[78-L] A few calypso notes; the Neutrality Act

[simmonssomer]

In that same 1939 issue of The New Yorker you can find an article concerning 
the news that Decca and Columbia Records are considering "other speeds" 
although , as the article continues to state, Decca will stay with 78 rpm 
for the time being.
Interesting.
Unfortunately I can't bring the full article up because I do not subscribe 
to the magazine, which is a prerequisite.. Perhaps one of our 78-L members 
can oblige?

Al Simmons

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Shapiro" <steveshapiro1 at juno.com>
To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 11:52 PM
Subject: [78-L] A few calypso notes; the Neutrality Act


> Michael Biel wrote:
>
>> It is astonishing how many Calypso records were issued on American Decca
> in the 1930s that nobody knows about.  They were not listed in Decca's
> "Popular" catalog,  When photographing album 78 titled "Decca presents A
> Special Collection of the World-Famous Music of Trinidad - CALYPSOS By
> Wilmouth Houdini and His Royal Calypso Orchestra" I was astonished to
> see a listing of SIXTY FOUR Decca releases on the back page of the
> booklet (dated 11-39).  They were all in the 17000 series, but the three
> discs in this album were in the 18000 series. . . .
>
>> The description includes "Having been unable to resist the purchase of
> Calypso records in Trinidad, tourists bring them home in great
> enthusiasm as something new and fascinating to introduce to their
> friends. . . .  At the same time many people wished to buy the records
> that had heard locally, but they were very difficult to obtain.  Decca
> has been for years the principal recorded of this type of song and has
> exported many thousands of records annually to the West Indies and it is
> the Decca Records that have been brought back home and about which you
> have read interesting articles in The New Yorker, Esquire, Cosmopolitan,
> Newsweek, and other leading publications. . . . The complete catalog of
> Decca Calypso Records by all of the leading Calypsodians is now
> available domestically in response to wide demand and in consideration
> of the mounting interest Decca is pleased to present this first album
> collection of Calypsos containing six new numbers by the famous Wilmoth
> Houdini, one of the first ever to record the Calypso song and the only
> Calypsonian residing in the United States."
>
> 1. There is a fair amount of hype in these notes to the Decca 1939 World's 
> Fair Houdini album.  Worth reading is Joseph Mitchell's 1939 New Yorker 
> piece, Houdini's Picnic:
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1939/05/06/1939_05_06_061_TNY_CARDS_000177481
>
> which was also published in Mitchell's collection "McSorley's Wonderful 
> Saloon".  (The Saloon itself, established in 1854, is still in business on 
> East 7th Street in New York, right by Surma's Ukrainian store which 
> continues to be a source of Ukrainian recordings after 92 years.)
>
> 1. Houdini was a pioneer, but he was far from being one of the first 
> people to record calypso.  The first documented singers were Julian 
> Whiterose and Jules Syms, in 1914.  You can hear them on one of Dick 
> Spottswood/John Cowley's reissue cds, Calypso Pioneers 1912-1937, Rounder 
> CD 1039 (samples on Amazon?  There also appear to be the usual pirate cds 
> or mp3s of these songs on Amazon.)  Johnny Walker in 1921.  Phil Madison 
> in 1923.  Sam Manning in 1924.  Charles Abdullah and Lyle Willoughby in 
> 1925.  Houdini first recorded in 1927.
>
> 2. Decca 17000 calypsos were sold in the U.S. going back to the first 
> Decca calypso recordings in 1935.  The biggest sellers seemed to have been 
> three 1937 records, Abdication/Netty Netty 17297, Edward The VIII/Three 
> Friends Advice 17298, and Roosevelt In Trinidad/Out the Fire 17302.  17297 
> was not sold in Trinidad because the British censors considered Netty 
> Netty smutty.  (The offensive line was "Netty Netty, Give me the thing 
> that you got in your belly.")  Go figure.  Netty Netty incorporates the 
> orchestral playing the melody of Andy Razaf's Christopher Columbus.  You 
> can hear two of these songs on the Rounder cd "Roosevelt In Trinidad".
>
> 3. My father heard Houdini on the radio and made trips to Harlem to buy 
> 17000 Decca calypsos.  I have heard similar stories.
>
> 4. Until Pearl Harbor in 1941, there was a period where Decca did not sell 
> calypso records in the United States which were critical of Hitler and I 
> think Mussolini too.  There was a Neutrality Act, probably the Neutrality 
> Act of 1939 but possibly other Neutrality Acts going back to 1935, which 
> prohibited sale of such material.  Decca published a 4-page foldover 
> listing of its calypso records with asterisks next to the prohibited 
> records, "Not for sale in the U.S."  Do others on this list know about 
> other records prohibited under the Neutrality Act?  I saw a film clip of 
> Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Franklin D Roosevelt where Roosevelt 
> proclaimed U.S. neutrality during the Spanish Civil War.  (1937?) 
> Roosevelt declared, "Americans . . hate . . war."  (On a related subject, 
> after Pearl Harbor when the Soviet Union was still neutral, the Almanac 
> Singers made the short-lived anti-war John Doe album and had a song Ballad 
> of October 16th with the chorus "He said 'I hate war
> !  And so does Eleanor.'")
>
> 5. Bear Family put out a 10-cd set of all the 1938-1940 Decca calypsos 
> recorded in Trinidad.  You can sample these records at:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000GQML8M/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img
>
> This is an important set.  The sound is very clean but to my ears the 
> highs sound truncated, which I regret because this set is likely to be the 
> only complete reissue that will ever be done.
>
> 6. Lots of calypso recordings were made in the 1920s and 1930s for other 
> companies.  Following the Andrews Sisters' hit Rum and Coca Cola, 
> Trinidadian calypsonians came to New York in 1945 to record for Decca and 
> for Guild.  Guild did extensive calypso recording, but only issued a 
> limited number of records before it went out of business.  Musicraft then 
> issued a number of calypsos from the Guild masters.  Then came Moe Asch 
> with Disc and Continental which seemed to have some arrangement with 
> SaGomes in Trinidad, and plenty of others.  The story goes on, continuing 
> to this day./steve
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