All Aboard "Love's Ship"
The Anacortes start of pioneer record label - Morrison Music Co.
From her birthplace in Ohio, Alice Lanterman passed through Anacortes in 1896 as a child. Her family was bound for nearby Decatur Island, where the year before Alice’s Uncle Leon was murdered in a farm feud by an ex-schoolteacher he’d fired.
The Lantermans moved to Anacortes in Alice’s teen years, where she took piano lessons from Julia Hensler and Jean Perry Lowman. Alice’s name appeared in the Anacortes American in news of music and social events, like May Day picnics on the beach and high school skating parties. Charles Lanterman, her father, worked in a variety of jobs: operating a piledriving business, in management of the Apex Fish company salmon cannery, and as Night Marshall of a rowdy Anacortes, bringing beery roisterers to justice.
After Alice’s Anacortes High School years, she began work providing musical accompaniment for silent movies at a local theater. According to family historian Nancy Werner Matthews, this is where Alice met Howell Morrison. He was also a musician - as well as a dancer, promoter, baseball player and manager. He was born for showbiz and was drumming for his brother’s band as a kid.
Alice Nadine Lanterman married Howell O. Morrison in a publicity stunt on the Anacortes waterfront during Fourth of July festivities. The arrival of a son, Lew, nine months after their wedding was reported in the Anacortes American: “A future baseball star, who his fond father hopes will someday become the world’s champion southpaw, arrived at the home of Manager Howell Morrison last Friday. The mother and child are doing well.”
Twenty years following the City’s incorporation, Anacortes had recovered from the 1890s boom and bust to boast a thriving lumber mill and salmon cannery economy. Why not form a professional baseball team, the Anacortes Anchors, on which Howell played and coached and promoted with brass band boat trips to Bellingham and team ice cream dances at the Oddfellows Opera House.
Meanwhile, Alice (now “Mrs. Howell Morrison” in the newspapers) performed vocal solos at Schubert club recitals in the Anacortes Library and played a xylophone duet with her sister at the Empire theater for the local Hyack Mamooks home talent event.
Stunts and tragedy surrounded the Lantermans in 1915. The American reported on Charles Lanterman’s successful saltwater dive for a gold watch lost off the City Float. Months later, his teenage son, Carl Lanterman, died from a fall 60 feet from a tree at Cranberry Lake while trying to catch a squirrel for a pet. By the time of this tragedy, Alice, Howell and Lew had moved to the larger city of Bellingham, where “Professor Morrison” and Alice opened the first of many dance schools. They traveled to a dance masters convention in New York City and advertised the latest dances upon their return.
These new dance crazes stirred up trouble and news. Howell appeared in court – not as a defendant, but as an expert dance witness to declare the “Bunny Hug” an immoral dance. A rival dance hall operator at the Socialist League was on trial for allowing lewd movements at his premises. The arresting officers demonstrated the scandalous moves before the judge to hilarious effect, covered in the Bellingham Herald. Howell found himself later accused in court on another matter, of destroying a rival instructor’s dance signage, but was found not guilty.
The Morrisons scraped by in small city showbiz until Alice took up songwriting and the pair launch the Morrison Music Company from Bellingham. The early 20s roared for the new song publishers. They sold 1 million copies of sheet music for “Love’s Ship” – a song written by Alice and Nellie Morrison. Love’s Ship was the second Washington State-sourced record ever made; it was released on the Edison label in 1921, recorded by the Club De Vingt Orchestra, according to music scholar and author Peter Blecha, who recently donated the record to the Anacortes Museum.
But they did not leverage this success into national showbiz careers. They tried their hand in San Francisco and other forays to California, always returning to the Pacific Northwest. Howell promoted Pantages and other shows in the area, including at the Chuckanut Manor. Mostly, the family entertained and taught dance at their own and other halls. Both Morrisons taught and perform music, often joined by their siblings and cousins over many years.
According to research by Peter Blecha’s Northwest Music Archives and Historylink entries, the Morrisons formed a family band to get by in the Great Depression, and then rebounded to the Moose Lodge in Seattle, the base for what became a string of dance halls on the Pacific coast. With this success, or by coming into a cash inheritance, they were able to purchase the Japanese consulate in Seattle, vacated with the start of World War II.
They taught dance lessons and Morrison Music Co. advertised song publishing and printing services in the Seattle Star classifieds from 1937 to 1947. The business model seemed to be more for DIY artists, a “vanity” press more than a hitmaker. The record company became known for the colorful vinyl used in its 78 RPM records, manufactured on its own hand press. They released compositions by Verna Wells, an Anacortes music teacher and songwriter. Bonnie (Tutmarc) Guitar’s first record was on the Morrison label..
In 1962 the Anacortes American ran a feature on their 50th anniversary party in Seattle and all who knew them were invited to attend. Alice passed away in 1978 and Morrie died in 1984. Their influence on Northwest music was profound. In 1984 the Morrisons were celebrated in Peter Blecha’s tribute column in the Rocket Magazine.
List provided by Peter Blecha of Love’s Ship versions on record:
1.) CLUB De VINGT ORCHESTRA - ["Love's Ship" Edison 50803]
2.) GREEN BROTHERS NOVELTY ORCHESTRA - ["Say You'll Be Mine (My Love Is All For You)" Emerson 10373]
3.) NEWPORT SOCIETY ORCHESTRA, The - ["Love's Ship" Banner 1028]
4.) NEWPORT SOCIETY ORCHESTRA, The ["Love's Ship" Puritan 965]
5.) HARRISON, CHARLES - ["Love's Ship" Victor 18829-B]
6.) ELLIOT, VERN [piano roll of "My Love Is All For You"]