JEMF QUARTERLY JOHN EDWARDS MEMORIAL FOUNDATION VOL XIV SPRING 1978 No. 49 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/jemfquarterlyser1978john . — LETTERS Sir: Here's some microtrivia that may be of use to have had previous experience in the phonograph someone: the people sitting in the second row in record business and possibly had an interest in the picture of the WNAX "Dinner Bell Roundup" cast a NYRL in NYC. At any rate there is the re- on p. 110 of JEMFQ #43 spent some time in Maine. peated second-hand story that Satherley record- Jimmy and Dick (The Novelty Boys) and their troupe ed some NYRL material in a similarly named stu- summered in the Bangor area 1939-42 and again in dio in NYC. the late '40s (I believe). Jimmie Pierson and Dick The first record was pressed in Grafton Klasi were the core of the group. Jimmie 's bro- (their only pressing plant, a few miles from ther "Flash Willie" in Bernard Haeerty's (mentioned their furniture factory in Port Washington) on article on Radio Station WNAX \_JEMFQ #40, p. 18l]) 29 June 1917. played fiddle. Cora Dean ("the Kansas City Kitty") was the Pierson brothers' sister and married to In a building across from the pressing Dick. Jimmie was married (or otherwise attached) plant a recording facility (electrical) was to a lady named Dot. They were enormously popular started in about the end of 1927. Marsh Studios everyone remembers them. My memory is hazy, but in Chicago, a New York recording studio, Gennett one of the women died, her husband had some kind Studios in Richmond and other recording facili- of breakdown and the group broke up. Dick Klasi ties continued to be used. was reportedly from North Dakota and went back out The pressing of phonograph records was sus- west after this tragedy. All this tallies, more or pended in about January 1930. However, the less, with what Mr. Hagerty has to say in his arti- presses at Grafton were continued in use for cle on WNAX in JEMFQ #40. "house" labels such as Silvertone and also for Full information on Jimmie and Dick in Maine 12" radio transcription discs, some recorded at should be available from Sandy Ives of the Univer- the WCFL studios in Chicago. In about 1932 the sity of Maine Anthro. Dept. He conducted a class recording and pressing activities were discon- on country music in the Bangor area some years back. tinued. A record stock of probably several mil- As I recall, most of the material on Jimmie and lion pressings was purchased by Supper & Boer- Dick was contained in interviews with Ray and Ann ner, former employees of NYRL, who had set up Little of Milbridge, Maine. an independent mail order business and who con- tinued to advertise and sell by mail order into —Lisa Feldman the 1940s. In their later years they did not Orono, Maine advertise Paramounts because of dwindling num- bers of each item; but they did offer overruns Sir: and distress stocks of Vocalions, Bluebirds and I regret the delay in answering your request other race labels. Their principal sales had for information regarding my ownership of NYRL become dream books and magic potions. (Paramount, etc.). Although it may be too late From about late 1944, when I was a licensee now, I am sending it for your possible future for the use of Paramount records, to the date of reference. my purchase in December 1949, I acted as an As you know Paramount was a label of the New agent in replying to inquiries concerning the York Recording Laboratories, and NYRL was an out- musical interests of the Wisconsin Chair Com- growth of the manufacture of phonograph furniture pany. Seven licensees were supplied with mate- by the Wisconsin Chair Company. NYRL had separate rials or rights to use properties of the NYRL investors but it was a subsidiary of Wis. Chair. division. The Wisconsin Chair Company had dis- Wis. Chair was registered on 15 October 1888 in continued furniture manufacturing during the Sheboygan, Wisconsin by F.A. , C.E. and Albert Den- Depression, but they continued under President nett. The Articles of Association listed their Otto Moeser and Secretary Allen Cady to rent office and factory as located at Port Washington, parts of their factories and sell off inventory Wisconsin. and otherwise dissolve the business. When the final divestiture of all property except real The company was possibly persuaded to enter the estate became imminent, I bought their "musical record business by Satherley, who was also said to interests" comprising the rights to records, heaps Sweetheart" and "Sleep Baby Sleep" on August 4, of metals, test pressings, records, copyrights 1927. (as Chicago Music Company) , trade marks, business -'-Phillip Fortune records and even label paper. 1 took very little Pawhuska, Okla. of the recording equipment, allowing most of it to scrap. be sold as Sir: For a time thereafter I continued the business After reading Simon J. Bronner's article on from a post office box in Port Washington and gra- Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters JEMFQ #42, p . 54 dually moved the center of activities to Chicago , in the discography he speaks of a possible RCA where I was more frequently employed, I recorded Camden LP, I have been looking for a verifica- NYRL as doing business in Chicago by Certificate tion of such a record in your following issues. 30 October 1948 anticipating my purchase 65975, However, it has not occurred. which, as you see, came later. Therefore, I would like to inform you and On 1 February 1974 I transferred NYRL (togeth- readers of JEMFQ that such a record obviously er with all other of my musical properties) to exists. From an auction I have purchased a RCA George H. Buck (operating GHB and Jazzology labels) Camden LP CAL 220, titled Square Dances: Wood- presently located at 3008 Wadsworth Mill Place, hull's Old Tyme Masters, Calls by Floyd C. Wood- Decatur, GA 30032. hull. I shall be pleased to answer any other ques- Side 1 includes: tions I can. Oh Susanna 4/4 tempo (Stephen C. Foster) —John Steiner Pop Goes the Weasel 6/8 tempo Milwaukee, Wise. Captain Jinks 6/8 Tempo The Wearin' of the Green 4/4 tempo Sir: The Girl Behind Me 4/4 tempo In regard to the notes to "Oh, Those Tombs" E4DP-6238 in the brochure notes to JEMF-104: Presenting the Side 2 includes: Blue Sky Boys, the following information may be of Blackberry Quadrille 6/8 tempo interest. copy of "Oh Those Tombs" is found in My Soldier's Joy 4/4 tempo R. E. Winsett's collection, All for Jesus (Dayton, The Irish Washerwoman (traditional) copyright date on the song Tennessee, 1948). The Pony Boy (Charley O'Donnell) itself is and the author is listed as William 1918, Bloom on the Sage (traditional) whom I know little. The headnote M. Golden, about Ann Green (traditional) by Golden reads: "Composed after a walk through the city of the dead." Obviously the Bolicks E4DP-6239 didn't get their version from the Winsett songster, This should be all but two of their 1949 record- but I would guess the tune had been picked up and ings. The LP is made in Canada; it also has a reprinted repeatedly through the years, starting small printed number CAM-322D, the meaning of about 1918. The text of the Winsett version is that I do not know. almost identical to that of the Bolicks: fine memories, indeed. —Urban Henriksson Lldkoping, Sweden —Charles Wolfe Middle Tenn. State Univ. Sir: Murf reesboro, Tenn. I was surprised by William Koon's review of Sir: Stars of Country Music JEMFQ #47, p. 151 , which I had thought was a good book for fairly "serious I greatly enjoyed the article on Elsie Mc- readers." While I find his complaints interest- Williams in the Summer 1977 JEMF Quarterly which ing, 1 feel that he is imposing harsher standards beautifully well written by was photographed and so on the young discipline of country music scholar- our composi- author friend Johnny Bond. Those great ship than have been imposed, with any success, on . for tions she wrote or co-wrote. .will live on many most of the old disciplines. Factual errors are rest of have hundreds of years, long after the us deplored in all disciplines, but hardly any of reached Hillbilly Heaven. Jimmie Rodgers was truly those were charged. the first great Star in Country music, and with his voice, his guitar, his yodels he paved the way I don't believe people in other disciplines for Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Jack Guthrie, T. Texas are required to come up with book titles which Tyler, Eddy Arnold, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, are logically unimpeachable. I know the field of Jim Reeves, Johnny Bond, Jimmie Wakely, etc. Jim- literature is full of books about "Masters" of mie' s wife Carrie was a wonderful lady, and I have this, and "Titans" of that, and "Landmarks" of an 8 x 10 autographed photo she sent me as a the other, and that there is little quibbling Christmas present in 1952. It is most remarkable about it. I see nothing wrong with the intent how Jimmie Rodgers songs have stood the test of of a book that might have been called Some More time for 50 years, and today they are just as fresh or Less Important Performers in Those Areas Which and new as when he first recorded "Soldier's Have Been Called Country Music, and I certainly .