[78-L] The Talking Machine

[Michael Shoshani]

On Fri, 2009-01-16 at 16:05 +0000, Royal Pemberton wrote:
> That Department of the Inferior production reminds me of something I
> heard on a radio station a few months back that tried to give a
> synopsis of the story of Eldridge Johnson.  I think it was called
> 'That's how it was' or such like.  I can't remember anywhere near all
> the details of what they got wrong (I lost count!) but I'll never
> forget the guy pronouncing a name to sound like 'Emily Berleaner'!

At the late lamented Midwest Phonograph Museum in Martinsville, Indiana,
the late lamented Dr. Drake and his staff called him 'Emily
BURR-linner'.

In hindsight, he probably should have stuck with the original spelling
of his name. 'Emil' is difficult to mispronounce, but I've heard his
reworked-for-America name pronounced 'E-mile' more than once.

MS