by Uncle Dave Lewis
The Manhattan Merrymakers was a highly unusual side project of Victor's waltz artists The Troubadours. Started in 1922 and led by drummer Eddie King, The Troubadours made records of waltzes and other slow-dance niceties that were still immensely popular and profitable in the early 1920s, but not many of Victor's mainstream artists wanted to deal with recording them.

The Troubadours' pianist Hugo Frey (1878-1952) is listed the nominal leader and probably arranger of The Manhattan Merrymakers' records. Hugo Frey was the brother of society bandleader Otto Frey, and his credentials as a composer of Novelty Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley hits go back to 1912; his hit tunes included "Uncle Tom" and "Havanola." Frey was also a prolific piano roll editor and led a working society band of his own that doesn't seem to have recorded. He was half of the piano duo, with Frank Banta, that played on some records with Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra, and by the time of The Manhattan Merrymakers sessions had already worked as a musical director at Victor for some time.

Things started out well enough - the first Manhattan Merrymakers record, "Maggie! 'Yes Ma'am?' (Come Right Upstairs)," was actually a little more interesting than the Paul Whiteman selection on the flip, and sold very well. But of the 22 sides they recorded, only one pair were issued as a coupling, otherwise everything they made appeared on the backsides of records made by other artists. Most of the later Merrymakers sides were rejected, probably as Victor felt that they didn't really need hot dance records from their in-house Waltz artists, as they were getting them from so many other groups. In early 1924, Hugo Frey left the company to become an arranger and facilitator at Robbins, and the "Manhattan Merrymakers" ceased to exist, although The Troubadours continued for many years afterward under the leadership of Nat Shilkret, still recording waltzes.

While they do not contain hot solos, the best Manhattan Merrymakers records have plenty of good-spirited playing in a happy, cartoonish style. However some titles that went into the books, and possibly even on records, under the Manhattan Merrymakers moniker were intended as Troubadours material, and tend to be more sedate.

thanks to Bob Palmer for his help with this page.