General Pershing March

The Little Wonder label

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Sheet music courtesy of Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection

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Archeophone's August 2006 Recording of the Month launches our "March to War" series of exclusive web features counting down until the release of our long-anticipated 2-CD set, The Great War: An American Musical Fantasy [ARCH 2001], due out in November 2006. To kick off this special series, we look at The Little Wonder record company, which began issuing 5-1/2" discs in 1914, and which released a number of war-related records, including "General Pershing March."

The company had a very interesting legal history, which can be read about in detail on Merle Sprinzen's excellent website (www.littlewonderrecords.com). The main point for our purposes here is that Columbia secretly provided talent and manufacturing for the company, meaning essentially that Little Wonder records are shortened versions of selections that Columbia released in its regular 10"- and 12"-series of recordings. Henry Waterson (Irving Berlin's partner) was exclusive sales agent for the first few years.

The records sold initally for 10 cents, which made them affordable for a large audience who couldn't or wouldn't pay the 75 cents or dollar for standard-sized discs. Some have thought too that Little Wonders were meant for children's entertainment, a suspicion seemingly supported by the paper-label artwork (featuring a small child) that replaced the original etched labels by 1918, when Columbia took back control of Little Wonder from Waterson. The grooves of the records are very tight, and the sound is generally poor. Only a few plays on a vintage machine could cause the tiny records to become distorted, as evidenced on "General Pershing March."

General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing (1860–1948) led American forces against Pancho Villa in 1916, and only months later was sent to the European front to command the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. He was eventually given the title General of the Armies, a title created for him and the highest rank ever awarded, until it was also bestowed in 1976 on George Washington. A recording of his voice made from the battlefields of France is included on our CD, The Great War. The "General Pershing March" is a lively, rousing tune, and typical of marches written during the war that paid tribute to particular figures or regiments.

For more on Little Wonder records, see: Tim Brooks, Little Wonder Records: A History and Discography (St. Johnsbury VT: The New Amberola Phonograph Co., 1999).