[78-L] Rodeheaver Musings

[David Lewis]

Probably no one will be much interested, though if you collect Rainbows it may be helpful. Rainbow 1015 consists of one coupling,
but involves six different recordings. The coupling is:

A Homer Rodeheaver: The Half Has Never Yet Been Told
B Mrs Asher & Homer Rodeheaver: The Old Rugged Cross

Both sides of 1015 were initially cut in Winona Lake, IN around the time of the Winona Lake Bible Conference of 1920. Side B was
remade first, during the Cincinnati Billy Sunday crusade of May 1921, with a group (violin, cello & piano) called the Orloff Trio.
The last "Old Rugged Cross" used on Rainbow was made in Gennett's New York studio with the Criterion Quartet interpolating passages
from another hymn; that one is an usually fine Rainbow Record, though the Cincinnati take is quite long at 3:35. I've seen some
early 10" Rainbows run to almost 4:00. The Gennett version was made in late May or early June 1922.*

The "A" side, which is of a once famous hymn by English author Frances Ridley Havergal, was replaced only once, by a matrix made in
the Rodeheaver studio in Chicago, with a wind band rather than the usual Spring-Smith-Holmes Orchestral Quintet, and bearing a matrix
number of "973"; it was made likely after the Gennett version, sometime in the summer of 1922. In the summer of 1924, Homer dubbed
this matrix at the Gennett studio; the dubbed version has a solid ring in the runout area and no matrix under the label. The Winona
Lake and Cincinnati recordings, as far as have been observed, likewise do not bear matrices.

I went through my inventory and discovered that I have 13 copies of 1015, so I culled them in hopes of finding any of the early 
versions. Only one seemed not to bear the familiar matrices of 973/7900a. "The Old Rugged Cross" carried the credit to the Orlaff
Trio, so I knew I had the Cincinnati matrix, and I assumed that the flip had to be the early Winona Lake matrix of "The Half Has
Never Yet Been Told." And I thought so even after I transferred it; it was distant, hollow and everything I was expecting of one
of the early recordings from Winona.

I decided I should seek out the best copies of 973/7900a and transfer those also, since I had them all in front of me. But it 
didn't take long for me to figure out that the "A" was the same recording I had just listened to, only brighter, fuller and more
forward. The disc bearing the Cincinnati "Old Rugged Cross" did not bear a Winona recording but merely the dubbed version of 973.

Oh well; I guess I'm still looking for that early version of 1015. 

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com

*7900 was issued in two takes; 7900 and 7900a. 7900 was used on Champion 15150, whereas 7900a appeared on Rainbow 1015 and 
Silvertone 4894. Gennett 4894 used both takes.