Last Living 78 RPM only Artist

[Governor Flyball]

I define a 78 RPM artist as someone who recorded pre 1948 on 78 RPM discs only.

One of the last was Tony Martin. But he passed away in 2012 at 99. I am listening tonight to a Rise Stevens album of Jerome Kern songs and she passed on in about 2013 at about 100 years old. Licia Albanese died in 2013.

Is there any recording artist pre 1948 still around?

[gramophoneshane]

Tony Martin?
He recorded after 1948 so surely those recordings were available on 45rpm too?

[BillH_NJ]

I don’t know for certain about Tony Martin’s last recordings, but Stevens and Albanese recorded Carmen in 1951, with Stevens continuing to record after that and Albanese recording Manon Lescaut in 1954.

Bill

[Wolfe]

Marjorie Hughes might have. She was the daughter of Frankie Carle and sang on the band in the 40's.

[gramophoneshane]

I don’t know for certain about Tony Martin’s last recordings,

Bill

Two that I have on 78 are "I get ideas" (1951) and "Strangers in paradise" (1953).
Here they were released on the HMV label so I presume they were RCA in America.
If I remember correctly RCA introduced their 45 players in 1949, and by 1951 new models were available, so given the popularity of Martin's 1951 recording, I'm sure they must have made vinyl pressings as well?
"Strangers" of course was a big hit for Tony Bennett, so possibly Matins recording wouldn't have made to vinyl, but I really don't know.

[Wolfe]

Louise Tobin seems to still be alive at 102. She started recording in the late 1930's

[gramophone-georg]

Louise Tobin seems to still be alive at 102. She started recording in the late 1930's

Yes, and she was also Harry James' first wife- they had two children together.

She may well be the last!

[gramophoneshane]

According to Wikipedia, in 1950 she recorded "Sunny Disposish" with Ziggy Elman and His Orchestra.
So again she's recorded after the 1948 pre vinyl era, although what formats that recording was released on it doesn't say.
It appears Ziggy had switched from RCA to MGM by 1950 so perhaps an MGM discography could determine whether Sunny Disposish was released on both 78 and 45, or even possibly on a Ziggy Elman 33 album that year?

[Governor Flyball]

The wording was clumsy in this thread's title and my initial comment. I could have said the artist(s) I am looking for are those still alive and who recorded before the advent of the LP and 45 RPM discs direct to wax 78 disc.

The Rise Stevens recordings I have is "In Songs of Jerome Kern", Columbia Album M568 issued in 1945. Licia Albanese died at age 104 in 2013 hence was born 1909. I have a few 78's of her from the early '40's.

It looks like the era has passed with hardly a whimper. Years ago, with the milestone of the last of the acoustic recording artists nearing, I recall hearing Rosa Ponselle on the Met intermission features and one of my favorite pop stars of the past, Irving Kaufmann interviewed on TV both in the '70's.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[epigramophone]

Dame Vera Lynn (b.20 March 1917, d.18 June 2020) made her first recordings on the Crown (Woolworths) label in 1935, and in 2017 at the age of 100 became the best selling female artist in the UK when a collection of her recordings (some previously unpublished) was released.