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Image from the collection of Charlie Hummel |
Edison's four-minute cylinder format, "Edison
Amberol Records," were introduced with great fanfare
in October 1908. Previously limited in playing time
to two or three minutes, the older cylinders were losing
the marketing battle to disc records, which were easier
to store and, as of 1908, were double-sided and could
play two selections totalling six or seven minutes (or,
in the case of 12-inch discs, eight minutes). Thomas
Edison was still convinced of the aural superiority
of cylinders and attempted with longer-playing Amberols
to give customers a better value. Amberols were made
of a softer, less durable wax than the Gold Moulded
variety Edison had used since 1902, and customers soon
complained of excessive wear to the records. Edison
responded in 1912 with Blue Amberol cylinder records,
celluloid recordings on plaster cores, and his studios
reissued a number of the earlier Amberol masters in
the new Blue format.
You can hear the Peerless Quartet take full advantage
of their four minutes on "The
Day of the Game." This descriptive track tells
the story of football heroics in song but is accented
along the way with spirited cheering and dramatic acting
from the quartet. The Peerless in 1908 consisted of
Henry Burr (first tenor), Albert Campbell (second tenor),
Steve Porter (baritone--replaced in 1909 by Arthur Collins),
and group manager Frank C. Stanley (bass). Here, as
on most Peerless recordings of the period, it is Stanley,
born William Stanley Grinstead in 1868, who sings lead.
It was unusual for a bass to sing lead regularly as
Stanley did, and indeed, most listeners are familiar
with Peerless Quartet recordings in which the tenor
Henry Burr takes the lead, as he did almost always from
1911 until the quartet finally dissolved in the mid-1920s.
Stanley met an untimely death in December 1910 from
pleurisy and pneumonia, and John H. Meyer took his place
in the Peerless Quartet.
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