Sheet Music: "I Want a Cave Man Like William Hart - The Movie Star."

Sheet Music: "I Want a Cave Man Like William Hart - The Movie Star." Words and music by James Kendis and James Brockman; arrangement be Freda Applebaum. Published and copyrighted in 1919 by Kendis, Brockman Music Co. Inc., 145 W. 45th Street, New York.

In "The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896-1929" (McFarland & Co., N.C., 2009), author Ken Wlaschin describes various tpes of "movie star" music. One type is music intended to accompany a silent film (which, by definition, had no sound track), such as the "Ramona Waltz" from the 1928 version of "Ramona" starring Dolores Del Rio. Another type was sheet music that was promoted by movie stars (or by movie studios) with the star's likeness on the cover.

Another, less common type was music written about the stars themselves. The first, according to Wlaschin, was 1910's "The Vitagraph Girl," which was about Florence Turner although it didn't name her. The first song to name a movie star was 1914's "Mary Pickford, the Darling of Them All," which publication coincided with the release of her first feature, "A Good Little Devil." A popular example of this type was "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin."

Our "Cave Man" song falls squarely into this latter category — a song about a movie star, for no particular reason other than to capitalize on his name. (We don't know who gave permission for Hart's likeness — a studio boss or Hart himself. It wouldn't surprise us if it was Stephen A. Lynch, who had taken over the distribution arm of Triangle Film Corp. and re-edited and re-released Hart's films for years.)

According to Wlaschin, this was the first song relating to Hart. It was followed in 1920 by the song "Darling Nellie Gray" which was intended to accompany the Hart-Eva Novak vehicle, "The Testing Block." That same year, the song, "Safe in the Arms of Bill Hart" was featured in the Broadway musical, "Tickle Me." Finally, 1924's "Somebody Loves Me" by George Gershwin (music) and B.G. DeSylva and Ballard McDonald (lyrics) included a verse about "picture show" lovers, one of whom was Hart. The song was used in the Broadway musical, "George White's Scandals of 1924," which included an actor dressed as Hart.