Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1930-01)

114 The Phonograph Monthly Review January, 1930 Reminiscences of the Columbia Cylinder Records By FRANK DORIAN Assistant to the President, Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc. I N the issue of December 1929 Mr. Ulysses J. Walsh inquires whether anyone knows any- thing about Columbia’s cylinder recording ac- tivities, when they were begun and when the Com- pany quit making cylinder records. As one of the old timers in the Columbia or- ganization I am glad to be able to give the in- formation for which Mr. Walsh asks, along with some side lights on the subject which may in- terest other of your readers. The Columbia Phonograph Company began business in January 1889. I became indirectly associated with the Company some two or three months later and became a regular member of the staff in September 1889. My knowledge of the Company and its operations therefore dates back practically to its beginning. At that time the Columbia Company was one of about thirty so called “Local Companies” spread over the United States, each having its own allotted territory, under franchise from the North American Phonograph Company which held the exclusive selling rights. During the first few months of the industry, the local companies were dependent upon the head company for cylinders containing musical selec- tions, but the variety as well as the supply was limited and the character of the recording was not wholly satisfactory. In addition the wonder and amazement of an instrument which repro- duced speech, song and all kinds of instrumental music was such that the demand for records of local talent pointed the way to increased profits. Before the Columbia Company was six months old, it had begun to do a little recording on its own account. There was at that time in Wash- ington a whistler, John Yorke At Lee, a favorite in local entertainments, whose trills and runs were remarkable, and records of At Lee’s whist- ling solos were among the first Columbia records. His renditions of “Listen to the Mocking Bird” (with variations, of course) “Would I were a Bird” and similar “gems” were much in demand. A little later At Lee added to his repertoire by rendering popular songs such as “The Whistling Coon” and others in which a whistling refrain could be introduced At Lee was no singer, but the public- was not very critical, his songs were of the popular type and he put them across in good shape. Another popular group of records was made by W. A. Beckenbaugh, aptly known as “the leather lunged auctioneer”. Beckenbaugh was a profes- sional auctioneer with a ready wit and stentorian voice. All records in those days were “originals” the art of duplicating from a “master” not then having been developed; and as no two of Becken- baugh’s records were exactly alike, it was not long before they were in great demand all over the country, especially for use in “nickel-in-the- slot” phonographs, when that type of instrument became regular equipment of the corner drug store, the bar rooms (on the other three corners), and similar public places. One of Beckenbaugh’s most amusing records was a sale of household effects in which, among other things, he auctioned off a parrot, the raucous interjections and side remarks of the parrot being quite as funny as the wise cracks of the auctioneer. Still another early favorite on the Columbia list was Len Spencer, who afterwards became one of the most widely known recording artists in the rendition of popular ballads. Spencer’s earlier records were made by grouping four or five phonographs on top of an upright piano with their horns converging towards the key board, on which Spencer played his own accompaniment while he sang. He received the munificent sum of ten cents for each accepted record. If he was fortunate enough to get three out of every four records accepted, it was possible for him to make as much as $3.00 or $4.00 for each full hour of singing. It was pocket money—and all velvet—to Spencer; and the experience he got and the reputation he made eventually enabled him to become a professional phonograph singer, in which capacity he enjoyed a very handsome income in later years. One of those accidents which happen in the best regulated families was partly responsible for Columbia going into the business of record mak- ing on a large scale. The records were kept in heavy paste board boxes containing numerous pegs over which the cylinders fitted, inside of each cylinder being a slip of paper on which the title of the selection and the name of the per- former was written. The Company’s entire stock of musical records was contained in such boxes, fifteen or twenty of which were stacked on top of a small table in the show room. One morning while cleaning up the show room the negro por- ter upset the table, with the result that most of the records were broken. That was a real calamity! More than half of the Company’s entire stock in trade was destroyed in one fell swoop! At any rate it was shortly after that calamity occurred that record making on a wholesale scale became one of the important activities of Co- lumbia.