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117-513: The dance hall, a converted blacksmith shop once used as a church, was in a one-story steel-clad wood-frame building at 1 St. Catherine Street, 18 blocks from the city's business district . The building was owned by the Byrnes family and was leased by a social group called the Money Wasters. The group hosted events and dances and brought in a live band to perform. The original band that

234-660: A Grammy Award , and a Tony Award . He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald R. Ford in 1977. Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite stated he "helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives". Born in Imperial Russia , Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907, receiving 33 cents for

351-452: A Simple Melody " became the first of his famous "double" songs in which two different melodies and lyrics are counterpointed against one another. Variety called Watch Your Step the "first syncopated musical", where the "sets and the girls were gorgeous". Berlin was then 26, and the success of the show was riding on his name alone. Variety said the show was a "terrific hit" from its opening night. It compared Berlin's newfound status as

468-575: A composer with that of the Times building: "That youthful marvel of syncopated melody is proving things in Watch Your Step , firstly that he is not alone a rag composer, and that he is one of the greatest lyric writers America has ever produced." Whitcomb also points out the irony that Russia, the country Berlin's family was forced to leave, flung itself into "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania". For example, Prince Felix Yusupov ,

585-482: A cover of this song on his 1992 release The Future (Leonard Cohen album) . Written after his first daughter's birth, he distilled his feelings about being married and a father for the first time: "Blue days, all of them gone; nothing but blue skies, from now on." The song was introduced by Belle Baker in Betsy , a Ziegfeld production. It became a hit recording for Ben Selvin and one of several Berlin hits in 1927. It

702-501: A great kid", and raved about him so much that Von Tilzer hired Berlin. In 1908, when he was 20, Berlin took a new job at a saloon named Jimmy Kelly's in the Union Square neighborhood. There, he was able to collaborate with other young songwriters, such as Edgar Leslie , Ted Snyder , Al Piantadosi , and George A. Whiting . In 1909, the year of the premiere of Israel Zangwill 's The Melting Pot , he got another big break as

819-406: A heavy bar or rod for the hammer handle. Punching is not limited to depressions and holes. It also includes cutting, slitting, and drifting—all done with a chisel. The five basic forging processes are often combined to produce and refine the shapes necessary for finished products. For example, to fashion a cross-peen hammer head, a smith would start with a bar roughly the diameter of the hammer face:

936-494: A hit twice (for Vincent Lopez and George Olsen ) in its first incarnation. There were four more hit versions in 1944–45. In 1959, Sammy Turner took the song to no. 2 on the R&;B chart. It became Patsy Cline 's postmortem anthem and hit no. 18 on the country chart in 1980, 17 years after her death, and a tribute musical called "Always... Patsy Cline", played a two-year Nashville run that ended in 1995. Leonard Cohen included

1053-446: A mass grave. Due to the time of the fire, there were issues dealing with the number of the dead, with segregation affecting the time that the bodies were properly seen to. Under segregation, only African American morticians were allowed to handle African American dead, and the three local black funeral homes had too many bodies to handle. Some victims had insurance policies and burial contracts, but there were some who did not leave behind

1170-562: A means of paying for burial expenses. Natchez undertakers and burial associations turned to the Natchez Chamber of Commerce for financial support. The Central Burial Association branch manager branch manager J. L. Poindexter spoke to the Natchez Chamber of Commerce and assured the city that the association was capable of fully covering its members' burials. Local victims were buried at the Watkins Street Cemetery. In

1287-558: A partnership with Sam Harris to build the Music Box Theater . He maintained an interest in the theater throughout his life, and even in his last years was known to call the Shubert Organization , his partner, to check on the receipts. In its early years, the theater was a showcase for revues by Berlin. As theater owner, producer and composer, he looked after every detail of his shows, from the costumes and sets to

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1404-546: A play titled “Death by Dancing” commemorating the disaster. Purpose and Power Connection, a worship arts ministry, presented the production. The disaster was memorialized in songs such as "Mississippi Fire Blues" and "Natchez Mississippi Blues", by the Lewis Bronzeville Five ; "The Natchez Fire", by Gene Gilmore ; "The Death of Walter Barnes", by Leonard Caston ; "The Natchez Burnin", by Howlin' Wolf ; and "Natchez Fire", by John Lee Hooker . A memorial marker

1521-416: A ragtime revue, Watch Your Step , which starred the couple and showcased their talents on stage. That musical revue became Berlin's first complete score with songs that "radiated musical and lyrical sophistication". Berlin's songs signified modernism , and they signified the cultural struggle between Victorian gentility and the "purveyors of liberation, indulgence, and leisure", says Furia. The song " Play

1638-472: A recent Oxford undergraduate of Russian noble lineage and heir to the largest estate in Russia, was described by his dance partner as "wriggling around the ballroom like a demented worm, screaming for 'more ragtime and more champagne ' ". My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country. The highbrow

1755-408: A ship departing for China and became so entranced that he did not see a swinging crane, which knocked him into the river. When he was fished out after going down for the third time, he was still holding in his clenched fist the five pennies he earned that day. His mother took a job as a midwife , and three of his sisters worked wrapping cigars, common for immigrant girls. His older brother worked in

1872-502: A single year". On April 1, 1917, after President Woodrow Wilson declared that America would enter World War I , Berlin felt that Tin Pan Alley should do its duty and support the war with inspirational songs. Berlin wrote the song "For Your Country and My Country", stating that "we must speak with the sword not the pen to show our appreciation to America for opening up her heart and welcoming every immigrant group." He also co-wrote

1989-441: A song aimed at ending ethnic conflict, "Let's All Be Americans Now". At the grand finale... Sergeant Berlin led the entire 300-person cast off the stage, marching them down the theater's aisles, singing 'We're on Our Way to France,' all to tumultuous applause. The cast carried off their little producer like he was victor ludorum ... Tin Pan Alley had joined hands with real life — biographer Ian Whitcomb . In 1917, Berlin

2106-646: A songwriter in Tin Pan Alley and on Broadway . In 1911, Emma Carus introduced his first world-famous hit, " Alexander's Ragtime Band ", followed by a performance from Berlin himself at the Friars' Frolic of 1911 with Clifford Hess as his accompanist. He became an instant celebrity, and the featured performer later that year at Oscar Hammerstein 's vaudeville house, where he introduced dozens of other songs. The New York Telegraph described how two hundred of his street friends came to see "their boy" onstage: "All

2223-427: A songwriting star. From its first and subsequent releases, the song was near the top of the charts as others sang it: Bessie Smith , in 1927, and Louis Armstrong , in 1937; No. 1 by Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell; Johnny Mercer in 1945; Al Jolson , in 1947 and Nellie Lutcher in 1948. Add Ray Charles 's big-band version in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in just under a half century. Initially

2340-489: A staff lyricist with the Ted Snyder Company . Installed as a staff lyricist with a leading Tin Pan Alley music publishing house, Berlin quickly established himself as one of that frantic industry's top writers of words to other composer's melodies. By 1910 he was already in demand and even appeared in a Shubert Broadway revue performing his own songs. It was purely by chance that Berlin started composing music to

2457-482: A sweatshop assembling shirts. Each evening, when the family came home from their day's work, Bergreen writes, "they would deposit the coins they had earned that day into Lena's outspread apron." Music historian Philip Furia writes that when "Izzy" began to sell newspapers in the Bowery , he was exposed to the music and sounds coming from saloons and restaurants that lined the crowded streets. Young Berlin sang some of

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2574-612: A three-room tenement at 330 Cherry Street . His father, unable to find comparable work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a kosher meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side to support his family. He died a few years later when Irving was thirteen years old. With only a few years of schooling, eight-year-old Irving began helping to support his family. He became a newspaper boy, hawking The Evening Journal. One day while delivering newspapers, according to Berlin's biographer and friend, Alexander Woollcott , he stopped to look at

2691-405: A very low carbon content, and also included up to 5% of glassy iron silicate slag in the form of numerous very fine stringers. This slag content made the iron very tough, gave it considerable resistance to rusting, and allowed it to be more easily "forge welded," a process in which the blacksmith permanently joins two pieces of iron, or a piece of iron and a piece of steel, by heating them nearly to

2808-436: A white heat and hammering them together. Forge welding is more difficult with modern mild steel, because it welds in a narrower temperature band. The fibrous nature of wrought iron required knowledge and skill to properly form any tool which would be subject to stress. Modern steel is produced using either the blast furnace or arc furnaces. Wrought iron was produced by a labor-intensive process called puddling , so this material

2925-681: Is American music." Berlin was born Israel Beilin on May 11, 1888, in the Russian Empire . Although his family came from the shtetl of Tolochin ( Yiddish : טאָלאָטשין ; today Talachyn, Талачын , in Belarus ), Berlin later learned that he was probably born in Tyumen , Siberia, where his father, an itinerant cantor , had taken his family. He was one of eight children of Moses (1848–1901) and Lena Lipkin Beilin (1850–1922). From Tyumen,

3042-430: Is smelted into usable metal, a certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed with the iron. (Charcoal is almost pure carbon.) The amount of carbon significantly affects the properties of the metal. If the carbon content is over 2%, the metal is called cast iron , because it has a relatively low melting point and is easily cast. It is quite brittle, however, and cannot be forged so therefore not used for blacksmithing. If

3159-459: Is a heroic blacksmith in Germanic mythology. The Poetic Edda states that he forged beautiful gold rings set with wonderful gems. He was captured by king Níðuðr , who cruelly hamstrung him and imprisoned him on an island. Völundr eventually had his revenge by killing Níðuðr's sons and fashioning goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes and a brooch from their teeth. He then raped

3276-472: Is an alloy of copper and zinc . Each material responds differently under the hammer and must be separately studied by the blacksmith. Steel with less than 0.6% carbon content cannot be hardened enough by simple heat-treatment to make useful hardened-steel tools. Hence, in what follows, wrought-iron, low-carbon-steel, and other soft unhardenable iron varieties are referred to indiscriminately as just iron . In Hindu mythology, Tvastar also known as Vishvakarma

3393-433: Is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, and finally white. The ideal heat for most forging is the bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat . Because they must be able to see the glowing color of the metal, some blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions, but most work in well-lit conditions. The key

3510-488: Is lengthened or "drawn out." As an example of drawing, a smith making a chisel might flatten a square bar of steel, lengthening the metal, reducing its depth but keeping its width consistent. Drawing does not have to be uniform. A taper can result as in making a wedge or a woodworking chisel blade. If tapered in two dimensions, a point results. Drawing can be accomplished with a variety of tools and methods. Two typical methods using only hammer and anvil would be hammering on

3627-550: Is likely to be superficial, overtrained, supersensitive. The lowbrow is warped, subnormal. My public is the real people. — Irving Berlin Some of the songs Berlin created came out of his own sadness. For instance, in 1912 he married Dorothy Goetz , the sister of songwriter E. Ray Goetz . She died six months later of typhoid fever contracted during their honeymoon in Havana . The song he wrote to express his grief, "When I Lost You",

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3744-439: Is likely to have them crack and break apart. This is a problem for some blade-making steels, which must be worked carefully to avoid developing hidden cracks that would cause failure in the future. Though rarely hand-worked, titanium is notably hot short. Even such common smithing processes as decoratively twisting a bar are impossible with it. Upsetting is the process of making metal thicker in one dimension through shortening in

3861-430: Is now a difficult-to-find specialty product. Modern blacksmiths generally substitute mild steel for making objects traditionally of wrought iron. Sometimes they use electrolytic-process pure iron. Many blacksmiths also incorporate materials such as bronze , copper , or brass in artistic products. Aluminum and titanium may also be forged by the blacksmith's process. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin , while brass

3978-400: Is sufficiently corrosion-resistant that artifacts of bronze may last thousands of years relatively unscathed. Accordingly, museums frequently preserve more examples of Bronze Age metal-work than examples of artifacts from the much younger Iron Age . Buried iron artifacts may completely rust away in less than 100 years. Examples of ancient iron work still extant are very much the exception to

4095-509: Is the blacksmith of the devas . The earliest references of Tvastar can be found in the Rigveda . Hephaestus (Latin: Vulcan ) was the blacksmith of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology . A supremely skilled artisan whose forge was a volcano, he constructed most of the weapons of the gods, as well as beautiful assistants for his smithy and a metal fishing-net of astonishing intricacy. He

4212-510: Is to have consistent lighting, but not too bright. Direct sunlight obscures the colors. The techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat-treating, and finishing. Forging —the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering—differs from machining in that forging does not remove material. Instead, the smith hammers the iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations (except when trimming waste) by smiths usually re-arrange metal around

4329-595: The Proto-Germanic *smiþaz meaning "skilled worker". Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, an anvil and a chisel . Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, coke , or oil. Some modern blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Induction heating methods are gaining popularity among modern blacksmiths. Color

4446-497: The 1946 film Blue Skies . The song was written in 1928 with a separate set of lyrics and was introduced by Harry Richman in a 1930 film of the same name. In 1939, Clark Gable sang it in the movie Idiot's Delight . In 1974 it was featured in the movie Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks , and was a no. 4 hit for synth-pop artist Taco in 1982. In 2012 it was used for a flash mob wedding event in Moscow. This waltz-time song

4563-528: The Pelham's resident pianist Mike Nicholson, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights. The sheet music to the published song presented his name as "I. Berlin". Berlin continued writing and playing music at Pelham Cafe and developing an early style. He liked the words to other people's songs but sometimes the rhythms were "kind of boggy," and he might change them. One night he delivered some hits composed by his friend George M. Cohan , another kid who

4680-639: The Rhythm Club Museum, commemorating the tragedy, opened in Natchez. The site where the fire happened remains empty and exists today as an empty grassy plot of land with a memorial sign inside informing passersby of the tragedy. A documentary film, The Rhythm Club Fire , was completed in December 2012. The documentary is now available on Youtube . Atlanta playwright Danese Frazier Turner, granddaughter of Ed Frazier, wrote, produced and co-directed

4797-561: The Ritz ", " Cheek to Cheek ", " White Christmas ", " Happy Holiday ", " Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) ", and " There's No Business Like Show Business ". His Broadway musical This Is the Army (1942) was adapted into the 1943 film of the same name . Berlin's songs have reached the top of the US charts 25 times and have been extensively re-recorded by numerous singers. Berlin died in 1989 at

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4914-592: The United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, escaping discrimination, poverty and brutal pogroms . Other such families included those of George and Ira Gershwin , Al Jolson , Sophie Tucker , L. Wolfe Gilbert , Jack Yellen , Louis B. Mayer (of MGM ), and the Warner brothers . After their arrival in New York City, the Baline family lived briefly in a basement flat on Monroe Street, and then moved to

5031-459: The aftermath of the fire, citizens of Natchez raised more than $ 5,000 to help the local Red Cross . People believed the fire to be accidental, started by a carelessly discarded match or cigarette that then ignited the decorative Spanish moss. Other sources claim a fire from a hamburger stand located near the exit spread to the Spanish moss and grew rapidly. A large fan at the front of the entrance

5148-564: The age of 101 . Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster , Walt Whitman , and Carl Sandburg , as a "great American minstrel"—someone who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe." Composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived", and composer Jerome Kern concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he

5265-531: The age of thirteen, Berlin had few survival skills and realized that formal employment was out of the question. His only ability was acquired from his father's vocation as a singer, and he joined with several other youngsters who went to saloons on the Bowery and sang to customers. Itinerant young singers like them were common on the Lower East Side. Berlin would sing a few of the popular ballads he heard on

5382-475: The anvil horn, and hammering on the anvil face using the cross peen of a hammer. Another method for drawing is to use a tool called a fuller , or the peen of the hammer, to hasten the drawing out of a thick piece of metal. (The technique is called fullering from the tool.) Fullering consists of hammering a series of indentations with corresponding ridges, perpendicular to the long section of the piece being drawn. The resulting effect looks somewhat like waves along

5499-418: The appearance of the piece. An experienced smith selects the finish based on the metal and on the intended use of the item. Finishes include (among others): paint, varnish, bluing , browning , oil, and wax. A blacksmith's striker is an assistant (frequently an apprentice ) whose job is to swing a large sledgehammer in heavy forging operations, as directed by the blacksmith. In practice, the blacksmith holds

5616-522: The bitter-sweetness of the 1920s, it was Berlin who gave eloquence to their heartbreak by way of ' What'll I Do ' and 'Remember' and 'All Alone'". This ballad of love and longing was a hit record for Paul Whiteman and had several other successful recordings in 1924. Twenty-four years later, the song went to no. 22 for Nat King Cole and no. 23 for Frank Sinatra . Written when he fell in love with Ellin Mackay , who later became his wife. The song became

5733-460: The blacksmith had a general knowledge of how to make and repair many things, from the most complex of weapons and armor to simple things like nails or lengths of chain. The "black" in "blacksmith" refers to the black firescale , a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of smith is the Old English word smið meaning "blacksmith", originating from

5850-486: The building. Most of the bodies were found piled near the rear of the building by the bandstand, the stacked bodies reaching shoulder height. Ambulances took the victims and survivors to hospitals in the city, and despite strict segregation laws, the white medical establishment treated survivors over the following weeks and months. Throughout the night of the disaster, firemen, medical professionals, and civilian volunteers worked to remove bodies and search for signs of life in

5967-418: The carbon content is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting metal is tool steel , which can be heat treated as discussed above. When the carbon content is below 0.25%, the metal is either " wrought iron (wrought iron is not smelted and cannot come from this process) " or "mild steel." The terms are never interchangeable. In preindustrial times, the material of choice for blacksmiths was wrought iron. This iron had

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6084-402: The casting and musical arrangements. According to Berlin biographer David Leopold, the theater, located at 239 West 45th St., was the only Broadway house built to accommodate the works of a songwriter. It was the home of Berlin's Music Box Revue from 1921 to 1925 and As Thousands Cheer in 1933 and today includes an exhibition devoted to Berlin in the lobby. By 1926, Berlin had written

6201-447: The center of the weld connects first and the connection spreads outward under the hammer blows, pushing out the flux (if used) and foreign material. The dressed metal goes back in the fire, is brought near to welding heat, removed from the fire, and brushed. Flux is sometimes applied, which prevents oxygen from reaching and burning the metal during forging, and it is returned to the fire. The smith now watches carefully to avoid overheating

6318-471: The club fire at around 11:15 p.m. The first fire engine arrived within minutes, and the first hose was targeted at the front entrance and upper ceiling of the lobby and the second was sent into a small open window at the rear of the club. The sound of the victims screaming could be heard through the town. The fire was put out after around ten to thirty minutes. 21 of the 24 existing windows had been boarded up to prevent outsiders from viewing or listening to

6435-556: The club on fire. All indications in later investigations pointed to an accidental cause of the fire. Photos donated to the Rhythm Nightclub Fire Museum in 2015 show the coffins of the band members who died in the fire being escorted by African-American boy scouts on a train. More than 15,000 mourners attended the funeral of Walter Barnes, and the Natchez Social and Civic Club of Chicago raised money for

6552-641: The club. Floodlights were brought in to help in the search. Even after the bodies were removed and the site cleared, the smell of burned bodies hovered over Natchez for months. Bandleader Walter Barnes and nine members of his band were among the victims. The band was credited with attempting to calm the crowd and Barnes was praised as a hero for leading the song "Marie" by Irving Berlin as the fire raged. The bandmates who died were John Reed, Jr., James Coles, Clarence Porter, Henry Walker, Paul Scott, Calvin Roberts, Jesse Washington, and his vocalist Juanita Avery. One of

6669-596: The copper used by the Mediterranean World came from the island of Cyprus . Most of the tin came from the Cornwall region of the island of Great Britain , transported by sea-borne Phoenician and Greek traders. Copper and bronze cannot be hardened by heat-treatment, they can only be hardened by cold working . To accomplish this, a piece of bronze is lightly hammered for a long period of time. The localized stress-cycling causes work hardening by changing

6786-406: The crowd towards the back of the club. Due to the walls being made of metal, and little ventilation for the heat or the smoke, the walls held the heat in the club like an oven. When water from the fire hoses hit the metal siding, it created steam that scalded many victims. Doctors later found that most of the dead had been suffocated by smoke inhalation or crushed as the crowd was pushed to the rear of

6903-423: The decade". Composer George Gershwin , foreseeing its influence, said it was "the first real American musical work", adding, "Berlin had shown us the way; it was now easier to attain our ideal." Berlin was "flabbergasted" by the sudden international popularity of the song, and wondered why it became a sudden hit. He decided it was partly because the lyrics, "silly though it was, was fundamentally right ... [and]

7020-582: The decorative moss, it had been sprayed with FLIT , a petroleum-based insecticide. Under the dry conditions, flammable methane gas was generated from the moss. The Natchez Fire Department did not yet exist, but two volunteer companies provided one full-time firefighter. One of the men lived and worked from the Phoenix Fire Station, about four blocks from the Rhythm Night Club. The fire station received its first telephone call about

7137-434: The door cost $ 0.65, and the average age of attendees was between 15 and 25 years old. Many attendees were members of the Money Wasters club and their friends. Walter Barnes and His Royal Creolians was performing when the fire started near the main entrance door around 11:00 pm and, fed by Spanish moss that had been draped over interior's rafters as a decoration, quickly engulfed the structure. To ensure there were no bugs in

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7254-404: The ends of the stock down into the bend, 'upsetting' it at the point of the bend. They would then dress the bend by drawing the sides of the bend to keep the correct thickness. The hammering would continue—upsetting and then drawing—until the curve had been properly shaped. In the primary operation was the bend, but the drawing and upsetting are done to refine the shape. Welding is the joining of

7371-547: The family returned to Tolochin, and from there, they travelled to Antwerp and left the old continent aboard the SS Rhynland from the Red Star Line . On September 14, 1893, the family arrived at Ellis Island in New York City. When they arrived, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and five sisters until immigration officials declared them fit to be allowed into the city. After the family's naturalization ,

7488-484: The god of blacksmiths, warriors, hunters and others who work with iron is one of the pantheon of Orisha traditionally worshipped by the Yoruba people of Nigeria . Gold , silver , and copper all occur in nature in their native states , as reasonably pure metals – humans probably worked these metals first. These metals are all quite malleable , and humans' initial development of hammering techniques

7605-443: The group's two survivors, the drummer Walter Brown, vowed never to play again; the other survivor was the bassist Arthur Edward. Barnes was well regarded as a strong competitor with his contemporaries Duke Ellington and Woody Herman . Ed Frazier of the Money Wasters also died in the fire. Most of the dead were identified, but there were a number of bodies that were burned beyond recognition. These unidentifiable bodies were buried in

7722-583: The hammer over the horn or edge of the anvil or by inserting a bending fork into the hardy hole (the square hole in the top of the anvil), placing the work piece between the tines of the fork, and bending the material to the desired angle. Bends can be dressed and tightened, or widened, by hammering them over the appropriately shaped part of the anvil. Some metals are "hot short", meaning they lose their tensile strength when heated. They become like Plasticine : although they may still be manipulated by squeezing, an attempt to stretch them, even by bending or twisting,

7839-450: The handle hole would be punched and drifted (widened by inserting or passing a larger tool through it), the head would be cut (punched, but with a wedge), the peen would be drawn to a wedge, and the face would be dressed by upsetting. As with making a chisel, since it is lengthened by drawing it would also tend to spread in width. A smith would therefore frequently turn the chisel-to-be on its side and hammer it back down—upsetting it—to check

7956-580: The hero known to the Ossetians as Kurdalægon and the Circassians as Tlepsh is a blacksmith and skilled craftsman whose exploits exhibit shamanic features, sometimes bearing comparison to those of the Scandinavian deity Odin . One of his greatest feats is acting as a type of male midwife to the hero Xamyc , who has been made the carrier of the embryo of his son Batraz by his dying wife

8073-403: The hole, rather than drilling it out as swarf . Forging uses seven basic operations or techniques: These operations generally require at least a hammer and anvil , but smiths also use other tools and techniques to accommodate odd-sized or repetitive jobs. Drawing lengthens the metal by reducing one or both of the other two dimensions. As the depth is reduced, or the width narrowed, the piece

8190-419: The hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one hand, and indicates where to strike the iron by tapping it with a small hammer in the other hand. The striker then delivers a heavy blow to the indicated spot with a sledgehammer. During the 20th century and into the 21st century, this role has become increasingly unnecessary and automated through the use of trip hammers or reciprocating power hammers. When iron ore

8307-571: The king's daughter, after drugging her with strong beer, and escaped, laughing, on wings of his own making, boasting that he had fathered a child upon her. Seppo Ilmarinen , the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala , is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. Tubal-Cain is mentioned in the book of Genesis of the Torah as the original smith. Ogun ,

8424-424: The little writer could do was to finger the buttons on his coat while tears ran down his cheeks—in a vaudeville house!" Richard Corliss , in a Time profile of Berlin, described "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as a march, not a rag , "its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a bugle call and " Swanee River ". The tune revived the ragtime fervor that Scott Joplin had begun a decade earlier, and made Berlin

8541-541: The melody ... started the heels and shoulders of all America and a good section of Europe to rocking." In 1913, Berlin was featured in the London revue Hello Ragtime, where he introduced " That International Rag ", a song he had written for the occasion. Furia writes that the international success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" gave ragtime "new life and sparked a national dance craze". Two dancers who expressed that craze were Vernon and Irene Castle . In 1914, Berlin wrote

8658-532: The metal glows an intense yellow or white. At this temperature the steel is near molten. Any foreign material in the weld, such as the oxides or "scale" that typically form in the fire, can weaken it and cause it to fail. Thus the mating surfaces to be joined must be kept clean. To this end a smith makes sure the fire is a reducing fire: a fire where, at the heart, there is a great deal of heat and very little oxygen. The smith also carefully shapes mating faces so that as they come together foreign material squeezes out as

8775-460: The metal in the fire so he can see it without letting surrounding air contact the surface. (Note that smiths don't always use flux, especially in the UK.) Now the smith moves with rapid purpose, quickly taking the metal from the fire to the anvil and bringing the mating faces together. A few light hammer taps bring the mating faces into complete contact and squeeze out the flux—and finally, the smith returns

8892-412: The metal is joined. To clean the faces, protect them from oxidation, and provide a medium to carry foreign material out of the weld, the smith sometimes uses flux—typically powdered borax, silica sand, or both. The smith first cleans parts to be joined with a wire brush, then puts them in the fire to heat. With a mix of drawing and upsetting the smith shapes the faces so that when finally brought together,

9009-455: The metal. There is some challenge to this because, to see the color of the metal, the smith must remove it from the fire—exposing it to air, which can rapidly oxidize it. So the smith might probe into the fire with a bit of steel wire, prodding lightly at the mating faces. When the end of the wire sticks on to the metal, it is at the right temperature (a small weld forms where the wire touches the mating face, so it sticks). The smith commonly places

9126-450: The music, and as a result the crowd was trapped. Some survivors were able to get out the front door or through the ticket booth, while others tried to press their way to the back door, which was padlocked and boarded shut. Upon realizing their limited options to escape the fire, many victims attempted to break through the corrugated steel walls of the building, but were unsuccessful. People broke through windows using their hands and chairs, but

9243-500: The name "Beilin" was changed to "Baline". According to biographer Laurence Bergreen , as an adult Berlin admitted to no memories of his first five years in Russia except for one: "he was lying on a blanket by the side of a road, watching his house burn to the ground. By daylight the house was in ashes." As an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he knew no other life. The Berlins were one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish families who emigrated to

9360-622: The norm. Concurrent with the advent of alphabetic characters in the Iron Age , humans became aware of the metal iron . However, in earlier ages, iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not generally understood. Iron artifacts , composed of meteoric iron , have the chemical composition containing up to 40% nickel . As this source of this iron is extremely rare and fortuitous, little development of smithing skills peculiar to iron can be assumed to have occurred. That we still possess any such artifacts of meteoric iron may be ascribed to

9477-577: The number of people allowed in a structure and require doors to open outward to prevent people from being trapped. The fire helped bring forward building requirements that were aimed at making night clubs safer in the event of a fire. Requirements for nightclubs now include the installation of fire protection systems, provisions for safer building finishes and decorations, provisions for better exiting systems, and for clubs to have trained crowd managers on duty. Calls for stricter fire laws and addressing overcrowding in buildings and schools. On November 6, 2010,

9594-408: The other. One form is to heat the end of a rod and then hammer on it as one would drive a nail: the rod gets shorter, and the hot part widens. An alternative to hammering on the hot end is to place the hot end on the anvil and hammer on the cold end. Punching may be done to create a decorative pattern, or to make a hole. For example, in preparation for making a hammerhead, a smith would punch a hole in

9711-528: The publishing rights, and became known as the composer of numerous international hits, starting with 1911's " Alexander's Ragtime Band ". He also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway . For much of his career, Berlin could not read sheet music, and was such a limited piano player that he could only play in the key of F-sharp; he used his custom piano equipped with a transposing lever when he needed to play in keys other than F-sharp. He

9828-442: The same or similar kind of metal. A modern blacksmith has a range of options and tools to accomplish this. The basic types of welding commonly employed in a modern workshop include traditional forge welding as well as modern methods, including oxyacetylene and arc welding . In forge welding, the pieces to join are heated to what is generally referred to as welding heat . For mild steel most smiths judge this temperature by color:

9945-623: The scores to two editions of the Ziegfeld Follies and four annual editions of his Music Box Revue . These shows spanned the years of 1921–1926, premiering songs such as "Say It With Music", "Everybody Step", and "Pack Up Your Things and Go to the Devil". Life magazine called Berlin the "Lullaby Kid", noting that "couples at country-club dances grew misty-eyed when the band went into 'Always', because they were positive that Berlin had written it just for them. When they quarreled and parted in

10062-454: The size and shape of the metal's crystals . The hardened bronze can then be ground to sharpen it to make edged tools. Clocksmiths as recently as the 19th century used work hardening techniques to harden the teeth of brass gears and ratchets . Tapping on just the teeth produced harder teeth, with superior wear-resistance. By contrast, the rest of the gear was left in a softer and tougher state, more capable of resisting cracking. Bronze

10179-453: The song was not recognized as a hit, however; Broadway producer Jesse Lasky was uncertain about using it, although he did include it in his "Follies" show. It was performed as an instrumental but did not impress audiences, and was soon dropped from the show's score. Berlin regarded it as a failure. He then wrote lyrics to the score, played it again in another Broadway review, and this time Variety news weekly called it "the musical sensation of

10296-449: The songs he heard while selling papers, and people would toss him some coins. He confessed to his mother one evening that his newest ambition in life was to become a singing waiter in a saloon. From this he stepped up to work as a song plugger and singing waiter in cafes and restaurants in the downtown areas of New York City. His first lyric, written with a café pianist, earned him a royalty of thirty-seven cents. However, before Berlin

10413-525: The songs were for the new dances then appearing, such as the grizzly bear , chicken walk , or foxtrot . After a Hawaiian dance craze began, he wrote "That Hula-Hula", and then did a string of Southern songs, such as "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam". During this period, he was creating a few new songs every week, including songs aimed at the various immigrant cultures arriving from Europe. On one occasion, Berlin, whose face

10530-407: The spread and keep the metal at the correct width. Or, if a smith needed to put a 90-degree bend in a bar and wanted a sharp corner on the outside of the bend, they would begin by hammering an unsupported end to make the curved bend. Then, to "fatten up" the outside radius of the bend, one or both arms of the bend would need to be pushed back to fill the outer radius of the curve. So they would hammer

10647-560: The street, hoping people would pitch him a few pennies. From these seamy surroundings, he became streetwise, with real and lasting education. Music was his only source of income, and he picked up the language and culture of the ghetto lifestyle. Berlin learned what kind of songs appealed to audiences, writes Bergreen: "well-known tunes expressing simple sentiments were the most reliable." He soon began plugging songs at Tony Pastor 's Music Hall in Union Square and, in 1906, when he

10764-422: The time of the fire. There was only one exit, with an inward opening door, that opened into a main entrance foyer that had another set of doors that also opened inward. On the night of the fire, the club recorded 577 paid admissions and 150 passes, and the orchestra had 14 members and 5 attendants, bringing a likely final total number of people at the club to 746. Advance tickets for admission cost $ 0.50, tickets at

10881-437: The top of the piece. Then the smith turns the hammer over to use the flat face to hammer the tops of the ridges down level with the bottoms of the indentations. This forces the metal to grow in length (and width if left unchecked) much faster than just hammering with the flat face of the hammer. Heating iron to a "forging heat" allows bending as if it were a soft, ductile metal, like copper or silver. Bending can be done with

10998-538: The vagaries of climate, and the increased corrosion-resistance conferred on iron by the presence of nickel. Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin ; Yiddish : ישראל ביילין ; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook . Berlin received numerous honors including an Academy Award ,

11115-534: The victims' families and for the memorial. The Natchez Social and Civic Club of Chicago brought the memorial tablet, which cost $ 350.00 to create, to Natchez in September, 1940. The dedication service was held at the Zion Chapel AME church and a local park, and around 5,000 people attended the services. There were no building occupancy restrictions at the time of the fire. Future laws and codes would limit

11232-413: The vogue for "ragtime", but later inspired a major motion picture. 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' is a public menace....Hysteria is the form of insanity that an abnormal love for ragtime seems to produce. It is as much a mental disease as acute mania—it has the same symptoms. When there is nothing done to check this form it produces idiocy. — Dr. Ludwig Gruener German newspaper story Berlin rose as

11349-492: The water-sprite Lady Isp, who spits it between his shoulder blades, where it forms a womb-like cyst. Kurdalaegon prepares a type of tower or scaffold above a quenching bath for Xamyc, and, when the time is right, lances the cyst to liberate the infant hero Batraz as a newborn babe of white-hot steel , whom Kurdalægon then quenches like a newly forged sword. The Anglo-Saxon Wayland Smith , known in Old Norse as Völundr ,

11466-415: The windows became jammed. Blinding smoke made movement difficult. Survivors remembered the burning moss falling from the ceiling and forming a barrier between the dance floor and the exit, with the moss igniting clothing and hair of victims and survivors. The front door was the only exit, and the doors swung inward. Escape from the main entrance was made almost impossible as flames blocked the entrance, pushing

11583-450: The words of his songs. A lyric he had submitted to a publisher was thought to be complete with music. Not wishing to lose the sale, Berlin quickly wrote a melody. It was accepted and published. The success of this first effort opened the door to his career as a composer of music as well as lyrics. In 1910, Berlin wrote a hit that solidly established him as one of Tin Pan Alley's leading composers. Alexander's Ragtime Band not only popularized

11700-417: The work to the fire. The weld begins with the taps, but often the joint is weak and incomplete, so the smith reheats the joint to welding temperature and works the weld with light blows to "set" the weld and finally to dress it to the shape. Depending on the intended use of the piece, a blacksmith may finish it in a number of ways: A range of treatments and finishes can inhibit oxidation and enhance or change

11817-677: Was 18, got a job as a singing waiter at the Pelham Cafe in Chinatown . Besides serving drinks, he sang made-up " blue " parodies of hit songs to the delight of customers. Biographer Charles Hamm writes that in Berlin's free time after hours, he taught himself to play the piano. Never having had lessons, after the bar closed for the night, young Berlin would sit at a piano in the back and begin improvising tunes. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", written in collaboration with

11934-438: Was a historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operations of a whitesmith , who usually worked in gold , silver , pewter , or the finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is variously called a smithy , a forge , or a blacksmith's shop . While there are many professions who work with metal, such as farriers , wheelwrights , and armorers , in former times

12051-526: Was a hit for Rudy Vallée in 1929, and in 1937, updated to a four-quarter-time swing arrangement, was a top hit for Tommy Dorsey . It was on the charts at no. 13 in 1953 for The Four Tunes and at no. 15 for the Bachelors in 1965, 36 years after its first appearance. Rudy Vallée performed it on his radio show, and the song was a hit for George Olsen , Connee Boswell (she was still known as Connie), and Ozzie Nelson 's band. Aretha Franklin produced

12168-401: Was also thought by some to have strengthened the fire. The day after the blaze, five men were arrested following reports they had drunkenly threatened in an argument to burn the building down. Charges against them were later dropped. Hotel employee Ernest Wright stood by the entrance on the night of the fire and later reported that he heard two women arguing, with one accusing the other of setting

12285-490: Was drafted into the United States Army , and his induction became headline news, with one paper headline reading, "Army Takes Berlin!" But the Army wanted Berlin, now aged 30, to do what he knew best: write songs. While stationed with the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton , he then composed an all-soldier musical revue titled Yip Yip Yaphank , written as a patriotic tribute to the United States Army . The show

12402-656: Was erected in Bluff Park in Natchez. A historical marker has been placed at the site of the club, which contains a museum to the club and the fire as of 2016. Blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel , but sometimes from other metals , by forging the metal , using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith ). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There

12519-610: Was fourteen his meager income was still adding less than his sisters' to the family's budget, which made him feel worthless. He then decided to leave home and join the city's ragged army of other young immigrants. He lived in the Bowery, taking up residence in one of the lodging houses that sheltered the thousands of other homeless boys in the Lower East Side . Bergreen describes them as being uncharitable living quarters, " Dickensian in their meanness, filth, and insensitivity to ordinary human beings." Having left school around

12636-449: Was getting known on Broadway with his own songs. When Berlin ended with Cohan's "Yankee Doodle Boy", notes Whitcomb, "everybody in the joint applauded the feisty little fellow." Max Winslow (c. 1883–1942), a staff member at music publisher Harry Von Tilzer Company, noticed Berlin's singing on many occasions and became so taken with his talent that he tried to get him a job with his firm. Von Tilzer said that Max claimed to have "discovered

12753-447: Was his first ballad. It was an immediate popular hit and sold more than a million copies. He began to realize that ragtime was not a good musical style for serious romantic expression, and over the next few years adapted his style by writing more love songs. In 1915 he wrote the hit "I Love a Piano", a comical and erotic ragtime love song. By 1918 he had written hundreds of songs, mostly topical, which enjoyed brief popularity. Many of

12870-664: Was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his stated aim being to "reach the heart of the average American," who he saw as the "real soul of the country". He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him famous before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 20 original Broadway shows and 15 original Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards . Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including " Alexander's Ragtime Band ", " Blue Skies ", " Easter Parade ", " Puttin' on

12987-436: Was performed by Al Jolson in the first feature sound film, The Jazz Singer , that same year. In 1946, it returned to the top 10 on the charts with Count Basie and Benny Goodman . In 1978, Willie Nelson made the song a no. 1 country hit, 52 years after it was written. An instant standard with one of Berlin's most "intricately syncopated choruses", this song is associated with Fred Astaire , who sang and danced to it in

13104-461: Was scheduled to perform was Tiny Bradshaw and his orchestra, but due to a scheduling conflict the band canceled and was replaced by Walter Barnes and His Royal Creolians, an orchestra from Chicago. Money Wasters member Ed Frazier ran the club on the night of the fire. The premises was a single-story, wood building with corrugated steel siding that was 120 ft (36.6m) x 38 ft (11.6 m) with 24 windows that were mostly shuttered or nailed shut at

13221-423: Was still not known, was on a train trip and decided to entertain the fellow passengers with some music. They asked him how he knew so many hit songs, and Berlin modestly replied, "I wrote them." An important song that Berlin wrote during his transition from writing ragtime to lyrical ballads was " A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody ", which became one of Berlin's "first big guns", says historian Alec Wilder . The song

13338-458: Was taken to Broadway where it also included a number of hits, including " Mandy " and " Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning ", which Berlin performed himself. The shows earned $ 150,000 for a camp service center. One song he wrote for the show but decided not to use, he would introduce 20 years later: "God Bless America". Berlin returned to Tin Pan Alley after the war and in 1921 created

13455-635: Was the god of metalworking, fire, and craftsmen. In Celtic mythology , the role of Smith is held by eponymous (their names do mean 'smith') characters : Goibhniu (Irish myths of the Tuatha Dé Danann cycle) or Gofannon (Welsh myths/ the Mabinogion ). Brigid or Brigit, an Irish goddess , is sometimes described as the patroness of blacksmiths. In the Nart mythology of the Caucasus

13572-637: Was undoubtedly applied to these metals. During the Chalcolithic era and the Bronze Age , humans in the Mideast learned how to smelt , melt , cast , rivet , and (to a limited extent) forge copper and bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and approximately 10% to 20% Tin . Bronze is superior to just copper, by being harder, being more resistant to corrosion, and by having a lower melting point (thereby requiring less fuel to melt and cast). Much of

13689-454: Was written for Ziegfeld 's Follies of 1919 and became the musical's lead song. Its popularity was so great that it later became the theme for all of Ziegfeld's revues, and the theme song in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld . Wilder puts it on the same level as Jerome Kern 's "pure melodies", and in comparison with Berlin's earlier music, says it is "extraordinary that such a development in style and sophistication should have taken place in

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