Historical information

This is a piece of music composed by Idabelle Firestone (1875-1954), an American composer and songwriter. She was born in Michigan and wrote many popular songs including, ‘Melody of Love’, ‘Bluebirds’ and ‘You are the Song in my Heart’. She was married to Harvey Firestone of the Firestone Tyre Company. This company sponsored the long-running radio and T.V. program called ‘The Voice of Firestone’ which had a 46 piece orchestra and aired classical and popular songs of the day. Richard Crooks (1900-1972), who sang and recorded this song, was a well-known American tenor who specialized in French and Italian opera and was associated with the New York Metropolitan Opera Company for many years. He was the host of ‘The Voice of Firestone’ from 1928 to 1945 and sang patriotic songs and popular hits etc. This copy of ‘In My Garden’ was sold at the shop of Miss H. M. Lindsay of 101 Liebig Street, Warrnambool. This shop is known to have operated in the late 1920s up to 1935 and was at first (in the 1920s) located at 180 Timor Street.

Significance

This item is of some significance as an example of the type of music popular in the 1930s and an example of the work of Idabelle Firestone. It also has local significance as it was sold by a Warrnambool music store.

Physical description

This is a four page piece of music printed on seven sides (cover and five pages of music). The pages are cream-coloured, discoloured in places, with black printed musical notation and a back page printed in black containing advertisements for three other songs. The front cover has a sepia sketch of a woman (19th century or olde-worlde style) carrying a bunch of flowers and looking over a garden with an archway. There is a stamp (H. M. Lindsay, Warrnambool) and a pencilled number 6 (altering the price from 2/- to 2/6)

Inscriptions & markings

Front cover: ‘Sung by Richard Crooks, In My Garden, Song for Medium or High Voice and Piano by Idabelle Firestone, Sung by Richard Crooks on H. M. V. Record E.D.23, Price 2/-, G. Schirmer Inc, New York, Allan & Co, Prop. Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Bendigo’