In this presentation we will celebrate the talented songwriter of the early 20th century, Will Callahan.
Will Callahan was a summer resident of Northern Michigan from 1902 until 1939. During this time, he wrote some 300 Tin Pan Alley songs working with some 60 different US printing houses and composers. His most famous song "Smiles" was written in Northern Michigan in 1917 and sold 5 million copies internationally in several languages. His song "Tell Me” garnered $100,000 from the world's largest sheet music publishing firm Jerome Remick in Detroit.
Callahan worked at various jobs in and around Petoskey. He sang at Juilleret's Cabaret, the Argone Club, The Bay View silent film series, and the Petoskey film theaters. In this presentation take a step back in musical and local history and learn about this talented songwriter.
Mary Jane Doerr is the author of the 2010 Michigan State History Award winning book Bay View, An American Idea, and more currently The Songs of J. Will Callahan, which has garnered its author both 2023 Honorable Mention in the New York Book Festival and the 2022 Michigan State History Award. Doerr was a freelance writer for the Petoskey News Review from 1979 until recently. She has written for some 30 publications throughout Michigan and the United States. She has also written for the online weblog "The Hemingway Project" about the renowned author's time spent in Petoskey and Bay View. The introduction to the Songs of J. Will Callahan was written by International Hemingway expert Dr. H. R. Stoneback, former president of the International Hemingway Society and the local Hemingway Society and frequent visitor to Northern Michigan. Doerr’s other journalistic endeavors include an article on Wikipedia about the life of longtime Bay View violinist, Hugo Gottesman. Gottesman's career began in Vienna and eventually continued to the 28 years he spent in Northern Michigan.
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