Fame
In 1926, he left the Savoy and opened his 'School of Syncopation' which specialised in teaching modern music techniques such as ragtime and stride piano. This in turn, led to the long running correspondence course on 'How to play like Billy Mayerl'. It was during this period that he wrote his most famous solo 'Marigold'. By the late 30's his correspondence school is said to have over 100 staff and 30,000 students. It finally closed in 1957.
On October 28, 1925, Mayerl was the soloist in the London premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In December 1926, he appeared with Gwen Farrar (1899–1944) in a short film – made in the Lee DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process – in which they sang Mayerl's song "I've Got a Sweetie on the Radio". His song "Miss Up-to-Date" was sung and played by Cyril Ritchard in Alfred Hitchcock's sound film Blackmail (1929).
On Tuesday, 1 October 1929, Billy Mayerl's orchestra performed at the opening of The Locarno Dance Hall in Streatham.
In the 1930s Mayerl composed several works for the musical theatre include Sporting Love, opening at the Gaiety Theatre, London in 1934, Twenty to One (1935), and Over She Goes (1936). In 1938, famed jazz pianist Marian McPartland joined his group "Mayerl's Claviers" under the name Marian Page.
Mayerl died in 1959 from a heart attack at his home, Marigold Lodge, after a long illness.
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Famous quotes containing the word fame:
“Certainly fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things weighty and solid.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“Alas, we are the victims of advertisement. Those who taste the joys and sorrows of fame when they have passed forty, know how to look after themselves. They know what is concealed beneath the flowers, and what the gossip, the calumnies, and the praise are worth. But as for those who win fame when they are twenty, they know nothing, and are caught up in the whirlpool.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)
“Paper is cheap, and authors need not now erase one book before they write another. Instead of cultivating the earth for wheat and potatoes, they cultivate literature, and fill a place in the Republic of Letters. Or they would fain write for fame merely, as others actually raise crops of grain to be distilled into brandy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)