Sunday, Mar. 03, 2013 | 08:15 AM
Question: Did the late Fresno songwriter Fred Miller ever own Miller Sheet Music in Fresno?
-- Guy Wallace, Surprise, Ariz.
Answer: Miller Sheet Music was owned by Leland Miller who sold sheet music and repaired instruments for school bands. He opened the business on Aug. 13, 1946, after returning from World War II.
The business was previously called M-V Music, after Miller and business partner Pete Valentino. At first located on Blackstone Avenue near Abby Street, the store was later at two different sites on First Street and was on Dakota Avenue when it closed in 2010.
Prolific songwriter Fred Miller, who was not related to Leland Miller, was born in New York in 1880 and grew up in a New York orphanage. He was sent to work for a farmer in Illinois at 12. In a brief biography sent to The Bee in 1954, Miller said, "When I was 16, I went out for myself."
Miller wrote his first song, "Back Among the Old Folks," in 1904, inspired by a play he saw of the same name.
In 1909, Miller moved to Fresno, where he clerked for Southern Pacific Railroad, San Joaquin Grocery and Wellman, Peck & Co. wholesale grocery until he retired in 1940.
But Miller's main interest was writing songs and poems. He published several songs, through music companies or on his own, at least through the late 1940s.
Among his song titles are: "When the East Shall Greet the West by Way of Panama," 1913; "Stand By Your Country's Flag" and "Our Own Dear Fresno Town," written for the Fresno Chamber of Commerce in 1915, "Sun-Maid Raisin March," written for the Raisin Day Festival in 1924; "In the Garden of the Sun," 1927; "Sousa and His Band," 1932; "When The Wedding Bells Ring Out for You and Me," "I Long To See My Heavenly Home," 1943; and "Beautiful California," 1948.
In 1939, Miller sent one of his songs -- "To Yosemite Falls" -- to the superintendent of Yosemite National Park "for use in camp programs," a 1939 Fresno Bee story says. Musician and Yosemite music historian Tom Bopp, who has recorded the song, supplied the lyrics.
The song begins, "When you're tired or weary, And life seems so dreary, And everything looks upside down; You will need a vacation, Some good recreation, To bring back a smile, not a frown. Take a trip to Yosemite Falls."
Miller died in Fresno in 1961 at 82. He was survived by his wife, Rose, a daughter and eight grandchildren.
Q: What can you tell me about 1950s local car dealer Earl "Hands" Maloney?
-- Joe Fox, Oakhurst
A: Earl Maloney, who owned Earl Maloney Used Cars, got his nickname in high school because his hands were big enough for him to easily grip a basketball with either hand.
Maloney was featured in "Ripley's Believe It or Not" in 1932 when he played basketball for then-Fresno State College. An illustration depicted Maloney gripping a basketball in each hand.
Maloney also played baseball and was considered one of the best pitchers in the Valley. His son, Jim Maloney, pitched for the Cincinnati Reds from 1960-1970 and the California Angels in 1971. He threw two no-hitters.
Earl Maloney died in April 2000 at age 86.
