Songsters – cheap collections of song lyrics – have a long history, in Australia and elsewhere. They are important sources for knowing what folks were singing in colonial times and remained popular well past the middle of the twentieth century. As well as lyric of popular, traditional and other songs, they often contained, jokes, riddles and advertisements.
One of the most long-lasting songster series were those published by J Albert & Son, a venerable Australian company, still in business. Albert’s published mainly the ‘Boomerang’ songsters, an eclectic series of songs of every style and period. Numbers 40 and 42 (late 1930s?), for example, contained ‘Mademoiselle from Armentieres, ‘Stop Beatin’ ‘Round the Mulberry Bush’, ‘Over the rainbow’ and ‘Shabby Old Cabby’, among many other classics and obscurities to fill the 50-odd pages that made up a typical Boomerang songster. (They shrunk a lot during World War 2, presumably due to paper shortages)
Basically, the best-selling songsters were catalogues for Albert’s products. These included sheet music and instrument learning systems, including the ukulele and piano and the fascinating nose flute (marketed as ‘the Magic Flute’).
They also sold musical instruments, some of which have featured in verandah music for generations. The advertised instruments included the popular free reed instruments of accordions and harmonicas (‘tin sandwich’), available in a bewildering variety of designs, sizes and shapes, all marketed under the ‘Boomerang’ brand.
You could also buy a snappy brass ‘Boomerang Flute’ version of the humble tin whistle (in 5 keys) and something called a ‘Song-o-Phone’, a bell-shaped device of brassed metal that ‘gives perfect imitation of a dog, horse, cow, rooster, pig, frog, bugle call, etc’. I don’t think this sexed-up kazoo(?) caught on, though I desperately want one!
Here are a few quick snaps of some of the adverts in my own little collection of these musical time capsules:
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| Made for the New Zealand market |
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