The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi all,

It may be a stretch to put this one in "Music," but here goes. I drove a few miles up the road yesterday to pick up a batch of Diamond Discs advertised on Craig's List. The seller also threw in one Victor "bat wing" he had found. It is a rather curious one I had never heard of before, a 12" with "Snores" on the A side and "Sneezes" on the B side, catalog #35590 by Robert J. Wildhack. (At first I thought the last name might be a pun, but no as it terns out there really was such a person.) Release date was January 1917.

They are mock serious lectures on various classifications of snores and sneezes, complete with demonstrations of what each sounds like.

Clay

Wildhack was a rather interesting fellow, a highly talented magazine cover and poster artist as well as a vaudeville entertainer. He made the your record, supplied sound effects on some others, and appeared in a few movies in the 1930's, a career cut short by his death.

He's one of the best graphic artists of the early 20th C. but not at all well known: