This month’s article in this column will step away from the usual type of research done here; this month we will explore a bit of etymology. To begin—in 1904 recording lab bandleader Fred W. Hager wrote a two step entitled “Handsome Harry.” It was a very catchy and infectious piece that was arranged and published by his long time partner Justin Ringleben.
Looking over the sheet itself, one wouldn’t think much of it, as there doesn’t happen to be anything particularly outstanding about the piece, with a simple pattering melody and generic chord progressions. Naturally, the piece was recorded many times not long after its publication, and was quite popular among New York and later London bands and orchestras. But why write an article on this piece alone? The curiosity lies in the context.
In the latter 19th century, many new slang terms and common colloquialisms arose, a lot of them were lost to time, but some are still in use today. One of these more curious terms is Handsome Harry. The author went on a blind search for this term on a quick whim and was entirely shocked by the amount of information to be read. When you look up this term in period and urban dictionaries, the immediate definition can come as a
