Author Archives: Mason Vander Lugt

The Independent Record Companies of the 1890s

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Post written by Mason Vander Lugt. This is the fourth and final installment in a series about the development of the recording industry in the 1890s. The first, second and third provide additional context.

The first cracks in North American’s monopoly of American record sales began in spring 1893 when Victor Emerson of the New Jersey Phonograph Company formed an independent agency called the United States Phonograph Company. The sub-companies had been authorized to sell phonographs, but only within their respective territories. The United States Phonograph Company, on the other hand, could purchase phonographs from the New Jersey Phonograph Company (presumably at cost) and resell them anywhere, not having signed any exclusive agreement. Leon Douglass of the Chicago Central Phonograph Company organized the Chicago Talking Machine Company under the same principle, around the same time[1].

Both companies had access to duplication technology that gave them an advantage in the coming years. Both also predicted the direction of the market and invested in spring-motors for home phonographs – Frank Capps’ for United States and Edward Amet’s for Chicago. From the beginning, United States had the expertise and connections to record the industry’s established stars. An impressive USPC catalog in the New York Public Library shows that they recorded many artists made popular by the North American sub-companies. Chicago recorded local artists like Silas Leachman and Bonnell’s Orchestra, but also courted visits from the popular eastern stars and distributed records taken by the other companies.

Meanwhile in New York City, an Italian inventor named Gianni Bettini used his social connections and technical reputation to record the stars of opera. Bettini’s involvement in the industry began with inventing high-fidelity recording and reproducing devices in 1889, but by 1892 he had begun recording on a small scale, and by 1896 was one of seven producers listed in Phonoscope’s “New Records for Talking Machines”. Like the United States and Chicago companies, Bettini held a patent on a duplication process, and would distribute copies of his original records, first through the New York Phonograph Company, then through his increasingly prestigious 5th Avenue Phonograph Laboratory.

After North American collapsed in August 1894, a group of industry elites assembled who would in various forms guide the industry through the decade. The initial organization, Walcutt, Miller & Co., was founded by North American secretary Cleveland Walcutt, Edison recording manager Walter Miller, Edison recordist Henry Hagen, and Edward Leeds, who independently leased phonographs in Indiana. The coalition bought North American’s 14th St. recording laboratory and equipment.

A January 1895 letter in the Edison Papers suggests Walcutt, Miller & Co. intended to work with Edison to assert Edison’s exclusive right to record manufacture against USPC, which George Tewksbury had since joined.

This partnership lasted until February 1896 when Miller and Hagen formed the Phonograph Record and Supply Company and Walcutt and Leeds went their own way under that name. Walcutt and Leeds developed a major recording operation before falling to one of American Graphophone’s many lawsuits in July 1897. Miller would leave PR&S Co. to manage recording for Edison’s National Phonograph Company in May 1897, while Hagen would briefly lead United States’ recording program before organizing Harms, Kaiser & Hagen in May 1898 with sheet music publisher T.B. Harms and New York Phonograph Co. recordist and exhibitor John Kaiser. Leeds would join with L. Reade Catlin to form the influential Leeds & Catlin in April 1899 while Walcutt would help Emile Berliner establish a gramophone company in France.

In November 1896, recording pioneer and sometime smut peddler Russell Hunting began publishing The Phonoscope just in time to document a major boom in the industry. The end of North American’s exclusive agreements allowed independent dealers (or, “jobbers”) to emerge, many of whom would maintain small recording operations while selling records and supplies manufactured by the majors. As with the North American sub-companies, many didn’t differentiate between these classes, making it difficult to know exactly who made what.

The other major development was the introduction of spring motors and cheap home phonographs. The first of these offered for sale were designed by Thomas MacDonald and manufactured by American Graphophone beginning in 1895. United States and Chicago Talking Machine debuted their motors in ’96 which could be sold alone or fitted to a graphophone or phonograph. National’s first spring-motor phonographs, like their first records, were manufactured by United States.  Some discount models, like the Amet Echophone, the Euphonic Talking Machine, and the United States Talking Machine were also advertised in Phonoscope.

Some of the first independent record companies were organized by prominent performers from the earlier years  – J.W. Myers recorded himself and others under his own name, then as the Globe Phonograph Company, then as the Standard Phonograph Record Company. Russell Hunting similarly recorded himself and others, first under his own name, then as manager of the Universal Phonograph Company founded by sheet music giant Jos. W. Stern. Edward B. Marks, manager of Stern and Universal, wrote in They All Sang that they considered recording a novel way to plug new songs and promote music sales. He describes their catalog of the standard New York talent but also states “any performer who came into our publishing house for professional copies was dragged down to the laboratory for a phonograph test”. Roger Harding recorded independently before selling his operation to the Excelsior Phonograph Company. George J. Gaskin and Dan W. Quinn advertised their status as free agents and recorded for most of the prominent companies.

Established stars George J. Gaskin and Dan W. Quinn, and up-and-comers Estella Mann and T. Herbert Reed

Most of the independent companies sought out the established talent, though some came to specialize in particular genres or instruments, or attempted to make stars of their exclusive performers. The Lyric Phonograph Company showcased records of Estella Mann when recording women was generally agreed to be prohibitively difficult. Reed, Dawson & Co. made a specialty of violin records and the Metropolitan Band. The Universal Phonograph Company marketed records performed by famous composer George Rosey and his band. The Kansas City Talking Machine Company took records of songwriter Hattie Nevada in addition to selling her sheet music. Many more independent companies developed small recording programs in Manhattan and advertised in Phonoscope. A map of Manhattan manufacturers and dealers assembled from Phonoscope reflects how congested the industry became.

As the recording companies preferred vetted talent at the front of the horn, they vied for the skilled service of qualified recordists behind it. Victor Emerson left the United States Phonograph Company to lead Columbia’s recording department, Walter Miller returned to working with Edison after several years of independence. I.W. Norcross left behind his own successful recording company also to join Edison’s ranks. Calvin Child settled into the Berliner Gramophone Company after making his mark on several cylinder operations.

Some companies specialized in supplies, such as horns, record cases and cabinets. The most prominent of these was Philadelphia based Hawthorne & Sheble who sold novel devices such as the clover-leaf horn before manufacturing disc records in the 1900s. F.M. Prescott offered glass horns in a variety of colors and finishes and a “cornet horn”, shaped like a bugle. The Greater New York Phonograph Company offered “chemically prepared linen fiber diaphragms”. The American Micrograph Company offered a horn with attached stylus that required no reproducer. Some others supplemented their business with magic lanterns, stereoscopes or motion picture devices.

As the decade drew to a close the market re-consolidated into the hands of those companies with the money, the talent, and the patents. Columbia consolidated with American Graphophone and leveraged their prominence as manufacturers and formidable patent pool against all competitors.  Edison organized the National Phonograph Company in January 1896 and reduced or cut off the supply of blanks to the independent companies. In the same year, Emile Berliner would receive the investment capital and organize the manufacturing and sales structures that would allow the Gramophone to compete with, and eventually replace the phonograph.

Notes:

[1] Victor Emerson clearly dates the organization of USPC to spring 1893 in a relatively contemporary court testimony for the American Graphophone vs. USPC trial in 1896. Chicago’s organization is a bit murkier – a Feb. 1910 article in Talking Machine World notes the company was formed “18 years ago” to service the Columbia Exposition that took place in 1893. Even if the company was formed in name for that purpose, it’s likely they didn’t begin the recording and sales operation until after the fair was closed in October of that year.

The *Other* Sub-Companies

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Post written by Mason Vander Lugt, National Recording Preservation Board. This is the third in a series of studies of the early recording industry. The first two parts, about the North American Phonograph Company and Columbia Phonograph Company, provide useful background information.

“Why is it that the companies  manufacturing musical records do not advertise them as the Columbia Phonograph Co. does, giving lists, with the name of each piece?”, wrote Thomas Conyngton to Phonogram in April 1892. Suppressing a sarcastic “why indeed?”, I gave Conyngton’s query some thought and wondered if the persistent lack of documentation might be something other than a conspiracy against researchers after all.

Why did Columbia request catalog readers to “please destroy all previous lists”? Why didn’t they or New Jersey list their artists? It was obvious, really. In the days before duplication, printing a catalog or advertisement meant committing to keep an artist engaged to maintain stock. Printing a name alongside further committed the company to retain a particular person, with all the vagaries of daily life, not to mention show business.

Still, it was clear by summer 1890 that the entertainment uses of the phonograph were the most, if not only, profitable side of the business, so the companies got creative. Some would contract with independent recordists or artists; some would send agents to nearby venues to capture local or traveling performers. Many would open limited recording departments for their local trade, and a few would develop this to an industrial scale and market their products nationwide. Despite most companies’ reluctance to advertise, I believe a sketchy but worthwhile picture of their recording activity can be drawn from the conventions and Phonogram, and newspaper advertisements for exhibitions or parlors.

As previously noted, an 1891 Phonogram article identified Columbia, New Jersey, New York and Ohio as the industry’s major players. At the annual convention the following summer, Chairman A.W. Clancy asked which companies were recording, and (presumably by roll-call) added Michigan, New England, Kansas and Louisiana to the list. Various comments in the conventions and magazine suggest both the Eastern and Western Pennsylvania companies, the Chicago and State companies of Illinois, the Metropolitan, Pacific, Spokane, Kentucky and Nebraska companies also tried their hands. Several more advertised records “for sale” or “in stock” without indicating whether they had taken them.

Browsing newspaper advertisements for exhibitions and parlors, however, delivers a more sober picture. From Honolulu to Philadelphia, and everywhere in between, the lion’s share of recorded entertainment came from the same few companies and artists. Concerts may be punctuated by live performances or recording demonstrations, parlors might mix in some local talent, but programs for each are surprisingly uniform. As Tim Gracyk noted in Popular American Recording Pioneers – “It is remarkable how much was recorded by a relatively small number of artists!”

The New Jersey Phonograph Company was undoubtedly Columbia’s closest competitor. The Newark-based company inherited much of Edison’s practiced talent, including Issler’s Orchestra, Voss’ 1st Regiment Band, George J. Gaskin and the Manhansett Quartette. Recordist, exhibitor and later manager Victor Emerson also recruited new performers, making stars of Len Spencer and Charles A. Asbury.

Two catalogs from the company exist, both in the Library of Congress’ Recorded Sound collections. The first is undated but is probably from mid-1891. It was reprinted in Talking Machine Review #10. It comprises 15 pages of uncredited band, orchestra, instrumental and vocal music, a small section of vocal [with] orchestra by John P. Hogan and an uncredited series of imitations of sounds from nature. It’s a safe bet that the orchestra was Issler’s. The band was probably Voss’. Repertoire and registers suggest particular singers but I’ll allow readers to speculate if they’d like. Notably, this catalog seems to represent the first attempt to establish a numbering system across a company’s entire catalog, rather than by category as Columbia did.

The second catalog expands enormously from 15 to 32 pages, surpassing even Columbia’s to that date. It’s dated 1892 in print on the cover, and a handwritten note suggests it was published in October of that year. The catalog brings the vocal section to the fore, hinting at a budding specialization. Len Spencer is the star of the show, with 7 pages to Issler’s 5, and a variety of genres and pseudonyms. These are rounded out by chimes, violin, bugle calls, burlesque theater, Irish humor – there’s something for everyone.

The second catalog, and advertisements in Phonogram 3:2 and 3:3/4 (Spring 1893) include New York based bands (Gilmore’s, Holding’s, Bayne’s) and singers (George W. Johnson, Dan W. Quinn, J.W. Myers). Because each company held exclusive rights within their territory, it was standard practice to sell each other’s recordings without noting their source. This is especially problematic between New Jersey and New York, who recorded prolifically in the same area and didn’t include their companies’ names in announcements.

Advertisements like this one make it difficult to know who originally took the recordings. Image from Phonogram 3:2.

The New York Phonograph Company was organized by brothers John and Richard Haines to serve those parts of New York State outside of the New York City metro area, which were claimed by the Metropolitan company.  The two combined in mid/late 1890 due to financial pressure. Recording and exhibitions were managed by George B. Lull.

Metropolitan’s and New York’s first recordings were taken by local independent recordist Charles L. Marshall and distributed throughout the country[i]. Marshall was an ambitious and talented recordist and in 1889 and 90 seemed to record on a level comparable with or exceeding any of the sub-companies. In later years he would exhibit for New England, open his own parlor, and devise a “scenic theater” combining the phonograph and cyclorama.

Charles Marshall, from Phonogram 1:3, Trinity Church photo from King’s Handbook of New York City 1893 via British Library

New York’s only catalog is a rebranded copy North American’s January 1890 list, with added categories for “Manhansett Quartettes” and “Vocal Solos”, and mention of banjo, xylophone, piplaphone (marimba?) and whistling solos. The Phonogram advertisements  (1:8, 1:9, 1:10, 2:1) feature Gilmore’s and Holding’s Bands, Edward Clarance, Joe Natus, and J.W. Myers alongside performers associated with other companies like Russell Hunting and Charles P. Lowe.

A June 1893 article in the New York Sun identifies Clarance as NYPC’s primary recordist, announcer and talent scout, and Frank Banta as their house pianist. It describes Clarance’s tactics – “In his search for things new and original, Mr. Clarance has formed the acquaintance of nearly every man and woman in the city who can play an instrument or sing uncommonly well”. It goes on in some detail about recording John Holding’s popular descriptive[ii] “The Night Alarm”, Frank Mazziotta playing “tumblers filled with water” (glass harp), and the reliability of Gilmore’s Band. Banta and Mazziotta would record frequently with Edison in later years.

John B. Holding’s “The Night Alarm” was one of the decade’s undisputed “hits”. Audio via University of California, Santa Barbara Library.

Several more New York based bands (Alfred Foh’s 23rd Regiment Band, Carlo Cappa’s 7th Regiment Band, Henry Hall’s Old Guard Band, William Bayne’s 69th Regiment Band) are among the most popular in newspaper advertisements and in the absence of other data I assume these were taken by NYPC.

The company was positioned to capture the great opera, musical theater, dramatic and art music stars. At the fourth convention in Sept. 1893, Haines notes “The New York Phonograph Co. has been able, from time to time, to make records of a high order in small quantities, and in some few cases we have made records of a high order in large quantities, celebrated singers, etc.”, but unfortunately doesn’t elaborate. A November 1892 Phonogram article describes a prominent New York based collector who owned recordings of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Leopold Godowsky, actor Lawrence Barrett and poet Amelie Rives but doesn’t note their source. An October 1892 article noted that “The piano solos of the New York Co. are specially fine”.

Despite New York’s long recording tenure[iii] and Haines’ claim that the company “manufacture a very large number of musical cylinders”[iv], New York’s recordings remain somewhat obscure due to minimal advertising and confusion between their and New Jersey’s recordings. It is possible some artists recorded for both. A rare program noting records’ sources in Phonogram 3:2 lists a Holding record taken by New Jersey and a Myers record taken by New England, though some simple errors cast some doubt on these as well.

The New England Phonograph Company was organized October 1888 in Gardiner Maine, then moved to the Boylston Building in Boston in May 1889. It was managed by Augustus Sampson, and the exhibition department was managed first by F.A. Ashcroft then Charles L. Marshall.

The company was frequently praised in Phonogram for their high-quality band records, taken by Calvin G. Child who would go on to record for Columbia, Ohio, Berliner and Victor in the following years. Acoustic recording was an art and science developed painstakingly over years of trial and error, and each company cultivated the skills of one or more expert recordists[v].

Baldwin’s Cadet Band, led by J. Thomas Baldwin, and Russell Hunting’s “Michael Casey” series of Irish comic skits were New England’s best-sellers. Vocalists Will F. Denny, Edward M. Favor and Richard Jose first recorded for New England and would each go on to successful recording careers.

An August 1893 catalog in a private collection reflects that the Cadet Band’s repertoire was deeply influenced the United States Marine Band’s Columbia records. It also features several pages of “Henry’s Orchestra”, led by Thomas W. Henry who had previously played in Gilmore’s Band (as had Baldwin). The catalog concludes with a small section for Charles E. Cooper’s Celebrated Fife, Drum and Bugle Corps and solos by the late great cornetist Walter Emerson.

The Ohio Phonograph Company was organized November 1888, with offices in Cincinnati and Cleveland. It was managed by James L. Andem, a hard-headed visionary in the style of Edward Easton.

Ohio’s star was Dan Kelly, whose “Pat Brady” series of comic Irish skits were often called the most popular series in the country. The Bison City Quartette, a comic troupe already famous on the stage, also found widespread success recording for Ohio.

“Paddy’s Wedding”, recorded by Dan Kelly for the Ohio Phonograph Company ca. 1891. Recording from “Antique Phonograph Music Program“, aired 4/15/2003 on WFMU, by permission. [vi]

The only surviving catalog from this company is undated, but was probably published in 1894. Most of the recordings seem to have been imported from the eastern companies, but it also features a local 15 year old contralto named Rose Monks, famous minstrel performer Will Nankeville, cornet virtuoso Alice Raymond and John Weber’s Band of Cincinnati.

The Bison City Quartette ca. 1893, from “His Only Boy” sheet music via NYPL. Thanks to Archeophone Records for including the image in “Waxing the Gospel”

The company also pioneered phonograph “arcades”, or parlors, when most companies were placing individual machines in public spaces such as hotel lobbies, saloons and train or ferry terminals. The arcade allowed the company to monitor how the machines were used and maintain the phonographs and replace records as needed.

Two views of Ohio’s Arcades, from Phonogram 1:11-12

The Louisiana Phonograph Company was founded by F.E. Clarkson, and soon managed by Hugh Conyngton who had previously managed the all-business Texas Phonograph Company in Galveston. It was the last sub-company to form, in March 1891, but by the following January was “turning out large supplies of musical records”.

In their own words, “New Orleans is perhaps the most generally musical city of our country and its musicians are very fine”. It was also a resort town, and a description in Phonogram depicts the romantic scene awaiting their patrons – an electric-lit parlor in the city’s west end abutting Lake Pontchartrain, with cool breezes and first-class bands.

Louisiana Phonograph Co. ad, summer 1892, from Phonogram 2:6

Advertisements only list two associated performing acts. Paoletti’s Southern Band, led by George Paoletti, played dances, marches and opera overtures, an arrangement of Dixie “as played in the South” providing the only apparent namesake. Louis Vasnier performed comic sermons in dialect as “Brudder Rasmus” and a variety of minstrel songs with banjo. Remarkably, one of the “Rasmus” records survived the years and climate and was reissued on Archeophone’s “Lost Sounds” CDs accompanying Tim Brooks’ book, which discusses Vasnier and George W. Johnson in detail.

Conclusion

Most of the sub-companies dissolved after North American ceased business operations in August 1894. They were sales agents, after all, not manufacturers. The heads of the New Jersey and Kansas companies had formed an independent venture called the United States Phonograph Company in spring 1893 to bypass their sales restrictions as sub-companies. Columbia similarly distanced itself by merging with the American Graphophone Company and manufacturing phonograph-compatible graphophones and supplies after Jesse Lippincott’s death in April 1894. American Graphophone would attempt to secure Columbia a monopoly of the recording business by enjoining Edison and the sub-companies from using Bell and Tainter’s recording process, but would mostly fail.

James Andem continued to run the Ohio Phonograph Company independently, expanding into Kinetoscopes, recording new artists like Brand’s Concert Band and The Ideal Orchestra, and publishing the only trade paper in the years between Phonogram and Phonoscope, titled Edison Phonographic News. New England would continue advertising Baldwin’s Cadet Band records until at least October 1898. New York dropped out of the business by July 1895[vii].

After a protracted legal process, Thomas Edison bought North American’s assets and founded the National Phonograph Company in January 1896. Andem organized several of the remaining sub-companies, including New York and New England to sue Edison and National for violating their territorial rights. Most would end in settlements. By 1900 only Edison and Columbia would remain in the business. The next and final installment in this series will investigate the independent record manufacturers of the later 1890s.

Sampson, Andem, Haines and Easton, adapted from Phonogram 1:11-12

Notes

  • [i] “The Following Record” p. 148
  • [ii] A “descriptive” was a popular band form, sometimes with sound effects or speaking, meant to suggest a narrative, similar to classical “program music”
  • [iii] Remember, New York supplied North American with recordings at the beginning and end of their recording activities in 1890 and 1894
  • [iv] National Phonograph Association 2nd convention (1891), p. 91 original
  • [v] “The Following Record” pp. 155-180 The Arts of Recording and Phonogenic Performance goes into some detail about this aspect of the industry
  • [vi] It’s worth noting it’s possible this recording is a fake. Conditions were ripe for forgeries with star power like Kelly’s bringing high profits, and little accountability for pirates. With no other examples to compare (that I know of) we can’t know for sure…
  • [vii] NYPC vs. National, p. 154-155 (image 88)

The Recordings of the Columbia Phonograph Company, 1889-1896

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Post written by Mason Vander Lugt, National Recording Preservation Board. This is the second in a series of studies of the early recording industry. Read the first about the North American Phonograph Company and Edison Phonograph Works here. The author is seeking catalogs of any other North American local subsidiaries for the third part. Please write mlug@loc.gov if you can help.

The National Recording Preservation Board is pleased to announce a discography of the cylinder recordings of the Columbia Phonograph Company 1889-1896, available now at Archive.org. Complementing Tim Gracyk’s “Cylinder Lists”, which the NRPB posted to Archive.org August of last year, this new resource completes documentation of the cylinder output of the pioneering company who “founded the record industry” in the early 1890s.

Columbia’s original headquarters at 627 E. St. NW still stand, today housing Central Liquors. Left image from Phonogram 1:3, 1891, right taken by author, 2016.

Tim Brooks’ 1978 ARSC Journal article Columbia Records in the 1890’s: Founding the Record Industry provides the authoritative story of how Columbia rose to dominate the recording industry through Edward Easton’s vision and grit (and a strategic alliance with American Graphophone). The article tells the story so well, in my opinion, that I’m going to ask that interested readers download it from the ARSC AMP database and focus here on some other aspects of the story.

Why study old catalogs?

The first point I want to address is – what’s the point of studying old catalogs for which few corresponding recordings survive? Original catalogs allow us to learn about the development of the industry through primary sources – the artists and repertoire, the breadth and depth of material and relative popularity of different genres over time.

They can also give us valuable information about the few recordings that do survive, such as those in the UCSB “Recorded Incunabula” playlists and Glenn Sage’s CDs, many of which are sourced from the Library of Congress collections. Because recording logs don’t survive and consistent permanent numbering wasn’t applied in this period, when a selection was added to or dropped from catalogs can provide a natural range for issue dates.

John Yorke Atlee and the United States Marine Band were Columbia’s main attractions in its early years. Images from Phonogram 1:8 and 1:10.

Although most of these recordings don’t survive in their original form, for reasons I’ll touch on below, we can still experience approximations of many of these through later issues. In 1895, as Columbia moved into new offices in New York City, the United States Gramophone Company began recording many of the same artists in Washington. Actor David C. Bangs, auctioneer W.O. Beckenbaugh, popular singer Maud Foster, the Brilliant Quartette, banjoists Cullen and Collins, clarinetist Felix Iardella (Jardella on Berliner) and cornetist W. Paris Chambers are among those who would record for Berliner, but not later Victor or Columbia discs.

Many performers from these catalogs recorded prolifically in the following years, and these lists provide insight into their early repertoire. Others, like George H. Diamond, Dan Kelly “Pat Brady” and Al Reeves “The Famous Banjo Comedian” were famous and/or widely recorded in this period but leave us unfortunately few or no recordings today. Similarly, much of the band and tin pan alley vocal repertoire remained popular into the disc recording era to survive to the present, but a few, like “Maggie Murphy’s home”, “Down went McGinty” and “Ta ra ra boom de ay!” were popular enough at the time to warrant parody records but faded before the more durable formats or prolific output of later generations could save contemporary performances.

Even when we can’t hear contemporary recordings, reading about what was recording can feed the imagination – whether it’s the calliope imitations of the Brilliant Quartette, descriptions of Dan Kelly’s and Russell Hunting’s skits, or the 1892 Republican campaign song “Democracy’s Going to Grass”, imagining these lost sounds may not be an academic exercise, but it can be a fun one.

Russell Hunting (as Michael Casey) and Dan Kelly (as Pat Brady) were two of the most famous recorded humorists of the early 1890s. Both began with other companies (Hunting with New England, Kelly with Ohio), and were added to Columbia’s catalogs beginning April 1893. Images from Phonogram 2:8-9 and 3:3-4.

Finally, I hope I can revive some interest in the music of this period. Within the relatively small community of people who are interested in historical American music, I find that folk music is revered as authentic and worthy of preservation and study while popular music, excepting maybe Sousa’s marches and a few great hits of tin pan alley, are ignored and forgotten. Still, sheet music remains for many works when recordings don’t. Searching Youtube reveals a few artists working in this direction, but I’d like to encourage musicians to consider reviving these (or let me know if I’m off base and this is a thing…)

Columbia’s extent and position within the industry

Just how important was Columbia compared to the North American parent company and the other sub-companies? Columbia may have been the first sub-company to institute their own recording program. The first document reproduced in the discography advertises “whistling solos by artistic whistlers” alongside recordings taken at the Edison Works. This is dated November 15, two months before Edison agreed to allow the sub-companies to manufacture their own recordings. Other companies may have been recording on a small scale for local demonstrations, or purchasing from independent recordists – every phonograph sold or leased at this time would have been capable of recording – but this Columbia advertisement is probably the first surviving documentation of the public sale of records (Edison’s would have been sold only to the sub-companies).

In these first 8 months, entertainment recordings would have been used to demonstrate the phonograph to potential business customers, or in public exhibitions, as the November ’89 pamhplet describes “At the Bull Run Panorama the Phonograph delivers lectures descriptive of the scenes there displayed”. By July 1890 Columbia had installed their first automatic phonograph, in the historic Ebbitt House Drug Store at F St. NW and 14th St. NW, only a few blocks from their headquarters at 627 E. St. NW[i]. By November, they had placed more than a hundred across the city[ii].

This quickly became the dominant model for exploiting the technology and by April of the following year, according to Phonogram, Columbia was shipping records across the country[iii]. In the same issue, Columbia began running ads boasting “we sell more records than all other dealers combined”. This might easily be dismissed as advertising rhetoric except that when Columbia’s president Edward Easton said the same at the 1892 convention of the North American sub-companies nobody challenged him. In fact – the context of the discussion was whether the other sub-companies were entitled to royalties on Columbia’s sales within their territories.

Columbia identified titles and performers on their cylinder records using a printed paper band, similar to North American’s title ring, but without requiring the special channeled rim. Photo by the author.

Why do so few survive?

If Columbia sold so prolifically, why do so few of their recordings survive to the present day? The answer is probably a combination of factors –

  1. The entire industry was relatively small in scale. Columbia bought less than 70,000 blanks from Edison between 1889 and 1894[iv], and some portion of these would have been resold to Columbia’s business customers for dictation. For comparison, according to Antique Phonograph Monthly, Edison sold approximately 2 million cylinder records in 1900 and 4 million in 1902. As discussed in the previous post the market for recordings outpaced supply in this period, so Columbia’s output was probably limited by their capacity to record and/or duplicate, or Edison’s ability to supply blanks.
  2. The format is unstable. Brown wax, designed for ease of recording rather than durability, wears easily. The Edison factory would consider a master record too worn to duplicate from after 200 plays[v]. Those that were saved might have been degraded by mold or chemical instability (efflorescence).
  3. They were seen more as working material than cultural record. Not that they didn’t understand this potential for the technology – both Edison and Columbia advertised the phonograph’s utility to preserve voices of family or “great artists”, and Columbia advertised some artists such as cornetist Jules Levy as great artists, but they probably regarded most of their records the way we might think today of old CDs or cassettes. If anyone at Columbia preserved special recordings like Edison did, there is no record of it.

Where’s Len?

Histories of recording pioneer Len Spencer, such as this printed in the relatively contemporary Phonoscope, usually place him virtually at the founding of the Columbia Company in January 1889, but his first appearance in these catalogs is in two undated catalogs from ca. 1895, after the company had opened a New York office and begun recording New York artists. A 1930 article by Columbia Manager Frank Dorian printed in Phonograph Monthly Review similarly suggests Spencer recorded for them “by the round” before his catalog debut[vi].

The most likely explanation is that Spencer recorded briefly in the uncredited vocal series that ran between December 1890 and January 1892 (and/or the “recitations” series, variously uncredited). A sudden drop in both series after January 1892 may corroborate this in addition to the statement in Phonoscope about his move to the United States Phonograph Company (at that time, in fact, the New Jersey Phonograph Company, another North American subsidiary) and Spencer’s headlining role in a 1892 New Jersey catalog in the Library of Congress.

Other possibilities include lost catalogs – unlikely since the found and included catalogs seem to present naturally growing and declining series – or that Spencer recorded as a kind of independent contractor, as Atlee was known to, whose records would supply the local trade but wouldn’t be distributed.

P.S. “New Paris Waltz” by E.M. Waterbury is available for adoption at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive

Notes: