The Man On The Flying Trapeze (1934) Fred Douglas

THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE - Part 1 ~ [0:00]
THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE - Part 2 ~ [3:00]
Fred Douglas, comedian, with novelty accompaniment
Regal-Zonophone MR1339 (from the matrix numbers, probably June 1934)
It being the pantomime season, here is a chance to hear Fred Douglas as he might have performed when doing a stage variety turn. It was probably recorded in Studio 3, the smallest, at the recently-opened St John’s Wood (Abbey Road) studios built by HMV, where the acoustic was judged bad from the word go in mid-1931 (when did ‘word go’ become ‘get go’ in UK English?) and I doubt anything had been done to it by 1934.
The banter at the start is entertaining - especially the ‘chairman’s’ comments about Lady Godiva and the horse. However, two sides of this song is pushing it. Yet, it is an opportunity to hear all the verses that accompany the well-known chorus.
I have researched a biography of ‘Fred Douglas’ which may appear in Memory Lane some time in 2017.

[@tiga4180]

I am a Fred Douglas fan & collect his records (& The Two Gilberts), but so far have been unable to find any info about him. Would love to read the biography, could you please inform me as to how to obtain 'Memory Lane' & when the biography is likely to be printed?

[@6dBperOctave]

www.memorylane.org.uk/file/Home_Page.html is the home page of Memory Lane which is a quarterly magazine. The biography, though researched and written, is unlikely to be in the magazine before the middle of 2017.

[@tiga4180]

Thanks for that info & happy 2017!

[@davidglow3]

Fred Douglas is our version of Arthur Hall and Arthur Fields from across the pond.They are fine when doing their variety (vaudeville) solo stuff.However perhaps highly unsuitable for dance band vocals as the voices are just too period rather than modern.Always amazes me how popular these comedy or nonsense recordings were with the general public..l mean,they can only be funny on first hearing,after that it must surely have sounded trite