RAGTIME: A JEWELER'S TIN PAN ALLEY CAT

"Peg O'My Heart" featured in The Ziegfeld Follies 
 (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery)

Penciled into Gustav's stockbook is a name matching that of the originator of such toe-tapping tunes as "Chicago, That Toddlin' Town..." (1922), torchy songs like "I'd Rather Be Blue" and "My Man" (1928, with Billy Rose), and kitsch like "Peg O'My Heart" (1913)—which probably rivaled Lawrence Welk in its symphonic Aeolian player organ song-roll form. 

Fred Fischer, the composer of these and other songbook standards, was born in 1875 to American parents based in Cologne, Germany. His father, Max Fischer, was a traveling glove salesman, while his mother, Theodora von Breitenbach, was a writer and journalist involved with the Baron Von Hirsch Institute. Fred ran away from home at 13 and joined the Prussian Navy, served in the French Foreign legion, and worked as a traveling salesman in India and the U.S., before emigrating to America in the early 1900s. He started his songwriting career while working for a Chicago music publisher, went on to became a Tin Pan Alley fixture, then—when radio cut into demand for sheet music—got his second wind in Hollywood writing for silent films and Ziegfeld-esque musical reviews (one of them, "A Tableau of Jewels," featured an exotic dancer in pasties emerging from her art-deco shell...) before moving back to New York. 

Fred Fischer aspired to write serious music but found greater success composing music for Vaudeville stars such as Blossom Seeley known as the Queen of Syncopation

On the 30th of December 1915, Fischer was on the cusp of 40; his wife had just given birth to their first child, Doris. Professionally he'd had a strong year, with a new hit entitled "Siam." Prone to bouts of melancholy, Fischer (who would eventually drop the "c" in his name, probably to make it seem less Germanic) may have needed cheering up before New Year's Eve revels and stopped by Gustav Manz's workshop (then located a few blocks east of Tin Pan Alley, at 37 E 28th Street) where he purchased one of Manz's signature rings—a gold panther crouched over a topaz in a leafy setting. 

Gustav Manz ledger records a Panther and Topaz ring 
sold to Fred Fischer (Winterthur Museum archive);

below, Manz's model for a panther and snake ring, circa 1910-20 (private collection; photo by Ellen Martin for Gustav Manz LLC

Following her dad's path, Doris Fischer grew up to become a popular radio singer-songwriter—her first hit was "Tutti Frutti"; "You Always Hurt the One You Love" became a million-seller for the crooning Mills brothers. After marrying she retired from showbiz and took up a second career as an interior designer, helping First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy locate period pieces for her White House makeover. Doris's brothers, Dan and Marvin, who took over their father's music publishing business, wrote such jazzy standards as "Good Morning Heartache" (Dan), and "When Sunny Gets Blue" (Marvin).

According to the New York Times, Fred Fischer wrote or published a thousand songs. Paramount produced a musical "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" based on his life story (though the title song was written by Irving Berlin)

As for Fred, Billboard's March 1949 Honor Roll of Popular Songwriters noted that he never lost his thick German accent, was a rabid baseball fan and rooter of the Yankees, and had a standing offer of $50 for anyone who could make him laugh. Incredibly prolific, he even wrote his own swan song (plagued by ill health, he committed suicide in January 1942). The chorus ran: "In my ranch 'way up in heaven, with the old gang around/Just the promised land for an old cowhand in my happy huntin' ground..." (More details on this lyrical American family here and here.)

Doris Fisher (photo: San Francisco Jazz Organization

 "There's a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl" 

by Grant Clarke and Fred Fischer

recorded by Billy Murray in Camden, NJ on September 5, 1916

http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/5140/

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All Rights Reserved 

 GUSTAV MANZ LLC

Postscript March 2021: 

Further research turned up a possible alternative identity for the circa 1915 purchaser of Manz's panther and topaz ring: A diamond setter named Fred Fischer worked for the Newark firm of Sloan & Co. and would likely have been familiar with Manz's work for Tiffany & Co and other jewelry retailers of that era. 

—The Editors