Show Me Your Berliner Disc!

[gramophone78]

There's another label identical to the March 1895 record I posted, but reads, "...other Parents applied for." No kidding!
George P.

Here is my copy of "other Parents applied for" dated 6/12/92 mentioned by George P in 2009.

[Menophanes]

This señor Muchuelo is Antonio Pozo, "el Mochuelo", a Spanish flamenco singer which started recording at the very beginning and was popular on records until 1920 or so. He recorded for every brand that came to Spain, gramophone, homokord, Odeón, zonophone, etc. In many records he was associated to "La rubia" (the blond) a female flamenco singer. These two sang flamenco and many other things. This record, "Jota" is not flamenco singing, it's typical singing of another Spanish region, Aragon, at the north east. this must be one of the records made in the first overseas trip by F W Gaisberg and W S Darby in 1899, when they first went abroad, and they also visited Spain.

Thank you, Inigo! I thought you might well have some information about this singer.

The record, as I recall, was no better than a curiosity, only the voice itself being audible Even so I wish I could have kept it. There used to be a radio programme in the BBC archives in which the musicologist and conductor David Owen Norris discussed the early history of music on record in four episodes; unfortunately it had disappeared by the time I last looked for it on BBC Sounds. He mentioned and included a clip from one of this group of records, describing it as being by 'the Muchuelo [or Mochuelo] troupe'.

Oliver Mundy.

[epigramophone]

I only have three Berliners, the oldest of which is pictured.
Alberto del Campo (real name Alberto de Bassini 1847-?) began as a tenor and retrained as a baritone from 1890.
He later emigrated to the USA, appearing mainly in the French repertoire before teaching in New York.

My other Berliners are :

29X Carmen Selection / Banda Rossa, New York undated. Can anyone date it?

154 Fackeltanz / Municipal Military band, London 11th March 1901.

[Inigo]

More info on these Singers
Antonio Pozo "El Mochuelo" y Srta. Encarnación Santisteban "la Rubia"
There are items included in DAHR, see
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ad ... Gp2AEhCiYy
Wikipedia has information, in Spanish, at
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://es ... Q5ZLYF1gLm
Nevertheless, if you Google their names you'll find recordings, stories, and analyses of their contribution to flamenco singing and the early Spanish recording industry.

[Dischoard]

Nobody likes a bragger and yet, with that in mind, I just can't help adding to this post (sorry, not meaning to brag, just sharing an "origin" story).

Back in the late 90's, just after graduating college, my father and I visited an "antique mall" in the tiny town of East Barre, Vt. It's a place we frequented whenever I was home on break or just visiting for the weekend. I had bought my first Victrola VI there I believe as well as my Grafonola Favorite, both of which are in the house to this day. One day while we were visiting I came upon this beautiful oak box that appeared to be missing its leather handle. When I opened the box I found 25 of these 7" records that I had never seen before but the dates stamped upon them and the style in which they were made certainly raised the hair on my arms and the rate of my heart. I had no idea what they were but I knew that I would love to have them in my collection. Someone had even gone through all the trouble to write them all down on a note that was included
in the box.

The tag on the box said "Old Records $90". For a kid out of college that was a lot of money but my father, always one to encourage an addictive hobby, graciously gave me the money to buy them. I have kept them exactly as I found them all these years. I think I may look for a replacement handle and every once in a while I'll take them out and record playing them on my more modern (less damaging) turntable. I sent 5 of these off to donniej for copying and he sent me a 3 copies of other records that I have now included in the box (the only additions to this box in at least 25 years!).

Hard to imagine a find like this in little 'ol Vermont. I would expect it in Cleveland or Boston but there they were! Turns out I can only upload 24 pics so I'll post the last pics in a reply.

[Dischoard]

And the last of them:

[Dischoard]

Here is my stock of berliners, sorry I don't have individual pics or even a list of titles. I'd really like a few more to fill out the box but 7 inch victors will have to do. Nobody will notice and they are not nearly as expensive.

Do you have a measurement for the handle on that Berliner box? The handle on mine must have rotted off before it got to me and I want to replace it correctly.

[52089]

Jaw dropping! What a group of titles too! I know very little about Berliners, so I'm curious about the "autographed" ones. Can you tell if they were signed in the master, or perhaps etched that way at a later date? I'm not referring to the obvious ones where everything is handwritten, but for example, the Len Spencer and SH Dudley signatures. It would be kind of incredible to find these actually signed that way!

[Inigo]

What a find!
What a father!

[Dischoard]

Jaw dropping! What a group of titles too! I know very little about Berliners, so I'm curious about the "autographed" ones. Can you tell if they were signed in the master, or perhaps etched that way at a later date? I'm not referring to the obvious ones where everything is handwritten, but for example, the Len Spencer and SH Dudley signatures. It would be kind of incredible to find these actually signed that way!

I don't really know... when I was a kid of course I thought these must be hand signed but now I'm of the belief that they just etched it into the master. I'm not sure how many of each of these were made, couldn't have been a whole lot but what do I know?

How amazing would it be to go back in time and be able to visit the plant when they were making these or to be a fly on the wall during some of these recording sessions?