Robert Hobart Davis Explained

Robert Hobart Davis (1869–1942) was a dramatist, journalist, and photographer from the U.S.^[1] He edited Munsey's Magazine from 1904 until 1925 and was a columnist for the New York Sun from 1925 to 1942 ^[2] The New York Public Library has a collection of his papers. His photographs include portraits of prominent people.^[2]

Davis was born in Nebraska to Sylvia Nichols and George Ransome Davis. He grew up in Carson City, Nevada and began his career in newspapers there as a compositor at the Carson City Daily Appeal. He also lived in San Francisco where he reported for the San Francisco Examiner and the Call and Chronicle before moving to New York City in 1895 and joining the New York World and New York Journal. He joined Frank A. Munsey Company papers in 1904.^[2]

He was an influence on several authors who became famous^[3] and corresponded with many prominent people.^[2]

He was part of the Stevenson Society of America.^[2]

He interviewed Mussolini in Rome in 1926.^[4] He interviewed Angelo Capato.

Bibliography

• We Are French! with Perley Poore Sheehan (1914)
• The Bugler of Algiers with Perley Poore Sheehan, George H. Doran Company, 1916
• Efficiency: a play in one act (1917)^[5]
• Man Makes His Own Mask a book of his photographs^[2]
• Over my left shoulder : a panorama of men and events, burlesques and tragedies, cabbages and kings and sometimes W and Y
• Bob Davis recalls : Sixty true stories of love and laughter and tears
• Irvin S. Cobb, storyteller : with biographical particulars and notes on his books and who's Cobb and why? (1924)
• I Am the Printing Press (1930)^[6]
• Bob Davis at large
• Tree Toad; the autobiography of a small boy
• The caliph of Bagdad : being Arabian nights flashes of the life, letters, and work of O. Henry, William Sydney Porter, co-wrote (1931)
• People, people everywhere; footprints of a wanderer (1936)
• Oriental odyssey; people behind the sun (1937)
• Canada cavalcade; the maple leaf dominion from Atlantic to Pacific (1937)
• Hawaii, U.S.A. illustrated with photographs with George Thomas Armitage (1941)^[7]

Discography

• "The Woodchuck Song" (1902), source of the phrase "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck" written for Fay Templeton in the musical The Runaways and rewritten by Theodore Morse for a 1904 song.^{[8] [9] [10]}
• "Paradox"^[11]
• "Lady Bountiful", lyrics^[12]

Filmography

• Whoopee! (film), co-wrote screenplay
• The Miracle Man (1932 film), co-wrote screenplay, an adaptation of George M. Cohan's 1914 play.

Further reading

• The amazing Bob Davis : his last vagabond journey by Fred S Mathias

Notes and References

1. Web site: Davis, Robert H. (Robert Hobart), 1869-1942 - Social Networks and Archival Context. snaccooperative.org.
2. Web site: archives.nypl.org -- Robert H. Davis papers. archives.nypl.org.
3. The Press: Recalling Bob Davis. Time. June 16, 1930. content.time.com.
4. Web site: Robert H. Davis. September 23, 2015.
5. Web site: Davis, Robert H. 1869-1942 (Robert Hobart) [WorldCat Identities]].
6. Web site: I Am the Printing Press. Robert Hobart. Davis. May 14, 1930. Sunshine Private Press. Google Books.
7. Web site: Hawaii, U.S.A. By Bob Davis and George T. Armitage. Illustrated from Photographs. Robert Hobart. Davis. May 14, 1941. Frederick A. Stokes Company. Google Books.
8. The Tammany Times, Volumes 20–21, 1902, Page 305. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck would chuck wood?' That is the beginning of the refrain of a song that Mr. Robert Hobart Davis has written for Fay Templeton in The Runaways. Miss Templeton is trying the song..."
9. Hobbies, Volume 78, Issues 1–6, Page 119, Otto C. Lightner, Pearl Ann Reeder, 1973. "Mathias quotes Davis as saying he made $20,000 from the sale of 'The Woodchuck Song' (this must have been from sheet music, for royalties were not paid on record sales in those days) after he and Morse called at Fay Templeton's home..."
10. http://www.gracyk.com/bobroberts.shtml Tim Gracyk, Bob Roberts - Tenor
11. Web site: Robert Hobart Davis (lyricist) - Discography of American Historical Recordings. adp.library.ucsb.edu.
12. Book: Lady Bountiful. Louis F.. Gottschalk. Robert Hobart. Davis. May 14, 1902. Permission Of Davis And Gottschalk. digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu.