Edison Talking Automaton

[AllenKoe]

Hi

While most of us are familiar with the usual Trade Card for Hub Gore Shoes, showing a tall Uncle Sam at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (Columbian Exposition), there was a variant with the (added) Jobber's name and address running around the margins of the card. It could be helpful to have such a variation for the forthcoming article. The patriotic figure had batteries which allowed its Class M phonograph to endlessly repeat its advertising message, some 40,000 times! There is some evidence to indicate that the physical card (with the imprinted speech) was "handed out" by the Automaton himself. Those are much harder to find.

The resulting research will run in the March 2023 issue of The Antique Phonograph and is already some 2000 words. We should perhaps offer some prize to anyone who can determine where the Device was in operation, on the Midway or ??

Thanks in advance.

Allen

[Shawn]

Allen,

I have to agree with you that it may not have been actually on the Midway. I have been scouring picture sources of the 1893 Columbian Exposition specifically related to the Midway Plaisance for another Coin-operated article I am writing. I have never seen Uncle Sam in any of the 1000's of pictures I have reviewed. You would think that if the Uncle Sam exhibit was on the Midway Plaisance (the prototype of amusement parks to come) it would show up in at least one picture.

In the book, A History of the Worlds Columbian Exhibition Held In Chicago in 1893, Hub Gore was mentioned as having an exhibit at the shoe and leather building. No mention of Uncle Sam in that book.
http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/pdf_ ... 0vol-3.pdf

Inside Shoe and Leather Building.jpg (89.63 KiB) Viewed 563 times

In the Official Catalog of Exhibits of the 1893 Chicago Worlds Exposition, Hub Gore is listed twice as being in section H group 104 of the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building. However, in the detail of the the same book they are referenced as "Installed in Special Building" which is referred to as the Leather and Shoe Trades Exhibit Building.
https://archive.org/details/officialcat ... 3/mode/2up

So, nothing imminently conclusive, but hopefully some more data for you to correlate.

Shawn

[AllenKoe]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your thorough report, Shawn. The 1893 Chicago Fair (Exposition) did produce a lot of printed material, such as ephemera and guidebooks. And as you show, the Hub Gore Shoe Co (of Boston) is cited in several places as being "there." But very little, or almost nothing, on the infamous Edison Talking Automaton (which was their advertising mouthpiece).

I was able to identify the inventor back in the East, but he never got a patent for this mechanism. You will get a kick however out of the shape of his final tombstone.

I looked at the Floor Plan you provided of the Manufactures Bldg and to my eye, it looks like "H" Is in the France Section. Can you point me to where they actually were (in that Building)? I agree that they "ended up" in the Leather Bldg, with two Tables/Booths, identified as F-5 and F-19. Many of these Interior Views were photo'd in June of 1893,and the "Uncle Sam" was not delivered until early September.

The North American Phono Co (Edison) did have some coin-ops on the Midway Plaisance, and Thomas Lombard reported (June 27) how much the nickels added up... (EPP): (Edison also hoped to have his new movie apparatus ready for prime time, but that did not happen, yet).
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D9302AAV

Anyway, thanks again! I hope I can see where Hub Gore was "located" in the Man/LibArts Bldg.

Best
Allen

[Shawn]

Allen,

See attached.

The groups were in Department "H", which may not actually correlate to the Man/LibArts Bldg floor plan, as it is clear that they were in another building - shoe and leather building, presumably with a different floor plan that is not included in the reference book.

Here is the reference to being in a different building:

Here is the Department "H" reference. Group 104 is on a subsequent page in the same sequence.

Best. Shawn

[AllenKoe]

Much appreciated. It (H-G) certainly ended up in the Leather Building... and it was implied that it was earlier "in" the Manufactures & Liberal Arts Building (the largest in the world).

It is very hard to find an exact printed source, however, verifying (in real time) that Hub Gore was at that previous location. My Kingdom for a horse, or at least such a catalog entry....

Best
Allen