Fame
In 1926, he left the Savoy and opened his 'School of Syncopation' which specialised in teaching modern music techniques such as ragtime and stride piano. This in turn, led to the long running correspondence course on 'How to play like Billy Mayerl'. It was during this period that he wrote his most famous solo 'Marigold'. By the late 30's his correspondence school is said to have over 100 staff and 30,000 students. It finally closed in 1957.
On October 28, 1925, Mayerl was the soloist in the London premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In December 1926, he appeared with Gwen Farrar (1899–1944) in a short film – made in the Lee DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process – in which they sang Mayerl's song "I've Got a Sweetie on the Radio". His song "Miss Up-to-Date" was sung and played by Cyril Ritchard in Alfred Hitchcock's sound film Blackmail (1929).
On Tuesday, 1 October 1929, Billy Mayerl's orchestra performed at the opening of The Locarno Dance Hall in Streatham.
In the 1930s Mayerl composed several works for the musical theatre include Sporting Love, opening at the Gaiety Theatre, London in 1934, Twenty to One (1935), and Over She Goes (1936). In 1938, famed jazz pianist Marian McPartland joined his group "Mayerl's Claviers" under the name Marian Page.
Mayerl died in 1959 from a heart attack at his home, Marigold Lodge, after a long illness.
Read more about this topic: Billy Mayerl
Famous quotes containing the word fame:
“People feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature—and it won’t hurt your feelings—like it’s happening to your clothing.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
“But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.”
—Heraclitus (c. 535–475 B.C.)