[78-L] Fabulous Phonograph

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Michael Biel wrote

Recommended reading --  Roland Gelatt "The Fabulous Phonograph", Read 
and Welch "From Tinfoil To Stereo", Peter Martland "EMI The First 100 
Years", Fred Barnum "His Master's Voice In America",  Fenimore Johnson 
"His Master's Voice Was Eldridge R. Johnson",  and Michael Sherman 
"Collector's Guide to Victor Records".  But be prepared to find factual 
errors in all of 'em.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've read "The Fabulous Phonograph" several times and find it a very enjoyable account of the history of the phonograph.  However, experts in the field have told me that this book is so inacurate that it is almost a book of fiction.  It certainly portrays Thomas Edison as little more than a blundering fool - giving examples such as his submissions to Scientific American which show how short-sighted he was about the entertainment value of the phonograph, his firing Rachmaninoff because he couldn't play the piano, and many more.  Tinfoil to Stereo, on the other hand, reveres Edison to the point that he is almost a diety.  One set of pictures shows how Edison's embossing telegraph recorder fore-shadowed the first video disc recorder.  Of course the only thing they have in common is the twin turntables.  I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

There seems to be a string of postings about who the first 78 recording artist was that we've met.  I don't know if it means the person we've met who recorded the earliest or the first such person that we met.  The first one I met was either Kostelanetz, Howard Barlow, Alec Templeton or Thomas L. Thomas, all of whom I met in 1956.  The earliest to record would likely be one of the above or Ella Fitzgerald, Raymond Massey, Lili Kraus, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Shura Cherkassky,  or Georg Sandor.

db