[78-L] Matrix Autographs

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> From: jeffrey smedbron <bottomlessattic at yahoo.com>
>> Something I haven't seen before here on this Columbia comic
>> sketch 78. An autographed matrix, how common a practice was that ? 
>> http://merr.com/users/xcentrik/ca-1855.jpg          Jeff S 
> Weber and Fields autographed almost all (if not all) of their masters. 
> That practice goes back to the Berliner discs of the 1890s when most of
> them were signed by the performer.  Some opera singers continued the
> tradition, and it was done on many Fonotipia masters along with a rubber
> stamped rendition of the signature on the labels.  But it was unusual
> for popular performers to do it by the time of these records.  I'm not
> sure if it has definitively been established if Weber and Fields did it
> to assure the masters would not be counterfeited, redone by other
> performers under their name, or if it was conceit to show how IMPORTANT
> they were and to wow collectors nearly 100 years later!  It sure gets
> your attention!!!
> Decca and Mercury were lucky they were using dubbed masters by the time
> they were recording Sophie Tucker.  Otherwise she would have probably
> insisted on signing her masters like she signed everything else!  She
> must not have started that compulsion when she was recording for
> Columbia in the 20s.
> 
Emerson in particular had the recorded artists "autograph" their
recordings in the "dead wax!" This may result from late-18th-
century "pirate" recordings...which often used "house artists"
rather than the better-known artists supposedly on the records
in question!

...stevenc