More Interesting Brown Wax Cylinders & Boxes

[SonnyPhono]

I bought a group of brown wax cylinders at an auction recently and have some questions about some of them. I haven't seen some of the boxes they came in so was hoping someone could help to pinpoint a production date or might have other information about them based on some pictures.

Here is one with a label stating the cylinder was "tested" by J.W. Myers. I know of Myers as a recording artist but didn't know he produced cylinders briefly under his own company, the Standard Phonograph Record Co. I haven't been able to find very much information about this company. Does anyone know more about this?

The next one does not have a label, but instead is covered with a wood grained style cover over the entire original pasteboard box. It has the same silver bottom like the one above which leads me to believe it may be from Myers' company as well. (I don't know this for sure yet.) Has anyone seen one like this before?

Here is a box with a Sears, Roebuck & Co. label. It is interesting in that it completely covers the original label which appears to be the earliest Columbia variation. (Visible through some of the holes in the Sears label.)

I haven't played any of them yet and will be doing so in the next few days. I am interested to hear the announcements on the cylinders that came in these boxes. Any information is greatly appreciated as always!

[Stephen_Madara]

I did a search on Myers and found this.....

Welsh baritone John W. Myers was probably the most important singer in the first decade of the American phonograph industry. Although he was born in Wales around 1865, nothing is known of his background and it hasn't been confirmed that "J.W. Myers," the name he used for recording, was his genuine one. But the tradition from which he comes is well-known, the 19th century baritone cum basso profundo who delighted audiences with his strong voice; loud, low notes; genteel parlor songs; and ballads of male gusto and bravado. Myers' trade was plied in music halls, traveling variety shows, and early vaudeville. J.W. Myers is identified as an already seasoned recording artist in a North American Phonograph Company bulletin of 1892, which suggests that he may have begun recording as early as 1889-1890, the first years the phonograph served as a public conveyance of entertainment. Myers recorded at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of selections for practically anyone who was active in the record business in the decade of the 1890s -- Edison, Berliner, many of the fractious regional phonograph licensees, and, in particular, Columbia. In 1896, Myers was one of the founders of a runaway cylinder company of his own, the Globe Talking Machine Company. He may have gotten involved in this venture knowing of the imminent breakup of North American, but Globe Talking Machine foundered in just a few months, well before Edison's phonograph combine entered the bankruptcy courts in 1897. Myers continued with Columbia into the disc era, and ultimately recorded more for them than any other company. Myers was present, practically from the first day of business, in the studios at Victor Talking Machine Company and made more than a hundred records for Victor in its first year. Then, for reasons unknown, Myers disappears from the industry for a time, toward the end of 1902. Although Myers returned to recording in 1904, his production of records is much spottier from that time forward. By 1907, Tin Pan Alley was on the rise and the basso profundo was beginning to be seen as old hat; therewith singers like Myers were becoming an extinct species in entertainment. In 1909, he invested in another runaway record concern, the U.S. Everlasting Cylinder Company of Cleveland, which lasted longer than Globe, hanging on until 1913, but he apparently never recorded for them. Myers last recording date -- almost certainly for Columbia -- is not known, as Columbia was not in the habit of noting in their books when they remade older titles with an original artist; it could have taken place anywhere from 1912 to 1914. In 1950, researcher Jim Walsh proposed a death date of 1919 for Myers, although in doing so Walsh didn't consider that Myers may have returned to the U.K., where his imported records were still enormously popular; Columbia was still carrying a few of Myers' recordings in its catalogs of the early '20s. Myers remains of interest not just as a representative survivor of a long gone 19th century genre, exemplified by such records as "The Arrow and the Song," "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," and the ever ubiquitous "The Holy City." By chance, many of the topical songs future generations associate with the 1890s, such as "The Baggage Coach Ahead," "Break the News to Mother," "In the Good Old Summertime," and "Always in the Way," were ones that only Myers recorded in versions that can be considered historically contemporary. Myers had a loud and excellent voice, one well suited to the hard-to-hear early phonograph, and belongs to a small fraternity of singers from the time before Enrico Caruso whose recorded work can be seen as representative. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/j-w-myers#ixzz2BhPuDFj2

[SonnyPhono]

I did a search on Myers and found this.....

Thanks very much for posting the article. There is quite a bit out there about J.W. Myers as he was considered one of the early recording pioneers. I am looking for more information on the Standard Phonograph Record Co. that was only in business for a brief period of time. Sorry, I wasn't very clear on that! : )

[phonogfp]

I thought the Standard Phonograph Record Company rang a bell, so I checked my index to The Phonoscope. Bingo! A single small advertisement for this company appeared in the August 1898 issue. Here's a scan. Please excuse the poor quality; my copies of The Phonoscope were taken from microfilm. Click on the image below to enlarge it. Anyway, hope this helps date your box.

George P.

[SonnyPhono]

I thought the Standard Phonograph Record Company rang a bell, so I checked my index to The Phonoscope. Bingo! A single small advertisement for this company appeared in the August 1898 issue. Here's a scan. Please excuse the poor quality; my copies of The Phonoscope were taken from microfilm. Click on the image below to enlarge it. Anyway, hope this helps date your box.

George P.

Thanks for the help, George. I wonder how long the Standard Phonograph Record Co. was actually in business. The price of their records was a bit steep compared to Columbia's at that time. Twice as much to be exact. The statement near the bottom of the ad isn't something I would think to be a good for advertising. It says, "The best are the cheapest."

I found the same ad in a Phonoscope from July, 1898.

[phonogfp]

Ooops!

That July 1898 ad was right there under my nose in the index... Sorry - my only excuse is that I'm still not too comfortable in a chair - - I must be too anxious to get up out of it!

I checked through all of 1898, and found only these two ads for the Standard Phonograph Record Company.

Where did you access The Phonoscope? Is it online yet (I hope)?

George P.