WANTED: Yiddish, Hebrew, 'Klezmer', UHD&C - Cylinder Records

[stevenhman]

Looking for cylinder records with subjects like those in the title.

Im mostly finding "comedy" type records which I'm not super interested in.

Thanks for looking!
-Steven

[VintageTechnologies]

Good luck with that. I would buy such things too and I'm not even Jewish! Most of the Jewish-related cylinder records are very stereotyped and corny comedy, as you have noticed. Edison did issue some various ethnic series of records, but the pickings are pretty slim.

I went online to the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive and found only a few interesting records.

"Masil toff"
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/searc ... rtOrder=ia

"Chardas"
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/searc ... rtOrder=ia

"Das goldene Land"
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/searc ... rtOrder=id

[stevenhman]

Thanks. Supposedly UHD&C (United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Company) produced cylinder records of a non-corny variety.

https://books.google.com/books?id=nRhQy ... 6C&f=false

There's quite a bit available on this site: http://faujsa.fau.edu/jsa/
Example here: http://faujsa.fau.edu/jsa/search_music_ ... &pagenum=2

But it's hard to tell release date. You can kind of guess with track length but so many reference materials are unavailable.

[VintageTechnologies]

In 49 years of collecting, I have never heard of the United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Company, much less seen any records. It must have been a small company. From Google I read they produced 150 records between 1904-1906. I will hazard a guess that the company might have been located in New York City.

It would be interesting to know whether the cylinders were brown wax made in-house, or molded black wax recordings. Perhaps the Columbia Phonograph Company was contracted to record and press cylinders and disks for them.

[stevenhman]

I found an address, attached the image. They were located in New York, NY.

Second image is a mention of the company, but not production method. (source https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... wk1ZxD_GCw)

"""Henry Sapoznik on May 24, 2013.
First Jewish owned and operated Jewish record label (and possibly first ethnically owned American ethnic label) this very short lived company (1905-1906) was a side business of owners H.W. Perlman and P. Rosansky who sold pianos under the H.W. Perlman name. Some of the earliest UHD&C titles seem to be pirates of better known performances but the studio's location on New York's Lower East Side, in the heart of the Yiddish theater district, meant that many theater acts not heard on any other labels could easily stop by and record.""" http://www.78rpmrecord.com/labelshow.cf ... Label=9019

Going from that comment, its likely they were brown wax. All probably tossed out when Bubbe headed down to Florida.

[phonogfp]

Here are a couple of H.D.& C. discs I've found over the years. The red label example looks much like an International Record Co. pressing. The blue one is thicker and unmarked.

George P.

[need4art]

I have a number of those records as well-and yes even Edison got into the act. I have 9 Hebrew/ Yiddish DD's as well. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in New York, and my grandparents took me to Yiddish theater in the early 50's. But I had no idea how big it was in the early 1900's until we were visiting our son who lived in New York and we visited Ellis Island. There was a huge exhibit about the impact of Jewish immigrants and the creation of the Yiddish theater. My grandfather was 1st violinist with the New York Philharmonic and he did Yiddish Theater on the side. I have an original score that he created for a show that is one of my most prized possessions.

Most of these records came to me in groups of stuff that I bought here in Arizona, which is not known for its large Jewish population-in fact when we got here in 1957 there was 2800 of us. But that was before air conditioning, no we can't stop people from coming here! I would think there are many more of them o the east coast.
Abe

[NEFaurora]

Oye..Vey..

I can't even remember the last time that I've seen anything like those records around.. They are rare..

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

[colmike1]

We had a lot of 1920s-30s Yiddish & Hebrew 78s when I was a child, mostly on the Banner label, but have never run across any of the cylinders. Mind you, the Jewish community here in Peoria, Il has never been huge. Very few of us left who can still understand any Yiddish. This is a fascinating thread.

[rgordon939]

I had a list of Jewish cylinders. I will see if I can find it and will post it if I find it.

Rich Gordon