Advice on Locating Songwriters

Subject: Advice on Locating 1930s Songwriters
From: GUEST,Claire
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 06:25 AM

Hello

I wondered if anyone had any research advice for locating a songwriter called A. M. Booth published by a London music publishers in the 1930s. Does anyone have any archival tips to go about finding out more information? The expertise on here is always astonishing.

Many thanks for any advice,

Claire

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 11:33 AM

Can you fill out the information more? What do either or both of the initials "A. M" stand for? Do you have any song titles or fragments of lyrics? Any idea of the publishers involved? Was this a British songwriter in the UK, or from somewhere else?

I have been known to slip behind the university library paywall to do research, but a few more clues would help.

How is it that you are aware of this individual? What other tidbits can you offer?

My first through passes through Google Advanced search and Google Scholar have yielded nothing (there is a sociologist type by the name of Booth who takes up most of that bandwidth when using date constraints.)

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 04:03 PM

Thanks very much for wanting to know more.

I know that the songwriter was a woman, but I don't know her full name. She was the licensee along with her husband, B. Booth, of The Queen Anne pub in Great Hucklow, Derbyshire. I believe that one of the songs she wrote was called Some Day which was likely published in 1933 by a London publisher and had already published five songs with them previously. I discovered this information in the British Newspaper Archives - The Seaham Weekly News on 9th December, 1932.

Any direction you can point me in is much appreciated!

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 06:38 PM

Did you copy out the full article from the newspaper? Often times those online archives are fee-only and a casual searcher has to pass on the source or pay to use them. If you kept the content, transcribing it here would give our folks on that side of the pond more information to work with.

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 08:53 PM

The British Library catalogue lists a song by an M B Booth called My Darling. This may be the person referred to as the co-writer of this is given as Julian Wright, and the song you referred to as Some Day is credited in the catalogue to Julian Wright, 1937. (the refs are to the catalogue entries; I think they're permanent)

Mick

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 08:59 PM

(bte, I was only searching Scores for that)

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Mar 26 - 09:36 PM

You can possibly find her full name from the 1939 register (assuming she was still at the pub!). Access is via a partner site and I think there is a free time period.

Mick

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: GUEST,Claire
Date: 18 Mar 26 - 09:09 AM

This is so interesting, thank you! I wonder if it can be the same person - looks like a trip to the BL may be in order.

I paid for the full article in the newspaper archives. The text is:

'Although she doesn't know a note of music, Mrs A. M. Booth of the Old Queen Anne Inn in Hucklow, Derbyshire, has had five songs published by a London firm of music publishers. She is writing a new song, entitled "Some Day".'

It makes sense there might be a co-writer of the score, therefore, if she couldn't write music. And it might also make sense that her initials were used to keep her more anonymous.

I couldn't find anything in the 1939 census but I may not be searching in the right way!

Thanks for your help!

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: GUEST,Oriel Wynn-Dawe
Date: 18 Mar 26 - 09:36 AM

Married women were often referred to by their husband's initials if 'Mrs' was used - Mary Smith married to John Smith would be 'Mrs. J. Smith' on envelopes, for instances. 'Mrs. M. Smith' would indicate a divorcee.

Subject: RE: Advice on Locating Songwriters
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 26 - 10:29 AM

To orient myself for this query I had to pull up a map. Seaham, Durham, England is the stated place of this newspaper with an unknown publisher. Of the available years (in the online archive at least) the last batch, from 1898 to 1938, are where this announcement would have come from. The nearest large city is Newcastle upon Tyne. Does that sound correct? It looks like the newspaper collection was scanned in fairly recently, so someplace was holding onto physical copies.

Claire, are you in that region to do any on-the-ground visits to the nearest local library or history museum? A lot of places may still have archives with the old "vertical files" - folders of clippings that aren't digitized yet (an observation based upon library/museum work knowledge here in the US.)