Come Out
of the Kitchen, Mary Ann," "Somebody Else Is Getting It," "Ever Since You Told Me
You Loved Me, I'm a Nut," and "What Do You Mean, You Lost Your Dog?"
Barna's package of memorabilia is called "Ed Morton's 'Bit of Broadway' (The Sound
of Vaudeville, Volume 2)," and its title comes from not only Morton's show business
experiences on Broadway, but from the name of a restaurant he owned on the Boardwalk
where North Wildwood meets Wildwood at 26th Avenue. Photos of the outside of the
long-gone restaurant appear on the cover of Barna's booklet, as well as pictures
of Morton inside the publication.
The success of another song, "I'm Wildwood About Wildwood," has been credited to
Morton, although he did not write it. The actual writers were Harry Keating, David
Morrison and Ed Ward and its success was attributed to the fact that Morton included
it in his vaudeville act on the Keith circuit. It had what was deemed moderate success
as 2,000 copies were sold throughout the land.
The CD and booklet have been produced by Archeophone Records
http://www.archeophone.com
of Champaign, Ill., which specializes in resurrecting the world's oldest recorded
music and issuing it in scholarly packages with colorful illustrations. Among the
stars of yore it has revived via recordings are Sophie Tucker, Bert Williams, Nora
Bayes and Jack Norworth. In addition to making his latest effort available to the
public for purchase, Barna is marketing it to the specialty area interested in the
restoration of records of celebrities.
Then a big hit in vaudeville, Morton rented a summer home for his family in Wildwood
in 1911, the year before Wildwood was joined as a city by neighboring Holly Beach.
"The sand got in my shoes," he was later to tell the Wildwood Leader, "and beginning
in 1912 I so arranged my bookings that I had 12 weeks off each summer and brought
my family to Wildwood."
Morton was not your everyday summer visitor to the Wildwoods. He started his own
restaurants there that included his "Bit of Broadway," as well as his own tobacco
shop. He entertained for the locals as well as the tourists at the Nixon Vaudeville
Theater, and he helped start the Wildwood Golf Club, which was incorporated in September
of 1921 and for which he was the chairman of the house committee for a decade.
He continued to entertain until 1926, when he took his final bow on stage. A son
explained that his father believed "a man should quit while still on top rather than
go on until voice and personality were gone."
Morton lived another 12 years until he succumbed on April 11, 1938 to coronary thrombosis
and cirrhosis of the liver. Variety, the bible of show business, reported in his
obituary that he had attended a movie the night before and apparently was in the
best of health.
He was so popular in Wildwood that two days after his death the Wildwood firemen
and police honored him at a silent tribute at a banquet. Two days later he was buried
at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pa.
The latest Morton volume is the second in his honor, the first having been released
in 2003. Since then, Barna explains, new research "helped us understand more about
this enigmatic songster." The latest version not only reexamines his origins, but
brings up to date the second half of his life and career.
Barna, meanwhile, will speak about his new package and on the subject of non-fiction
research and multi-media at the North Wildwood Beach Writers Conference on Wednesday,
June 6, at the Wildwoods Convention Center. The CD and booklet will be on display
there as part of the conference's book bazaar.
It is available for purchase now for $16.49 by calling (800) 728-5000.