[78-L] A Dropped Title and Eugene Jaudas

[DanKj]

 Thanks!  I'm glad to have some info on Jaudas, but sad about his story - especially when it wouldn't have cost Edison a
dime to have a glowing letter of recommendation written or find him a dignified job somewhere at Edison Inc.

  I really enjoy most of the Jaudas Society Orchestra recordings, and feel that they were unique.  The other phono companies
were still using mostly bands for dance music (or threw in a couple of screechy Stroh violins & called that an "orchestra")
while Jaudas was using a piano and banjo for rhythm, real violins, flute, snare drum, etc etc - even the occasional harp.
The banjoist was quite good, sometimes so prominent that it almost qualified as an extended solo. Playing it like a mandolin
on some waltz numbers (Waters of Venice, for example) was a nice effect.   Any idea who he was?

 Anyway, I have an idea that if you went to a high-class 1916 NYC hotel which had a good-sized orchestra, you'd hear
something like Eugene Jaudas' Society Orchestra.   Oh, he and Charles D'Almaine were pretty good fiddlers, too.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Philip Carli"
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: A Dropped Title and Eugene Jaudas

>I wrote a bit about Jaudas in my diss. some years ago.  Born in 1869, he conducted most of Edison's accompaniments and the
>Edison Symphony Orchestra from 1901 to 1906 (when he began sharing duties with Frederick Ecke, who was named principal
>studio conductor), and also was on the NY studio committee that passed judgment on records, alongside Walter Miller and
>studio manager W. H. A. Cronkhite. He continued at the 79 5th Ave. studio, conducting mostly popular song accompaniments
>and dance records (and also the accompaniments for Kinetophone shorts, for which he had to commute to the Edison motion
>picture studio in the Bronx), scouting out talent, and even acting as a ticket broker for Edison executives, until 1925,
>when Edison let him go without notice after 24 yrs service (Edison wrote to W. H. Meadowcroft after receiving a two-page
>letter from Jaudas requesting to see him and talk things over: "Tell Jaudas had to do it -- phono biz is all to pieces.")
>The story gets sadder
> from there, as he wasn't able to find work after that for over two years and wrote as much back to Orange, asking for a
> letter of recommendation; got a very perfunctory answer from TAE.  I don't know when he died, but there was a rumor that
> he lived at least into the 1940s.
>
> ________________________________________
> Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 1:14 AM
> Subject: [>
> I was playing some cylinders (bought at a show, and sitting ever since in the brown grocery bags I used to pack them) and
> came across one which struck me as familiar.  "The Jass" One-Step, by Eugene Jaudas' orchestra on Edison BA 3228.