This $3 after-market reproducer was sold by Indestructible specifically for use with celluloid cylinder records. Indestructible’s advertising was careful to point out that the new reproducers “will destroy wax records.”
The reproducer was designed by Australian inventor Richard Bartholomew Smith, who belatedly filed a U.S. patent application on March 1, 1909 and assigned rights to the Indestructible Phonographic Record Co. By that time, Columbia owned Indestructible outright — The purchase was made on September 25, 1908, but the relationship was severed in mid-1912, after which Indestructible resumed its role as an independent company.
The ARSC awards are presented annually to recognize outstanding published research in the field of recorded-sound history. In giving these awards, ARSC “recognizes outstanding contributions, encourages high standards, and promotes awareness of superior works.”
A companion piece to the United States Phonograph Company flyer shown in the previous post — This Consolidated Phonograph Companies Supplemental Bulletin shows the same address as U.S. Phonograph and lists the Issler titles from “The Bride-Elect,” possibly the same recordings featured in U.S. flyer. The latest song titles listed in this catalog were early 1899 publications, providing an approximately date for this piece.
We’ll be posting higher-resolution scans of the complete 20-page catalog, along with many other rare brown-wax lists, on the Mainspring website in the upcoming months as part of The American Cylinder Record Project.
This rare United States Phonograph Company four-panel flyer advertises selections from Sousa’s comic opera, The Bride-Elect, in this case played not by Sousa’s band, but by Edward Issler’s. The flyer most likely dates to 1898. The Bride-Elect opened at the Knickerbocker Theatre (New York) on April 11, 1898, closed in June after 64 performances, then had a brief return engagement at the Harlem Opera House in October of that year. .
The flyer is from Bill Bryant’s archive, which also includes a complete 32-page United States Phonograph Company cylinder catalog and related materials. We’ll be scanning and posting the full catalog on the Mainspring Press website later this month, as part of our new American Cylinder Record Project.
Banjo virtuoso Fred Van Eps first recorded with his Trio in 1912. The original group consisted of Fred Van Eps and his brother William (banjos), with pianist Felix Arndt. William was soon replaced by a drummer — confirmed in the recording ledgers as house conductor Eddie King on the Victor sessions only. (Howard Kopp is one likely suspect on labels whose documentation is missing or incomplete.) William might also have been the second banjo heard on the Van Eps Banjo Orchestra sides of 1914.
Van Eps revamped the group in 1916, replacing the drummer with saxophonist Nathan Glantz and substituting a teenaged Frank E. Banta (the son of pioneer recording pianist Frank P. Banta) for Arndt. Banta recalled in a 1960 interview:
“My inspiration was Felix Arndt. I replaced him [in] Fred Van Eps’ Banjo Orchestra and Trio at age seventeen playing dance dates and recording at age eighteen with Van Eps’ Trio on Victor. This was “On the Dixie Highway” backed by “Teasing the Cat.” The trio consisted of banjo, saxophone, and piano. Van Eps was among the first to recognize the saxophone as a new sound. He would write obbligato in style of ‘cello part, as there were no sax parts published around 1914–1918. For five or six years the extra pianist working for Fred Van Eps was none other than George Gershwin. Imagine that great talent being my “stand-in!’”
Banta’s recollections, and the Victor files, confirm that Gerhswin was a backup in the Van Eps Trio, not a regular member as has sometimes been stated. Some discographies show Gershwin present on several of the Van Eps Trio’s Victors — including “Dixie Girl,” on which a piano was not even used! — but the recording ledgers don’t confirm Gershwin’s presence at any Victor session.
The first selection is a remake of the Ossman-Dudley Trio’s 1906 classic, which Victor finally retired in 1920.
Camden, NJ: November 6, 1920
Victor 16667 [version 2] (mx. B-24293-6)
Fred Van Eps (banjo) with unidentified second banjo and guitar, per the Victor files
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VAN EPS TRIO: Teasing the Cat (Charles L. Johnson)
New York: December 20, 1916
Victor 18226 (mx. B-18860-2)
Fred Van Eps (banjo); Nathan Glantz (saxophone); Frank Banta (piano), per the Victor files
New York: Released September 1920
Emerson 10206 (mx. 4692-2)
Fred Van Eps (banjo); Nathan Glantz (saxophone); Frank Banta (piano), per Emerson supplement
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RAGTIME FANS — You’ll enjoy The Ragtime Discography (1894 – 1960) on CD, detailing thousands of 78s and cylinders from all periods; also includes 98 historic recordings in MP3 format, plus high-resolution color scans of 50 rare sheet-music covers.
Some pages from the 1906 Busy Bee catalog, from the Bill Bryant archive. The complete Busy Bee cylinder catalog can be seen on the Mainspring Press website, in higher resolution.
Columbia produced these molded two-minute cylinders with a modified inner taper to discourage their use on machines other than specially modified Busy Bee phonographs (which were also Columbia products).
Although most Busy Bee cylinders use the same masters as the corresponding titles on Columbia XP cylinders, there are confirmed exceptions — including the use of alternate takes, entirely different recordings by different artists than those on Columbia, and even a few masters made especially for O’Neill-James that are credited as “Busy Bee” rather than “Columbia” records in the spoken announcements. Research into those issues is under way in conjunction with a forthcoming title in Mainspring’s American Cylinder Record Project series.
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There was such an extraordinary response to our Harms, Kaiser & Hagen catalog posting this morning that we’ve gone ahead and posted scans of the complete list on the Mainspring Press Website (click ARTICLES on the homepage). Harms didn’t include their name in the spoken announcements, so if you have some “mystery” brown wax cylinders, maybe you’ll find a clue here. Enjoy!
From the Bill Bryant archive, three pages from the very rare Harms, Kaiser & Hagen cylinder catalog, c. 1898. We’ll be posting the complete catalog with all of the cylinder listings on the Mainspring website soon, as part of our American Cylinder Record Project — stay tuned! . Books in the American Cylinder Record Project series so far include Edison Blue Amberols: The Complete Cylinderography (US and Foreign Issues), and Indestructible & U-S Everlasting Cylinders: An Illustrated History and Discography. Currently in the works are The Brown Wax Cylinder Index: A Catalog Compendium (1891–1901) and The Complete Edison Gold-Moulded Cylinder Index: U.S. and Foreign Issues.
These unsigned illustrations appeared in various Edison cylinder phonograph advertisements around 1909-1912. There were many others in a similar vein, all depicting a rather Norman Rockwell-esque view of the world. It wasn’t all sweetness-and-light, however — Note the none-too-subtle swipe at Victor’s Nipper, and of course the inevitable black-face “minstrel” stereotype, which Edison’s advertising continued to perpetuate into the 1920s. (From the Bill Bryant archive) .
CYLINDER RECORD FANS — Be sure to check out Mainspring Press‘ cylinder books, including the brand-new Indestructible and U-S Everlasting Cylinders: An Illustrated History and Cylinderography, and the complete Edison Blue Amberol cylinderography.
I’m pleased and honored to announce that Mainspring Press will be carrying on the work of the late William R. (Bill) Bryant. Mainspring recently signed an exclusive agreement allowing use and publication of Bill’s extensive notes, discographical data, and research materials.
Bill, who died at the age 44 in 1995, was one of the giants in the field of discography — Co-author of the classic Oxford and Silvertone Records, a frequent contributor to the New Amberola Graphic and other publications, and a researcher who was well-known for his generous assistance of collectors and discographers.
Bill had many important “working discographies” in various stages of completion at the time of his death. Mainspring will complete and publish as many of these as possible over the next several years, with Bill credited as author, and with royalties paid to his estate. In addition, we hope to be able to make portions of these materials available to other researchers at some point, subject to the conditions of our use agreement.
Bill’s materials (totaling nearly thirty cartons) have arrived in Denver, and they’ll be inventoried over the next several weeks. We plan to announce a tentative list of publications before the end of the year, which is likely to include American Zonophone, American Record Co. (Hawthorne, Sheble & Prescott), and the Leeds & Catlin labels among the first offerings.
I’m very grateful to Tim Brooks and Kurt Nauck for alerting me earlier this year that the materials were available, and especially to Steve Harding for agreeing to provide the papers and for trusting Mainspring to carry on Bill’s good work. There are some exciting times ahead, discographically speaking!
You can read the full history of Indestructible in Indestructible and U-S Everlasting Cylinders: An Illustrated History and Cylinderography — the first new study of these cylinders to be published in over five decades, and a 2012 ARSC Award for Excellence nominee. Available from Mainspring Press and many major libraries.
