Popular Songwriter crafted state song.
By Mark Bennett
The house orchestra of almost every swank New York City restaurant played it, at least once, each night. A Chicago department store sold 1,471 copies in one day. Another 20,000 were sent to schoolteachers all across Indiana.
Paul Dresser's song about his boyhood home was inescapable. When Dresser wrote "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," he had no peers within his craft.
"He was, without a doubt, every bit as popular and successful as a George Gershwin, a Hoagy Carmichael, or a Carole King," says Clayton Henderson, a retired St. Mary's College music professor and author of "On the Banks of the Wabash: The Life and Music of Paul Dresser." "He was the most popular songwriter in the world at his time."
"His time" was the 1890s.
Now, more than a century later, Dresser's greatest composition - "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" - remains the official Indiana state song. (The General Assembly gave it that distinction in 1913.) But that 1897 tune has been overshadowed and essentially replaced by a song written 20 years later that drew its concept, music and lyrics deeply from Dresser's original. And the resulting piece - "Back Home Again in Indiana" by James Hanley and Ballard MacDonald - has become so much more popular that many people now mistakenly identify it as the state song.
That status for "Indiana" gets cemented every Memorial Day when Jim Nabors sings it just before the start of the Indianapolis 500, as he's done almost every year since 1972. The Purdue University band, which backs Nabors on that number, also plays "On the Banks of the Wabash" on race day as the cars pull into the starting grid. But that's an hour before the race.
"Back Home Again' tends to get the TV time, which 'On the Banks' doesn't," explains Purdue band director David Leppla. "But I don't consider one more important than the other."
Still, the thought of substituting "On the Banks of the Wabash" in place of "Indiana" in the pre-race ritual would seem like Hoosier heresy.
At Indiana University football games, for example, the IU Marching Hundred regularly plays "Indiana" but not Dresser's song. "We'll get comments if we don't play ['Indiana']," says David Woodley, director of the IU athletic bands. "They'll say, 'Oh, I missed 'Back Home Again' tonight.'"
Indiana State University band director Doug Keiser knows that situation. His groups played "On the Banks of the Wabash" at the first nine Brickyard 400s, but no longer does. The ISU band does play "Indiana" at ISU athletic events.
"You play ['Banks of the Wabash'], and people don't know what it is, or don't appear to," Keiser says. "A lot more people know '(Back Home Again in) Indiana,' which is why we play it."
The situation is widespread. Even Woodley - an Iowa native in his 12th year at IU - says with a chuckle, "I've got to admit, I didn't know that ['Banks of the Wabash'] was the official state song. So I apologize to the state of Indiana for not knowing that."
In 1998, the Indiana Legislature renewed its proclamation that Dresser's "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" was the state song, urging its revived usage. Henderson doesn't know if that is realistic, but likes the idea of recognizing Dresser's talent. The man grew up poor in Terre Haute and died the same way in 1906 at 46 years old, having given away much of his substantial earnings. But in between, Dresser became the most prolific songwriter in the Tin Pan Alley days, penning the million-seller "My Gal Sal" and, along with many others, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away."
Dresser's memory and his famous song deserve restoration, Henderson says. "It almost takes a grassroots kind of thing, that if somebody doesn't at least say, 'Hey, let's use this. This is the state song,' sadly it is going to slip into oblivion."
| Dresser: a portrait of Paul Dresser, composer of the state song, "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away," hangs in the Vigo County Historical Museum. |
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PAUL DRESSER FAST FACTS
Born: Johann Paul Dreiser on April 22, 1859, at 318 S. Second St. in Terre Haute. He later changed his name to Dresser. His boyhood home has since been moved to Fairbanks Park and preserved by the Vigo County Historical Society.
Died: Jan. 6, 1906, at his sister's home in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Ran away from home: At age 16, to join a traveling medicine show.
Wrote and published: 106 songs, including the million-sellers "My Gal Sal" and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away."
Life story told in: The movie "My Gal Sal" (1942), starring Victor Mature.
Honored by Indiana: The Legislature declared "On the Banks of the Wabash" the official state song in 1913.
Brotherly help?: On "On the Banks of the Wabash" from Dresser's younger brother, legendary author Theodore Dreiser. After Paul's death, Dreiser told people he gave his brother the idea of writing about the river in their hometown and actually helped write the words to the first verse. There was a public backlash against the claim by Dreiser, who was a controversial figure and less popular back in Indiana, and it contradicted earlier published comments Dresser made about the process of writing that song.
Target of borrowing: By songwriters Jack Hanley and Ballard MacDonald for their 1917 song "(Back Home Again in) Indiana." Years later, Dresser's brother, author Theodore Dreiser, made a failed attempt to pursue copyright infringement against them on behalf of Paul's estate, after Hanley and MacDonald's publishing company insisted Dresser's publisher allowed them to use two bars of the original. St. Mary's College music professor and Dresser biographer Clayton Henderson says their use of "On the Banks of the Wabash" exceeded two bars. "They borrowed heavily. They're deeply in debt to Paul Dresser," Henderson says.
Compare "Indiana" and "On the Banks of the Wabash": By listening to snippets here
- Mark Bennett