 Carol
Jacobs-Bond
American Songwriter
By Anne Adams
These days we often determine
the success of a popular song by the sales of
CDs (at one time it was records) but in the
early 1900s it was the sales of sheet music that
determined a “hit.” Yet unlike the lively
rhythms of today, in the years following the
sentimental Victorian era the most popular songs
were melodies with lyrics that were full of
devotion to a sweetheart, as well as “hearth and
home” and were designed to be sung by family and
friends around a parlor piano. Today we might
consider these songs archaic schmaltz but back
then hundreds of songwriters churned out
innumerable and now forgotten numbers. Yet two
songs of that era, “The End of a Perfect Day”
and “I Love You Truly” have survived and are
frequently published in traditional songbooks or
performed at nostalgic sing-a-longs. Perhaps it
could be said that these songs are survivors
because of the appeal of their melodies and
lyrics, but like the songs their composer was
just as much a survivor. For Carrie Jacobs Bond
was unique to her time and profession not just
because she was a woman composer but also
because she attained her success and national
acclaim by overcoming not just poverty but also
disability.
Carrie Jacobs was born in
Janesville , Wisconsin in 1862, coming from a
family with a musical heritage since her
grandmother was a cousin of John Howard Payne,
composer of the American classic “Home Sweet
Home.” Her musical talent was evident from early
childhood since she began playing the piano by
ear even before she began to take lessons. She
married at age 18 but though that marriage
failed she found a much happier union after
several years when she married Dr. Frank Bond.
Later she would write that Dr. Bond “took a deep
and sympathetic interest in my music and
encouraged me to put down on paper some of the
songs that were continually running through my
mind.” They moved to a community in northern
Michigan , where Dr. Bond found work with an
iron mining company, but when the mines closed
and they needed money Carrie suggested she
publish some of her songs. Though her husband
had supported her writing her songs when it came
to publication he objected since this meant she
would be stepping outside her traditional
homemaker role. Still, he relented later and she
published a few songs. Then in 1892 after he
fell and struck his head on a snowy day, Dr.
Bond died, leaving his widow almost penniless
with a small son to support and severely
disabled with rheumatism.
Carrie and her son moved to
Chicago where she operated a boarding house, did
custom sewing and painted designs on china.
However, despite her poverty, she remained
generous, sometimes providing lodging for
homeless people who sought food or a temporary
job. On one occasion when she took in an entire
family even though she was suffering from a
severe attack of rheumatism they later returned
her charity by caring for her till she
recovered. However, her struggles continued, and
there was even one period at this time when she
was forced to sell off her possessions until all
she had left was her precious piano.
However, despite her poverty,
she continued to write songs, a practice that
years earlier she had only considered a hobby
but now could be a way to make money for her
family. She struggled to succeed even at one
point things got so bad that she was forced to
use brown wrapping paper because she could not
afford regular writing materials.
Then one day an absent neighbor
had some visitors and Carrie briefly entertained
them, one of the callers, who happened to be a
performer came across some song manuscripts on
Carrie’s piano. He began to play them, and one
that particularly impressed him was “I Love You
Truly”. He not only asked Carrie for copies but
in addition offered to help her sell what she
had written. Also, about this time Carrie had
begun to develop a local following by performing
at neighborhood home recitals. Another supporter
was Jessie Bartlet Davis, a well known soprano
with a local opera company, who not only helped
promote Carrie’s songs, but also lent her some
money to publish them. In 1901 she issued a
collection of songs titled “Seven Songs as
Unpretentious as the Wild Rose.” Two of these,
“I Love You Truly” and “Just a Wearin’ For You”,
became so popular that they were later published
separately. With this success, Carrie formed her
own publishing company, even though at first the
office of her company was just a corner of her
bedroom. However, from this simple beginning,
Carrie’s firm would eventually become the center
of a music publishing empire.
Though Carrie had to contract
out the printing, she insisted that the paper be
vellum quality and even produced the cover art
herself. Eventually she moved to large quarters
in a Chicago office building and later
established offices in Boston and Hollywood ,
California . About 1910 Carrie began to offer
recording rights and these royalties soon became
a major source of her income, and because of her
success she became the first woman composer to
earn over a million dollars. In the next few
years despite periods of incapacitation from her
illness, she continued to publish and perform –
in fact she appeared twice at the White House –
for Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Warren G.
Harding.
One of her most popular songs
“The End of a Perfect Day”, was inspired by a
motor trip with some friends in southern
California in 1909. They stopped for the night
at Mission Inn in Riverside and later she
described how the song had come about. “…I
thought how I wished I could express my thanks
to my friends in some little way, just out of
the ordinary; and almost at once came the words
for ‘The Perfect Day’. I wrote them hurriedly; I
did not have time to change a word or a
sentence. I took them down and read them at the
dinner that evening, then put them in my purse
and thereupon forgot them.” Several months later
she began singing the words to a tune, and the
classic was created. Within 10 years sales of
the sheet music had passed 5 million copies.
After its introduction as an encore at a New
York recital it spread to all parts of the
country to be sung at weddings, funerals, and
even in barber shops. The American soldiers in
World War I found it particularly appealing and
nostalgic for home and family in precarious
times. Carrie used it often in her army camp
performances.
Carrie and her son moved to
California about 1920, to establish her
publishing company as well as two homes.
However, despite her success, Carrie was not
exempt from the tragedy that occurred in 1932
when her beloved son Fred became severely ill
and grew so depressed that he committed suicide.
Reportedly, when his body was found, there were
two candles alight and “A Perfect Day” playing
on the phonograph. Since Carrie had been
extremely close to her son, she was devastated
but eventually overcame her grief to continue to
create and publish beautiful music.
Carrie continued to write and
publish even into the 1940s, despite
deteriorating health, until her death in 1946.
She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park at
Glendale and the inscription on her tomb,
written by former President Hoover summarized
her service and devotion to both her music and
to her nation. In her epitaph he described her
as the writer of “heart songs that express the
love, the longings, sadness and gladness of
people everywhere” and as “… America ’s gallant
lady of song.”
A native of Kansas City ,
Missouri , Anne grew up in northwestern Ohio ,
and holds degrees in history: a BA from
Wilmington College , Wilmington , Ohio (1967),
and a MA from Central Missouri State University
, Warrensburg , Missouri (1968).
A freelance writer since the
early 1970s, she has published in Christian and
secular publications, has taught history on the
junior college level, and has spoken at national
and local writers' conferences. Her book
"Brittany, Child of Joy", an account of her
severely retarded daughter, was issued by
Broadman Press in 1987. She also publishes an
encouragement newsletter "Rainbows Along the
Way."
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