REGISTER FILE PHOTO
Samuel Hawkins Byers
John T. Beeston
In 1912, when George E. Hamilton came up with a song praising Iowa, he had no idea that his catchy tune would be sung - and talked about - for decades to come.
Hamilton's composition, "The Iowa Corn Song," isn't the official state song. Still, it's probably the one sung most frequently and is the most popular.
Iowans prefer the short version - just the chorus:
"We're from I-o-way, I-o-way,
"State of all the land
"Joy on ev'ry hand,
"We're from I-o-way, I-o-way,
"That's where the tall corn grows."
Some people are offended that the song talks of "Ioway," thus forcing an incorrect perception on non-Iowans. Others say that's OK because the tune is memorable and the song makes people associate the state with one of its chief products.
Hamilton became a composer on a train trip to a Shriners convention in Los Angeles. As the captain of the Za-Ga-Zig temple drill team, Hamilton wanted a rousing, peppy tune for the Iowa Shriners to sing as they entered the convention hall.
The Shriners hailed from Masonic temples in Des Moines, Sioux City, Davenport and Cedar Rapids.
Hamilton, a Des Moines civic leader, composed some of the verses as well as the choruses and added them to the melody of a song he recalled from boyhood, "Traveling."
"The Iowa Corn Song" was joyfully received and gained popularity across California because so many former Iowans had located there.
In 1921, John T. Beeston, a Des Moines pipe organ builder and director of the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine band, wrote three new verses. His verses and Hamilton's choruses were published for the first time that year.
Hamilton was the longtime secretary of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Convention Bureau, a post he held from 1914 to his retirement in 1938. He was known for aggressively cultivating Des Moines' image across the country.
In 1932, Hamilton successfully opposed federal government plans to build a convention auditorium in Washington, D.C., saying that the project would be in direct competition with auditoriums across the nation that were built with local tax dollars.
He was dubbed "the father of the convention bureau" and "the man who put Des Moines on the convention map."
Des Moines was hosting 30 to 40 conventions annually when Hamilton organized the bureau. He turned the city into a nationally known convention center by proving that the city could accommodate large gatherings. In his final year, Des Moines hosted 273 national, regional, sectional and state conventions.Meanwhile, Iowa's official state song, "The Song of Iowa," was written by Major Samuel Hawkins Byers (1838-1933), who was inspired to compose his song during the Civil War, when he was imprisoned in the South. Almost daily, through his barred window, he was forced to listen to Confederate musicians playing "My Maryland," which was set to the tune of "O Tannenbaum." Byers vowed then to replace the lyrics with words appropriate to his own state:
"You ask what land I love the best,
I-o-wa, 'tis I-o-wa,
"The fairest State of all the west,
"I-o-wa O! I-o-wa."
"The Song of Iowa" made its debut in 1897 when a French concert singer performed it to acclaim at Des Moines' Foster Opera House.
Many songs have been composed about Iowa.
Meredith Willson entered the scene with the publication in 1944 of his song "Iowa," chosen as the official song for the state's centennial in 1946:
"I-o-way - I-o-way -
"That's how they sing it in the Tall Corn Song.
"Other people call it I-'O'-WA
"And they're both just a little bit wrong."
(Willson's song isn't to be confused with his "Iowa Stubborn" song written for his 1957 musical "The Music Man," nor is it to be confused with the "Iowa Fight Song," which Willson composed for the University of Iowa.)Also, composers Rodgers and Hammerstein, for the movie musical "State Fair" in 1945, composed another popular song associated with the state, "All I Owe Ioway":
"Oh, I know all I owe I owe Ioway,
"I owe Ioway all I owe and I know why,
"I am Ioway born and bred,
"and on Ioway corn I'm fed,
"Not to mention her barley, wheat and rye!"
The song was retained for the 1996 stage version of the musical based on Phil Stong's novel.
"The Iowa Corn Song" gained international attention in 1948, when director Billy Wilder used it in his movie "A Foreign Affair," filmed on location in rubble-strewn, postwar Berlin. Jean Arthur plays Phoebe Frost of Murdock, Ia., a congresswoman representing the state's "9th District" and visiting occupied Berlin on a fact-finding mission.
In a rousing scene set at a seedy Berlin nightclub, Arthur is goaded by Marlene Dietrich into teaching the song to the rest of the nightclub patrons. Arthur does so with gusto.
In 1957, on the other hand, "The Iowa Corn Song" was considered past its prime when the University of Iowa band chose not to perform it for Rose Bowl activities.
In any case, Hamilton will always be the one credited as the man behind "The Iowa Corn Song." Hamilton died at 71 in March 1945, after a short illness.
He was survived by his wife, daughter and three sons. He is buried at Des Moines' Masonic Cemetery.
Click here to give us feedback or to suggest a famous Iowan for a future profile.