Item 297 - When Irish eyes are smiling

American singer and songwriter Ernest Roland Ball of the Tin Pan Alley era is best known for his song “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” Born in Cleveland and trained at the Cleveland Conservatory, he made his way to New York where his song-writing career got underway in 1905 when state senator James J. Walker, later mayor of New York City, gave him some lyrics he had written and asked for music to go with them. By 1906 he had begun singing and accompanying singers at vaudeville venues like Hammerstein’s Victoria and The Palace. and collaborating with various composers and singers. From 1907 to 1910 he wrote numerous popular songs and several stage scores for Broadway musicals. One of his most successful collaborations was with tenor Chauncey Olcott, whose mother had been Irish. Ball and Olcott produced many Irish themed songs; “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” was originally created for the 1913 musical “Isle of Dreams” and “Mother Machree” came from “Barry of Ballantyne.” In 1911 he briefly collaborated in a double act with his second wife, Maude Lambert, a vaudeville entertainer. Ball wrote a mock ballad, “Saloon,” under the pseudonym “Roland E. Llab.” He was a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers. In 1927, while his singing group “Ernie Ball and His Gang” was on tour in Santa Ana, California, at the Yost Theater, he died in his dressing room just after leaving the stage. He was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. Some of his piano playing is preserved on piano roll recordings he made for the Vocalstyle, an Ohio-based company.