Billy Murray - Ever Since the Movies Learned to Talk - 1929 Edison Disc
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- Опубликовано: 11 фев 2025
- Here is Billy Murray with Marcella Shields on an Edison Disc Record from 1929. Murray and Shields also were featured on Radio Station WEAF with Walter Scanlon. You will notice the fine clarity and increased volume of this Edison Record, as it was Electrically recorded. The Edison Disc Phonograph is a Model D-25 (Jacobean).
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Billy was 51 years old when he recorded this song, and still had a booming robust voice! He really plays the part of the carnival barker in perfect style, just as you could close your eyes and imagine how a real one was at a carnival back then with just the right volume and tantalizing bravado to lure people in for entertainment.
The Edison electric recording process really shines on this record- all the undertones, overtones, sibilants and notes really leap out at you here! The microphone and recording is so sensitive and captures all the elements that you can hear Billy breathe in very slightly at 5:04 - 5:05 in the timeframe of the video.
Edison, sadly, never dubbed this to the Blue Amberol format but “Vulcan” records in England used this Diamond Disc to dub to their new Vulcan cylinder back a few years ago and it’s still in their catalogue.
Thanks Bruce for sharing this! Fantastic record that sounds great on your machine!
In spite of earnestly collecting early records for over 50-years, I have not even heard of this title. Many thanks for sharing.
Edison's last electrical Diamond Discs have such clarity compared to lateral records.
Hello Victrolaman, That was a treat! Marcella was my grand-aunt and we just recently found one of her old scrapbooks with photos and newspaper clippings related to the radio show. But this was the first recording with her voice I've ever heard. Thanks very much for posting it.
Beautiful !!! Thanks for sharing...
Hi! This is a really beauty. I have Billy Murray with same number, but with Seven Blue Babies. This is another take. I can recognise' s this same trumpet player from Seven Blue Babies. You' re fantastic with all Your records. I hope You have many more. Keep Swingin' Bixbix81
Great! I so enjoy the little talk you give before playing your records!
The last Edison record was recorded in October 1929....just a few days before they went out of the commercial phonograph business on November 1, 1929.
So cool time capsule!
Very cool. One of the mostly truly lively records that Billy is on. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this and offering the insight. This song was used on the demonstration film, FINDING HIS VOICE, which also features Billy Murray and Walter Scanlan. I was wanting to contact you directly.
Quite nice! I really enjoyed the song and in particular the culture shock a lot of people both in the filmmaking industry and in the audience went through when sound came in. I had a taste of that myself when I downloaded Rudolph Valentino's one surviving record from archive.org and he didn't have at all the voice I'd always imagined from his silent films. One of the previous reviewers overstated the case that talkies destroyed the careers of most silent stars. The biggest male names at the end of the silent era -- Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, John and Lionel Barrymore -- mostly made the transition just fine. Women had a harder time because people like Gloria Swanson, Corinne Griffith, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and a lot of other major female silent stars were just hitting their 30's when sound came in -- and that's a difficult age for actresses even now as they lose their youthful glamor and have to decide whether still to pursue leads or content themselves with character roles. The few Edison electricals that still exist are surprisingly well recorded, and I'm glad for the explanation at the end of the video of why the label is blank white -- until then I'd assumed this was a surviving test pressing.
Thanks for the AWESOME upload !
Written by Walter O’Keefe, Bobby Dolan, and James Cavanaugh, and originally introduced in the Broadway musical "Whoopee!".
Recorded on January 22, 1929- at a time when most silent film "stars" discovered they didn't have the voices to succeed in "talkies". A lot of their careers virtually ended; a select few that were lucky to have "decent voices" managed to eke out a decent living as "character actors/actresses" for several more years [Clara Bow was one of those fortunate few who made it to sound movies, although her Brooklyn accent was obvious]. Accompanied by the "Merry Melody Men" (members of Ed Kirkeby's California Ramblers).
what a great DD to hear
Excellent quality! Funnily enough just as many silent screen stars careers were under threat in the late 20s, Murrays career was also coming to an end cos of advances being made in recording technology.
@BixBix81 Wow, you have the exact same Edison Recording of this ? That's great. This is a very rare and very late Edison ELECTRIC Diamond Disc, which makes it an extremely rare find indeed. I have never run across another myself or any other collector that also had a copy of this exact Edison record and take. Thanks for watching.
Victrolaman
It obviously disappeared quite a few years ago, long before I acquired this record some 10+ years ago. This is quite a common occurrence with this Paper Label type Edison Disc Records which were produced from the early 1920's up to 1929. I actually mentioned this in the video after the end of the record. Thanks for watching.
Victrolman
Nice That You answer so soon. Billy Murray made 4-5 numbers with Seven Blue Babies.I'll try to find who play on those record. I have 22 Numbers With Seven Blue Babies and You have to believe, they made about 50 numbers more. On Red Hot Jazz we have only 32.I give You know when I'll find more. I saw all Your library on You Tube - Fantastic. Greetings Bixbix81
You are very welcome and I am glad you enjoyed it. I especially wanted to mention Marcella Shields for those who are familiar with Murray's early Radio performances with her and Scanlan. I don't think there is any evidence that she cut any other records besides this one. It is probably safe to assume that Murray was influential in bringing her to the Edison Studios for this one side.
how do they restore cracked records that are a film on metal from those early days
Edison records sounded amazing! The vertical cutting technique was like early digital.
Thanks for sharing this great sounding later Billy Murray Edison Disc. Nice female vocals too. Marcella Shields sounds to me like a cross between Ada Jones and Ermine Calloway. Too bad the label is missing. Very common occurence though, as you mentioned, for Edison Diamond Disc labels. I have several thousand Edison Diamond Discs but this one has eluded me all these years. A great find and in great playing condition. Thanks again for sharing this late Edison recording by Billy Murray.
Although Edison never dubbed this to the blue Amberol, Vulcan Records in England used this same record to electrically dub to a new cylinder master, and it’s still in their catalogue. It’s a hard resin cylinder not a wax one. They sound great and ship safely to the States, I’ve ordered many from them in the past without issues.
Fantastic Finds ! I have only come across one Edisonic Schubert, and one copy of this late 1920's Electric DD by Billy Murray in all my years of Collecting. Just curious, what were the other 7 Electric DD's that came with the Schubert? Thanks for watching and commenting !
Very nice recording
Richard ;))
Yes, I am. Clever lyrics. These old recordings are surprisingly entertaining.
Why aren't more of these great Edison Electrics put out on CDs? I have the Billy Murray CD put out a while ago, but it neglects the Edison Electrics which are my favorites.
Western Electric used the instrumental version of this song, as a background in the sound film "Finding his voice" a cartoon by Max Fleischer describing how the Western Electric sound on film process worked.
52450 was in 1/29, 52575 was produced n 6/29, so it is a safe guess that it was in the Spring of 1929.
Bruce Victrolaman Young how do you look up or check the serial number of a record to see when it was made or manufactured?? Thanks if responded :)
Because of character limitations, I will have to split this response. In any case, I guess there were actually eight. These were the electrically recorded records. (It was a real hodge-podge of titles!)
52518-R A Gay Caballero/Ever Since the Movies Learned to Talk
52510-L Underneath The Russian Moon/Toy Maker's Dream (B.A. Rolfe)
52119-L E Liliu E/
Na Lei O Hawaii ("Song of the Islands") (King)
52131-R Night Before Christmas/
Children's Songs for Christmas (Vaughn deLeath)
Funny thing, the automatic subtitle function recognize the lyrics.
AT&T had constructed and licensed radio station WEAF in New York in June of 1922, and owned a completely legal monopoly selling broadcasting time over it's phone lines. It's first 'network' 'broadcast occured on January 4, 1923, between WEAF in New York City and WNAC in Boston, Massachusetts. AT&T had, by early 1924, also produced the first transcontinental network broadcast, between WEAF in New York City. I am not sure whether the station still exists under those call letters.
I have a voice for silent movies and a face for radio.
This sounds incredible, and it's not even being played with a reproducer meant for electrical discs, which are silver in color, and very rare. Edison was late in the game for electric recording, not starting until 1927/8, 2-3 years after the other big labels. I wonder if they ever made diamond disc machines with electrical pickups, cause archiving them sounds horrible unless you shove a small mic up the horn, cause basically every other machine except edison's are lateral, and yes I'm aware of pathe, but those are all acoustic too so you have the same problem, and I don't think diamond discs word work even then due to groove width.
How'd you get such a clear sounding crisp record of Billy Murray?
It was electrically recorded
Do you think he ended Edison because of the stock market crash in October of 29?
C Porter most likely and his stuff wasn't selling well
"Black Tuesday" was October 29, 1929. Three days later, on Friday, November 1st, Edison officially announced his company was withdrawing from the phonograph business (both disc and cylinders). They continued to market cylinder dictating machines, blank cylinders and "shavers" (to reuse them again) through the 1950's.
Barry I. Grauman hi thanks for the information on Edison and the great depression
You're very welcome. :)
No problem I have a descent music selection on my channel feel free to have a look
Billy Murray Melody Men (O-dance) Ever since the movies learned to talk (Billy Murray & Marcella Shields ) mx # N 679 (R) NYC 01-22-1929
what happened to the label?
It fell off.
Are you the same relative that contacted me a few years ago about the record ? If so I lost your email, and hoped someday that you would happen across this video so you could actually hear her voice. I wonder if there are any transcriptions of her radio shows in collections or Radio Archives somewhere. She had such a wonderfully distinct voice that would have been perfect for those early Radio Broadcasts.
hi, that was my brother Richard , are you still interested in Marcella's scrap book
@Westtoledoguy sorry wrong mx # it should be E 18988 (R)
I just purchased a 1927 Edisonic Schubert, and this was one of the original electrically recorded diamond discs that came with the machine. It is the same take as this copy. The machine came with a total of 14 records, 7 of which were electrically recorded.
fine record fine machine fine system... only the gaskets of your reproducer are in need of replacing you can hear the diagraph rattle a bit not seriously badly but a bit with constant playing it will become worse maby a year maby 5 or 7 years but there will come a day that billy murray sounds like he's singing behind a sheet of aluminium foil
and if your rep, sounds like that than its bad for your records and the stylus all because of overmodulating resonance
3:17
Here's the label: www.popsike.com/pix/20141201/231408648862.jpg
If only he didn’t go out of business 🙁
@Westtoledoguy 52518-L