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Do you wanna scare all your children or grandchildren on Christmas Eve?? Play them a copy of "Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph" by Harry E. Humphrey, available on Edison Diamond Disc and 4-minute Amberol cylinder format. (Maybe even 78, but not sure) I have both disc and cylinder versions and that recording still scares me to this day - it's freaky!

That's just cruel!...I'll never find a copy of that here in Australia! Can you make a video of it for us? Please?

I agree. I have both versions of that recording and it certainly wasn't what I was expecting the first time I played it.

Ernest Hare also recorded it for Brunswick. It's a lot more "spirited" then the Edison version which is a little scary indeed!

Sean

I think the Harry E. Humphrey version is more scarey - you can find his version already posted on You Tube under "Edison - Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph" This record must have scared the living daylights out of the kiddies back then! Grab one if you can find a clean version on EBay. I think the 4-minute cylinder Edison Amberol sounds better than the Diamond Disc version although it is the same exact recording.... I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgfsryZA3Gk[YouTube][/YouTube]

I was talking with a collector friend about this just the other day. I've always found Humphrey's "ho-ho" to sound like a grotesque cackle and assumed it would scare the crap out of a young child. My friend confirmed it: when he had played it for his then 4-year old she ran away crying.

I just sold my DD version but I have it on Blue Amberol. I only play tiny snippets of it for visitors, they are invariably amazed.

briankeith wrote:I think the Harry E. Humphrey version is more scarey - you can find his version already posted on You Tube under "Edison - Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph" This record must have scared the living daylights out of the kiddies back then! Grab one if you can find a clean version on EBay. I think the 4-minute cylinder Edison Amberol sounds better than the Diamond Disc version although it is the same exact recording.... I think.

The BA and the diamond disc are the same recording, yes.

What I was trying to say about the Brunswick recording by Ernest Hare is that it wasn't done in the same eerie manner the Edison one was. It's actually quite the opposite!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CAQFo4TfqQ

Sean

There's an even more terrifying version (the laugh, at least) from an early 1920s album of 7" Little Tots 78s.

Not sure if I can attach the audio file - hopefully this will work:

(Edit - here's the same recording on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Cl_T0MLnI )

OrthoSean wrote: What I was trying to say about the Brunswick recording by Ernest Hare is that it wasn't done in the same eerie manner the Edison one was. It's actually quite the opposite!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CAQFo4TfqQ

Sean

True: the recording's fairly nice.......

But that clown is pretty horrific....