Category Archives: Recording history

Ray Davis and Wango Records: Bluegrass, Gospel and Used Cars in Baltimore

24 Replies

Post written by Gene Baron, first presented at the 2018 ARSC Conference in Baltimore. Gene is a reitred IT professional and a lifelong Baltimorean with a background in classical percussion in musicology. You can write him at gene.baron@gmail.com with questions or comments.

This is a story of how a local radio station, a man with a perfect radio voice, and a country-music loving used car dealer produced some memorable bluegrass music on radio and records in Baltimore. In the early 1970s I was a college student just north of Baltimore, and having recently developed a love for bluegrass and folk music, listened to Ray Davis on the radio and made the trip to Johnny’s to buy Wango LPs as they were issued.  Davis was always happy to spend time talking about the musicians he recorded and show me the little studio where it all happened.

Ray Davis introduces the Stanley Brothers on the radio from Johnny’s Used Cars, Northeast Baltimore, Dec. 1963

WBMD-AM went on the air in 1947.  A 1,000 watt station, it shared its 750 kHz broadcast frequency with a clear channel station in Atlanta and so was limited to daylight hours. The station broadcast country music and later went to all religious programming.  For many years WBMD was also the home of the Sunday afternoon shows by some of many of Baltimore’s ethnic groups, including the Italian, Greek, Irish, Jewish, Polish, German and other communities.

“Johnny” Wilbanks with Baltimore-based band Tex Daniels and his Lazy “H” Ranch Boys, 1951

John Wilbanks came to Baltimore from his native Georgia.  After suffering the loss of both legs in a railroad accident, he entered the used car business, starting Johnny’s Used Cars in downtown Baltimore, and later moved to Harford Road in the northeast part of the city.  Johnny called himself “The Walking Man’s Friend”, and was unusual in that he did not haggle prices for his cars, and was known to lend people his own money to help buy a car at Johnny’s. He sometimes joked that “the quickest way to get back on your feet is to miss a few car payments.”  He loved country and bluegrass music and soon sponsored bands on local radio.

Ray Davis was born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the small town of Wango.  He started work on a radio station in Delaware at the age of 15 and remained in broadcasting for over 60 years. By the mid 1950s, he had worked on border radio and was back on the air in Baltimore. He was busy as an MC for bluegrass and country music shows in the area where he made contacts with many performers who would later play and record for him at Johnny’s or at local shows he promoted (such as NRR and Sunset Park). He was hired by Johnny and for the next 30-plus years broadcast two 15-minute radio shows on WBMD from a small studio located above the showroom.  Religious music filled one of these, and later in the afternoon came more non-sacred bluegrass and country music, always with a traditional or old-time emphasis.

In the early 1960s Davis began issuing records on the Wango label, named after his hometown, and sold them exclusively on the air to his listening audience.  What makes these records and broadcasts stand out 45 or 55 years later? For me, several reasons come to mind – much of the repertoire Davis recorded represented material not otherwise recorded by these artists, even those like the Stanley Brothers and Reno and Smiley, whose recorded output is quite extensive.  We also get to hear singers and instrumentalists who did not otherwise record or perform together. Most of all I am struck by the sincerity, honesty and heartfelt nature of the records that Ray Davis made and released.

The first Wango LP that I know of featured Clyde Moody, the “Hillbilly Waltz King”, who appeared on Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys’ first recordings. After a successful career recording for King and other labels, Moody left music for a while but in 1962 he came to Baltimore and recorded an LP for Wango in the studio above Johnny’s with only his guitar, singing religious songs on one side and secular songs on the other.  You can hear the strength of Moody’s voice in these songs. Here is an excerpt from that LP, Power in the Blood, a popular hymn written in the late 1800s. This LP was issued without a cover in  plan white sleeve.

“Power in the Blood”, performed by Clyde Moody, issued on Wango LP 102, 1962

Labels of Moody’s Wango LP courtesy Jay Bruder

The next group to record for Ray Davis was the Stanley Brothers, with whom he had a long and close relationship.  The band visited Johnny’s many times in 1963 and 1964 and recorded four LPs of music and many radio shows. The LPs were once again issued without covers in plain sleeves and Davis called the groups “John’s Gospel Quartet” and “John’s Country Quartet”, as a nod to his sponsor but also because the Stanleys were actively recording for King Records at the time.  Significantly, Davis was keen to have the Stanleys record more old-time and traditional repertoire than what was featured on their most recent albums for King, and for the three gospel LPs he and Carter Stanley chose many songs from old hymnbooks. A couple of examples below of songs the Stanleys recorded only for Davis – first from an Albert E. Brumley hymnbook is Little Old Country Church House with Baltimore-based band leader Jack Cooke singing the tenor part.

The Stanley Brothers, at the time based in Florida, recorded for Wango as “John’s Gospel Quartet” and “John’s Country Quartet”

“The Little Old Country Church House”, by the Stanley Brothers (as “John’s Gospel Quartet”) with Jack Cooke. Recorded 1963 for Wango.

“Your Saddle is Empty Old Pal”, by the Stanley Brothers (as “John’s Country Quartet”)

Excerpts of Davis’ announcements, mentioning Johnny’s Used Cars and Wango Records. Other Johnny’s slogans included “working close to save you money” and “ride like a prince, pay like a pauper.”

Reno and Red Smiley parted ways because of Smiley’s health issues, but he rejoined Reno and his new partner Bill Harrell and in 1971 made some recordings for Wango not long before his death.  By this time, Ray Davis was recording from his basement studio in Glen Burnie, just south of Baltimore, and was recording in stereo and including covers and notes with his albums. Here is a song from Reno and Smiley’s last sessions, “I’ve Just Got to See You Once More”, written by Little Jimmie Dickens and done in Reno and Smiley’s favored close-harmony style:

“I’ve Just Got to See You Once More”, by Reno and Smiley. Recorded 1971 for Wango.

1970s Wango Records of Don Reno, Red Smiley and Charlie Moore

Charlie Moore was another favorite of Davis’s.  Moore’s well-known song Legend of the Rebel Soldier was first recorded for Wango and popularized by the Country Gentlemen and others.  Davis teamed Moore with Don Reno for some recordings I think are some of Moore’s best. Here with Don Reno playing lead guitar and Jimmy Arnold on banjo is Johnny Bond’s classic I Wonder Where You Are Tonight. Arnold, like many featured here and recorded by Ray Davis – such as Carter Stanley, Red Smiley, Charlie Moore and James King – died very much too young, another reason to value these recordings.

“I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”, by Charlie Moore

Another of Ray Davis’s talents should not be overlooked.  He made an album of recitations with bluegrass backing which he issued only on 8-track tape in the mid-1970s. His best known, Little Orphan Joe, may be too “plum pitiful”, as Davis would say, but here is an extract of a poem from the 1920s called Touch of the Master’s Hand, with backing by Don Reno and Bill Harrell:

“Touch of the Master’s Hand”, Ray Davis with Don Reno and Bill Harrell

Activity slowed considerably for the next several years, with no releases on Wango, although some material was reissued on County and Rebel record labels. Davis continued his daily radio shows and promotion of bluegrass shows at parks and local fire halls. WBMD was acquired by the Family Radio network and still broadcasts religious music and bible discussion at 750 KHz. Johnny kept selling cars on Harford Rd. until retiring in 1996.  He died in 1999 and is still fondly remembered as a Baltimore institution by many.

Johnny Wilbanks on the cover of Sun magazine, 1983

Ray Davis continued his broadcasts for Johnny’s, and in 1985 he took his smooth voice and his recordings down the road to public radio station WAMU-FM in Washington DC, where he was on the air for 28 years, moving to WAMU’s HD station and its online counterpart Bluegrass Country when most music was phased out from the schedule on the FM station. He continued to produce Wango CDs, often referring to them as the Basement Tapes, mostly to offer as premiums for fundraisers.

In addition to repackaging some of the material discussed previously, Davis promoted and recorded some of the younger generation of bluegrass artists such as James King, David Davis and the Warrior River Boys, Scott Brannon and others, always keeping that old time traditional sound that Davis preferred.  Here from the late 1990s is a little of the favorite old spiritual In the Sweet By and By sung by Scott Brannon and David Davis:

“In the Sweet By and By”, by Scott Brannon and David Davis

Ray Davis was diagnosed with leukemia and ended his 60+ year radio career in September of 2013.  He died a little over a year later. I hope this has shed some light on an important Baltimore bluegrass story.  The Wango LPs, and even most of the reissues, are no longer in print and are now difficult to find. For the 30-some years I listened to Ray Davis on the radio, he would always close every show by solemnly proclaiming ‘It’s hymn time’, so let’s go back to the little studio above Johnny’s one more time, all the way back to 1967 and listen to Don Reno, Bill Harrell and the Tennessee Cut-Ups in another favorite four-part harmony hymn from the 19th century, Will There Be Any Stars in my Crown.

“Will There Be Any Stars in my Crown”, Wango LP 112, 1967

The Independent Record Companies of the 1890s

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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)