![Here we have a sheet music cover. It has two figures under a rounded archway supported by two Doric columns with a blue sky in the background. The taller of the two figures is wearing a white headscarf and white robes while they hold the other figure. The other, wearing white with long red hair, lays in the other's arms and gazes up at the taller figure. The title text is written, [The Sheik of Araby] along the curvature of the archway in red and blue font. On the left, [Words by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler], and the right, [Music by Ted Snyder].]( https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/325938_be158730a494d9a0_b.jpg
"Object ID #907214041")
Object Timeline
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1921 |
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2017 |
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Object ID #907214041
This is a Sheet music.
This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.
This song was a Tin Pan Alley hit, and was adopted by early jazz bands in New Orleans, making it a jazz standard. It was composed in response to the popularity of the 1921 Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik. The cover illustrates the song’s themes of romance and seduction.
It is credited Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, M1622.S688 S54 1921, Gift of Stephen Van Dyk.
- Sheet Music, Black and Tan Fantasy
- printed paper.
- Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, M1366.E44....
- 43.2016.12
![Here we have a print of a figure in dramatic costume. Stylized in body form and fabrics, the figure stands center left in the foreground, wearing a large white skirt and a large hat in front of swaths of curtains and fabrics and colors. The skirt is large and umbrellas outward in ovular teardrop and feather-like draping, with various diamond, triangular, and dotted decoration from the waist to the peacock train along the side of her. She holds a long cane in her right hand with angled straps of fabric on her torso and hanging arm drapery on her outstretched, languid arms. Her small face is made of closed eyes that are simple strokes of red and her lips a triangle of red. On her head is a large, ovular hat, nearly the size of her dress, with swirling fans and concentric circles arranged around a blue center, just around her head. In the background, repeated arches and various curtain-like fabrics swoop and angle around her outline and the title text. To the right of the hat in big letters reads [Vanities] in diagonal block writing, with smaller letters [7th edition] underneath. To the left of the hat and just above the word Vanities reads the name [Earl Carroll] in bold maroon on top of a red and white banner shape. The very top line of text, surrounded by a white frame with blue triangles on both sides, reads [Once in a Lifetime / lyric by Raymond Klages and Music by Jesse Greer.] To the right of the figure is a small text box with white background and blue strips of rectangle giving a 3-dimensional effect that reads [Once in a Lifetime / Blue Shadows / Raquel]. Just above that text box reads [Dances and Ensembles by Busby Berkley], and in small cursive script next to the dress tail says [with Ukelele Arrangement]. Along the bottom in small text on a maroon background reads [Robbins Music Coroporation, New York] and [Made in USA].](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/325941_c33ece5ff64822fd_n.jpg "Sheet Music, Cover, Once in a Lifetime, 1928")
- Sheet Music, Cover, Once in a Lifetime, 1928
- printed paper.
- Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, M1508.G74....
- 43.2016.14
Its dimensions are
H x W: 31 × 23 cm (12 3/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.
