[78-L] A Polka for Albinos

[Steve Shapiro]

I suspect that people liked this record for magic of hearing the clear sound of the bells and the xylophone reproduced on their acoustical machines.

78-l members who are still missing this record in their collection can hear and enjoy Columbia E4060 for themselves here:

http://dismuke.org/blog/?p=740  (advt and streaming audio)

Cleaner mp3s here: 

 http://archive.org/details/NavalCadetsMarch

http://archive.org/details/AlbinosPolka

The "Mid-Month List" ad was run in various newspapers in January 1919.  A year later, on leap year's day, Columbia marketed E4060 as an exotic foreign novelty record:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19200229&id=6LcaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lUkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2182,4604255

Note that 23977 Naval Cadets March is listed as bell solo with British band acc, thus explaining the 23977 mx from English Columbia.

E4060 was also marketed in Columbia's educational catalogue.  Nice to know that Columbia was marketing authentic ethnic music to a wide audience mass market in the United States.  Perhaps one might find more about how this record was promoted in a Columbia monthly supplement from 1921 or in Talking Machine Monthly.

These days, recorded sound reproduction is so universal that the magic is gone./steve

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

From: "Steve Shapiro" steveshapiro1 at juno.com
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 18:12:56 GMT
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: Re: [78-L] A Polka for Albinos


Dear Uncle Dave,

84229 would appear to be recorded about July 1918 in New York.
23977 suggests an earlier recording, possible not US.  

What is it about this record that brings you to cherish three or four copies?  Do you display them on different windups?/steve


David Lewis     uncledavelewis at hotmail.com        wrote:
Thu Aug  8 07:11:01 PDT 2013 

Always been curious about this very common green Columbia; I think I'm on copy three or four of it. 
Certain copies are additionally marked "NOVELTY RECORD" in large black letters.
 
Columbia E 4060
 
Bell Solo
(23977) Naval Cadets March
Xylophone Solo
(84229) Albinos Polka
 
Obviously these are widely differing matrices: anyone know of the date(s)? Dismuke found it in a January
1919 catalog, and I see it in an Educational catalog from 1920. Who are these percussionists, and why is
it in the foreign series? Columbia's main percussionists at the time were Howard Kopp and GeorgeHamilton Green. Some copies of 84229 read "Albinos Polka No. 2."

Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com



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