In case you want any documents from the man who claims to be the lawyer of the man who claimed to be the manager of the man who claimed to have invented jazz – here’s your chance. Beginning Feb. 12, New York City lawyer Howard Fisher will be auctioning documents pertaining to Harrison Smith, who claimed to be the manager of Jelly Roll Morton.
The documents make “revealing, desperate, complicated detailed claims of copyright infringement of songs,” according to Fisher.
In the 1960s, Smith claimed to be the former manager of Jelly Roll Morton, among others in jazz. He was a music publisher and claimed copyright ownership of 37 tunes,
some very popular. Fisher, who represented Smith, is now auctioning a pile of Smith’s papers in one lot on eBay. The lot includes correspondence between Smith’s lawyer and ASCAP, executor of Jelly Roll Morton Estate, RCA Victor Records, Melrose Music, Record Hunter, Harry Fox Office,
et al. There are six originals from Smith, 10 copies plus nine pages of Smith’s pre-trial memorandum for lawsuit against RCA in U.S. District Court(9 pages).
20 sheets of paper: 20 cents
“Jelly Roll Morton Collected Piano Songbook” (currently on eBay): $36.00 minimum bid
Old legal documents that never would have surmounted to anything in court: worthless
For everything else, there’s eBay!
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