At The Jonathan Channel, we are reflecting on summer’s past. Summers going all the way back to the early 1900s. During this time, the trend of sending boys to overnight camp began to take on for urban families. As we shared earlier this week, Camp Weingart was one of the first camps to exist and to boast some of the greatest future songwriters in America. Though Weingart was one of the first, it was not the last.
Camp Wigwam, situated in Waterford, Maine was established in 1910. It was founded by Abraham “Mandy” Mandelstam and Arnold “Pop” Lehman. The camp served the same purpose as Weingart, but took a different approach to the strict ways of Camp Weingart. Richard Rodgers compared Wigwam to Weingart labeling it as a “real boys camp.” Wigwam was not regimented like Weingart. The eccentric camp founders created an atmosphere where boys were free to explore nature, sports and the creative arts. Pop was an athletic and energetic leader, while Mandy was a creative genius, established in the arts and theatrical community in Manhattan, whose well connected friends were frequent visitors to Camp Wigwam.
The camp housed the boys in tents that were separate from the mess hall and club house. It was bigger and “better” than Camp Weingart and quickly drew many of its campers including the Hart brothers, Herbert Sondheim and Richard Rodgers. Other early campers included Arthur Loesser, the half-brother of Frank Loesser; the Selznick brothers, Myron and David; and the son of Adolph Zukor, Eugene. Later on, the camp would boast J.D. Salinger, Frank Loesser, Stephen Sondheim and Charles Strouse.
By the time Richard Rodgers attended Wigwam, in 1916, he was so intrigued with music that he spent hours playing the piano rather than swimming and hiking. In his autobiography “Musical Stages,” Rodgers cheerfully remembers a secret camp song sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.” The lyrics were:
To Wigwm we go in the summer,
The lousiest place on this earth.
For this we pay three hundred dollars,
Which is fifty times more than it’s worth.
Bring back, bring back,
Oh, bring back my money to me, to me.
Bring back, bring back,
Oh, bring back my money to me.
During his first summer, Rodgers composed a song of his own "Camp Fire Days," celebrating life at Wigwam. Rodgers' musical mentor at camp was Robert K. Lippmann, a counselor who was only four years older than he, who had some professional ability. Lippmann worked with Rodgers future partners as well. In college he collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein II on shows at Columbia University, and at Wigwam, he wrote the music for the “Camp Wigwam Hiking Song,” with lyrics by Larry Hart. The song was preserved in a camp songbook:
Swing along, boys of Wigwam,
All together in step.
Tho’ the sun is hot and dusty miles grow longer,
Will your will, boys, and your will, will grow much stronger.
All good fellows are marching
As we sing the same old song.
For the doggone Wigwam kind
Never lag behind
As we swing along.
And swung along they did, Larry Hart and other campers - like his future partner Richard Rodgers - kept moving to other camps as campers and counselors, spreading their ideas, music and songs. Keep following their stories this week on The Jonathan Channel!
