Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association

Subject: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 May 15 - 09:42 AM

OK, what the heck was this referring to? Google hasn't heard of them.

The Screw Polka

The Lester Levy metadata gives it the keyword "corkscrews" (which is what's on the cover). A drinking club?

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 May 15 - 10:53 AM

That link automatically downloads. FYI

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 01 May 15 - 11:22 AM

One of my dubious areas of achievement is in researching and presenting historical tours of Philadephia, and based on what I know, my guess is that the Junior Screw Association was a tradesman's union, and that object in the illustration was a tool of the trade.

Philadelphia was once known as "The Workshop of the World" because of the size of it's workforce and the diversity of it's manufacturing industries. At the turn of the 20th century, more than 700 companies employed 60,000 workers in textile manufacture, and that was only a quarter of the cities workforce. The Baldwin Locomotive Company alone employed more than 10,000--the point here being that there were a lot of things that needed holes-

Because it was a manufacturing center, it was also a center for trade unions and associations, and then, much more than today, these groups were neighborhood based, and central to the workers social life, which (being Pennsylvania) meant that they had a need for Polkas.

I could go on indefinitely, and talk about all the musical traditions that were preserved by the various ethnic groups that settled in the various neighborhoods, and I could go into a discourse on the volunteer fire clubs, how they evolved into Mummer's Clubs, and that musical tradition, (which probably ties in here), but I have probably said too much already.
Hazard of the trade;-)

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 May 15 - 11:37 AM

That link automatically downloads.

It's a PDF of the sheet music.

The cover image looks much more like a corkscrew than any kind of screw used in construction or engineering, but who knows, maybe the cover designer got it wrong.

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 01 May 15 - 11:39 AM

They also needed a lot of beer. I lived near an area close to the old Baldwin Locomotive Works that was called Brewerytown, owing to the fact that there had once been 22 breweries in a ten block area. After Baldwin closed, the area went into decline, and the breweries did, too. Then people started converting the old buildings to condos and property values went up.

Now a group of developers wants to tear down a lot of the remaining low income housing to build "Brewerytown Square"-a multi-use residential, shopping and entertainment complex--but you'd guessed that already....

Again, sorry for the TMI-I can't help it...have you played the polka yet?

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 May 15 - 12:04 PM

have you played the polka yet?

Yep. It's a good one.

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 15 - 12:09 PM

That tool is called a T-Handle Auger and was a standard wood working tool. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't know, I googled it.

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 01 May 15 - 12:17 PM

That was me. It looked interesting. I wish I still had a band to play it. Played in a folk dance band when I lived in Philly, and, what with the historical tie-in and all, the dancers would have loved it.

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: Ged Fox
Date: 01 May 15 - 01:32 PM

A quick Google for James W. Porter shows that he flourished in the 1840s & 1850s, composing and publishing dance music and songs (including possibly the earliest version of Ella Ree 1853.)
An entry in McElroy's Philadelphia 1850 directory has "Porter James, music printer 3d ab Federal"

Subject: RE: Philadelphia's Junior Screw Association
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 01 May 15 - 10:58 PM

That tool is called a T-Handle Auger, and was a standard used in wood working. In the interest of full disclosure, I googled it.