[78-L] Bert Williams Columbia cylinder

Mike Daley mikedaley at gmail.com
Wed Nov 30 07:49:09 PST 2011


Case closed? Thanks David and all others who weighed in. I'm going to
bid on it anyway - it will be a nice conversation piece to go with my
Bert Williams collection.

Mike



On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 10:37 AM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> And guess what..Billy Whitlock (whose real name was William Penna, just to make
> things even crazier) recorded WHAT A VERY DREADFUL THING for Edison (13217), c.
> November 1904. He recorded it at least once later on for Edison Bell. Whitlock
> is probably best remembered for a tune called "Scotch Hot" which became "Hop
> Scotch Polka" in 1949..nice that he was around at the time.
>
> dl
>
> On 11/30/2011 10:26 AM, Mike Daley wrote:
>> from the seller:
>> I have played the cylinder and it is definitely an english voice with
>> a slight 'london accent' , so I don't thik it is your american Bert.
>> It sounds like either Bilkly Whitlock or Harry Bluff , english
>> comedians who both recorded prolifically in the early days. The songs
>> listed in the Columbia catalogue are all songs which I believe
>> were part of the american Bert Williams' repertoire, so most likely
>> this recording is Columbia capitatlising on William's fame even though
>> there appears to be no other pseudonomous artistes listed in the
>> catalogue of 1904. This was about the time when Whitlock started
>> recording ( he recorded well into the 1930's ) so it is quite possible
>> that when he started , he used this 'Bert Williams' name which of
>> course at the time would have sounded like it could well have been a
>> genuine name of an english comedian.
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 10:22 AM, David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>  wrote:
>>> Interesting that this English Bert Williams isn't in Rust's Music Hall book.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> On 11/29/2011 10:19 AM, Mike Daley wrote:
>>>> Thank you. I've made the seller aware of this English Bert Williams
>>>> and he is giving the cylinder a spin to check it out.
>>>>
>>>> Mike
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 7:31 AM, Birgit Lotz Verlag
>>>> <Birgit-Lotz-Verlag at gmx.de>    wrote:
>>>>> This is the Cockney Bert Williams of the London Palace Theatre. Most
>>>>> recordings were made long after the "real" Bert Williams had returned to
>>>>> the US
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Dr. Rainer E. Lotz
>>>>> Birgit Lotz Verlag
>>>>> Rotdornweg 81
>>>>> 53177 Bonn (Germany)
>>>>>
>>>>> Tel: 0049-228-352808
>>>>> Fax: 0049-228-365142
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