[78-L] just found: voice recording of earliest person born to record (b:1800)

[Michael Biel]

On 2/4/2012 9:02 AM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
> Right.  Exactly.  Read the articles.  There's a framed copy of one of them in the computer science building lobby next door to my office.  Great stuff. 
>   
> Historians have known or suspected these to have existed for decades.  Such were mentioned in Tin Foil to Stereo.

I haven't had a chance to check, but I think I had a couple of Poloroid 
photos and the list of the record slips since 1988.  Our ARSC was in 
Canada and I had gotten Leo LaClaire to speak.  Leo was the one who 
figured out that the "Stanley" cylinder was not Henry Morton Stanley but 
of Baron Stanley of Preston, which made it, at that time, the earliest 
recording -- a dub only as the cylinder is missing.  I called Leah Burt 
at the Edison Site to check if the cylinder had ever been found.  She 
said "Gee, Mike, no, but I we have found some earlier cylinders here in 
a box behind Edison's library cot."  She sent me the photos and the list 
for me to show and discuss at the conference. These might be them.



> After reading that, in 1967 I was excited to see an album in the Music Lovers Shoppe in Rochester called "Tom Edison's Greatest Hits" which purported to be some of those records.  The liner notes extolled the wonderfind of the "Frederick Kolbe Collection" and since it read so much like a Jim Walsh article, I fell for it and plunked down $3.98 plus tax and took it home.  When I heard Wild Bill Hickock order "a brandy Alexsander, pleasse" I know I had been had, and pulled it off the TT and buried it.  Years later I dug it out again and it has become a real family favorite.  I'm glad I didn't trash it - I almost did!  Some of my kids can quote the William S. Gilbert track.
>

I didn't get the joke about this being the Frederick Kolb collection!!!  
It was released while I was working at a record distributor.   Wegot one 
box of 25 of this LP and I soon realized it was a joke because it was 
marked "File under: Comedy".  I decided which stores should get one or 
two copies, and I took one for myself.  A few months later a good friend 
of mine, Dr. Richard Lenk, a spoken-word expert, called me livid with 
rage.  He had bought a copy of this at Sam Goody where it was in the 
Spoken Word section and was FURIOUS!
> Here's my real point: With all the notices of these things popping up even in the popular press, I have to wonder why that album has not been reissued on CD.  I share different tracks with students once in a while, always to great amusement, and it's an amazement that Harris and Kukoff nailed those personalities so well.  I had to read a lot about Nietzsche to grasp what they distilled into three hilarious minutes.
>   
> http://www.amazon.com/Edisons-Greatest-Hits-Thomas-Edison/product-reviews/B001AP15EE
>
> Rodger Still Laughing Holtin

The album is really funny?????  I don't think I have listened to it 
since 1967!   Of course, it is a satire of "Hark the Years" and the 
2-record set on Landmark that Walter Welch put together in the 60s.  It 
would be funnier to those who know these, I suppose.  Do today's kids 
know who the hell is on the album???

Mike (still smirking) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



>
> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>
> .
>
> --- On Fri, 2/3/12, Michael Biel<mbiel at mbiel.com>  wrote:
>
>
> From: Michael Biel<mbiel at mbiel.com>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] just found: voice recording of earliest person born to record (b:1800)
> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Friday, February 3, 2012, 10:32 PM
>
>
>
>
> On 2/3/2012 8:33 AM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
>> Could this be the fabled "Frederick Kolb collection"?
>> :-)
>>
>>
>> Rodger
> Read the article.  Plus, this find has been mentioned here in two other
> threads here "Early European Edison Phonograph Recordings Released" and
> "Patrick Feaster talk on Theo Wangemann at the Edison Lab, Feb. 4".
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>> --- On Fri, 2/3/12, Erwin Kluwer<ekluwer at gmail.com>   wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Erwin Kluwer<ekluwer at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [78-L] just found: voice recording of earliest person born to record (b:1800)
>> To: 78-l at 78online.com
>> Date: Friday, February 3, 2012, 6:17 AM
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/bismarcks-voice-among-restored-edison-recordings.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210
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