even more rare images of early recording artists and vaudevillians!

an odd photograph of the famous tenor Byron G. Harlan, from a piece of sheet music dated 1912, but the image itself is most likely from 1906-1908.

the man pictured above, Frank C. Stanley,  is one of the many performers/recording artists who sang with Byron G. Harlan, Arthur Collins, Billy Murray, Henry Burr, Albert Campbell, etc. He was the one who founded the very long-lasting Peerless Quartette, and is one of the people who is theorized to have first decided to put Collins and Harlan together. This was taken in c.1907.

I know very few early record collectors who know who this man is. He is Bert Morphy(also known as "The man who sings to beat the band") he is known(to the ones who know him) by this nickname because he was VERY loud, they say he could overpower the Sousa band with his loud voice and still be completely understood, he only made a handful of records, here and there for different companies.

the image above is from a TINTYPE from the mid-1870's, of the vaudevillian and rare recording artist "Press"(Preston) Eldridge who began his performing career in 1863. His birthdate is estimated to the early 1850's but has been unknown since the time of his popularity(he, just like Burt Shepard, refused to give out that information). He only made a few records, and they were made in very spread out amounts of time, one in 1892, a few in 1898, and then one in 1909.  

the small image you see above is a photograph of tenor Joseph Natus from a piece of sheet music dated 1900. Natus was the precursor to Byron G. Harlan as a partner to Arthur Collins. 

this is a fascinating rare image that takes a look into the Edison recording studio in 1906, and what I would usually explain is said on the image.

here is an odd image of the famous Ragtime baritone Arthur Collins I randomly dug up from c.1904-05

here is an image of a rather rugged looking Len Spencer(that I'm sure many collectors of his records have seen before) possibly from a record catalog from c.1900-1902. His hair looks so unusual for this time period on this one, it seems like it's just a mess of black hair, different from the photos of him from the 1890's...

and to close off, an Image of the Irish tenor George J. Gaskin from a piece of sheet music dated 1895, so the photograph must have been taken around that time, as it's is VERY sharp good quality, in fact, it looks better than this image did in The Phonoscope, which is from the July, 1898 issue.