I realized this evening that I had never spoken at all about this man on this blog. He is a very mysterious and interesting character in the early recording business. My dear collector friend Craig Ventresco has a very clear affinity with Billy Heins' voice and singing style overall, which means that he has several of his relatively few records. He made only just a handful or so of Zon-O-phone's in 1900 and 1901, which as I have been told, are VERY uncommon to find anywhere. Here you can hear Heins singing "Strike up the Band" from 1901.
I kind of see why my friend Craig likes him so much.
He started making records in 1899 where he can be heard on all of those minstrel brown wax cylinders that Edison put out at that time. The cast of these productions usually consisted of Arthur Collins, S. H. Dudley, Billy Williams(whom I don't know anything about unfortunately!), Harry MacDonough, and several more in the cast. Here are a few of these cylinders:
(nice mispronouncing of "Potpourri" Collins!)
Collins was always an absolute riot on those 1899 minstrel cylinders!
Anyhow, amid that mix of familiar voices, is that of Billy Heins. I cannot pick him out of the mix personally, and I don't really know of anyone who has done so yet. The only reason he is known to be there is because he was written to be there and remembered to be present at those sessions by artists who lived a long time. This is also because he made a few solos appertaining to the minstrel show process, with the overtures, dancing, and solo vocalists, in which Heins was one of.
He stayed with Edison for only 1899, and resumed recording again for Zon-O-Phone in 1900 and into 1901. After that, he was dormant from recording for a few years, he returned to the studios in 1904, this time for the American record company. This company was the one who made those blue coloured records with the Indian smoking the peace pipe on the label, one of which is seen here:
They are certainly among the most beautiful labels that ever were made prior to 1910. And other than just appearing beautiful, they sounded fantastic too!
So here is one of Heins' Blue American records, this one is called "Pepita Maguire" from 1904.
I have actually had the chance to hold and play a pristine copy of the exact record in the link above. Heins made a few blue American records, but not enough to be called a "regular" in their studio. I wouldn't really consider him a "regular" in any of the studios he worked at anyhow, as he didn't make enough records to really sustain work from a single company. He again remained dormant from recording for a few years after 1905, and this time, he didn't return until 1917. When he came back, he replaced Billy Golden's performance partner James Marlowe(who was probably about as old as Golden when he died in 1915). He made a handful of records with Golden from 1917 to 1921, which was toward the end of Golden's life interestingly enough.
Here are two of these records, one is a cylinder, the other is a disc.
I just found out as I was doing this research on Heins this evening, that he was playing the banjo on all of those records he did with Golden! I didn't realize that, and it really makes sense, even if I had never known that he played the banjo.
He completely disappeared after 1920. So to clear something up, I really don't know anything about Billy Heins other than the records he made, I just know that he was a minstrel man who just happened to play the banjo, and was taken in by someone at Edison in 1899. I don't know where he came from, or what he did other than recording(which may have been minstrel shows and vaudeville). He needs to be found out more, as he's pretty much completely obscure in the early recording business, even more so than Fred Hylands.
To put his obscurity into perspective, Fred Hylands was at least mentioned as a popular pianist in the old recording artist books back from the 1970's and 1980's, not once was Billy Heins listed there. That really says a whole lot about Heins. His lifespan is not really even confirmed, but he did live a very long time. His birth date is estimated as November 29, 1874, and he is believed to have died in July of 1971. Yes, he would have been 96 when he died. I can believe that somehow. As he wasn't a hardcore recording artist like Len Spencer or Vess Ossman, and it wouldn't seem that he was too popular all around as a performer. He did also manage to stay pretty "off the grid'' from all these wild recording stars as well, that in itself is amazing. He would have out-lived literally everyone he knew at the recording studio, and everyone he had heard of, but never really met(also, he outlived many of his friends' children!). That---is amazing. Here is a brief list of who he would have outlived:
Arthur Collins, Byron G. Harlan, Vess Ossman, Frank Banta(both Frank Bantas, Frank P. died in 1903, Frank E. died in 1968), Len Spencer, Billy Golden, Fred Van Eps(died in 1960), Fred Hylands, Harry MacDonough, Edward Favor, Billy Murray, George Gaskin, Steve Porter, Joe Belmont, Silas Leachman, Russell Hunting, Dan W. Quinn, Albert Campbell, Max Hoffman, etc, etc, etc.
Pretty extraordinary! I think it's a real pity that he was never interviewed later, as I'm sure he would have had the same amount of stories as Joe Belmont did. I still have yet to learn about Heins' life, and if anyone has any information, please comment on this post with information!
I hope you enjoyed this!
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