Dorothy Jardon, Composer/performer
OUR SECOND POST FEATURING THE OPEN-AIR CONCERT SERIES AT CITY COLLEGE’S LEWISOHN STADIUM (SEE YESTERDAY FOR THE FIRST)
One hundred years ago today … It was a gala night at the Lewisohn Stadium open-air concert series.
New York Tribune, 30 July 1920, p. 8. Chronicling America.
The featured vocalist was soprano Dorothy Jardon, a native New Yorker born to a French immigrant father and Irish immigrant mother. Like Marguerite Namara (whom we wrote about yesterday), she had been an opera star in Chicago, though with the Chicago Grand Opera.
Dorothy Jardon ca. 1915–1920. Bain News Service. Library of Congress.
A couple months after her appearance at Lewisohn Stadium, Jardon performed alongside Bert Williams and Eddie Cantor in George LeMaire’s Broadway Brevities of 1920 at the Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway between 50th and 51st streets (which still stands).
Dorothy Jardon in Broadway Brevities of 1920. New York Tribune, 12 September 1920, p. 52. Chronicling America.
Jardon was unusual for her time in that she composed numerous songs both for others and herself to perform. One example of the latter is “The World Can’t Go Round Without You” (1921), the Brunswick label recording of which you can listen to here, thanks to Internet Archive.
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“The World Can’t Go Round Without You.” 1921. Dorothy Jardon, Arthur J. Lamb, and Alfred Solomon. Cover to sheet music, York University, Scott Library. Click the image to listen.
Note that the photo of Jardon used on the sheet music cover is identical to the one printed a year earlier by the Tribune. Throughout the 1910s and 20s, Jardon recorded frequently for Brunswick and Victor Records (which keeps popping up).
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, JULY 30, 2020.
TAGS: music, concerts, women musicians, composer, opera, symphony, City College,