C. 1893
1933, as you can see.
We all know of Dan W. Quinn. Some of us may even have read some of his letters to Jim Walsh in the 1930's. Quinn was a very funny and honest man, one of the very few supporters of the temperance movement in his performing community in the 1890's through his death in 1938. That in itself is an amazing feat that I will forever respect Quinn for. It's truly amazing that he didn't drink alcohol while all of his fellows in the recording business were drinking themselves sick.
Quinn was(if you think about it) the only one of the original recording pioneers to live past the 1920's, all the others were gone by that time. This list would include:
George Gaskin(died 1920), J. W. Myers(died c.1917), Len Spencer(died 1914), Billy Golden(died 1926) Fred Hylands(died 1913), and more.
Yes, my claim just above is not entirely accurate, but when I say that, I mean the ones who were actually interviewed about their experiences. Russell Hunting and Steve Porter could easily have been reached out to in the 30's, but the researchers couldn't get to them, for some reason I do not know.
Jim Walsh got quite a lot out of Quinn, and the amount of things that he recollected is slightly surprising since he was a man of near 80 when these letters came through to him. He must have been elated to have someone interested in his much beloved past. Quinn must have genuinely enjoyed sharing his experiences with younger geeks, and if some of us modern record geeks lived back in the 1930's, Quinn would certainly have had a great time sharing his tales with us. Quinn explained this as his first experience with that infernal contraption called the phonograph:
In January, 1892, I was engaged to entertain a political club in Hoboken. One of the features was a man who gave phonograph exhibition and invited everyone to make a voice test. Many folks got up and sang a song or recited something and he reproduced the result. The phonograph was a great novelty at the time, and these records created a lot of amusement, though most of them were terrible. I was a loath to make an attempt, but they all begged me and I finally did. I was lucky enough to have a voice and style of singing that were just "made" for recording, so I may say without egotism that I was a veritable "riot", I don't know what it was about my voice that made it "go" as I always sang so quietly[this notion can be challenged now]. There must have been some latent penetrating power. Anyway, the operator urged me to go to one of the laboratories to make a real test.
This whole story is a very odd way to get into the recording business, but I have the feeling that this sort of thing happened quite a lot, and it must have been how several of the earliest stars in the recording business were discovered. Just like Fred Hylands, as I'm sure someone came to a gathering where he was playing at and took a fancy to his playing style. Anyhow, back to Quinn. He spoke a multitude of times about his old manager, Victor Emerson(seen below)
Why he spoke so frequently about Emerson I have no idea. They always said how much of a mean person and as a manager he was. Very contradicting indeed. Here is one of the things Quinn said about Mr. Emerson:
It was while working for Vic Emerson that I began to work like a good fellow and went after all the latest songs. I learned everything whether it naturally suited my style or not. The good singers--I mean fellows like John W. Myers and George Gaskin--were slow getting up their stuff, and, I being a sight reader, just couldn't keep from learning every new number.
He goes on in saying a few of the songs that he had specialties for and what he was the first to record of the popular songs back in the 90's. Here is what he said about Emerson:
This latter["The Cat Came Back" as Quinn says] song was so popular Mr. Emerson told me: "Dan, I wish it were possible for you to sing that song a thousand times."
That was actually something that I have heard about several times when the artists mentioned Victor Emerson. He did demand quite an unreasonable amount of work from his favourite artists. So thinking of Emerson saying this is not really too much of a surprise. One thing that's odd to note, is that Quinn always said that he loved singing those few sacred songs that he recorded back in the 90's, he even said this one thing here:
I Made my living in the frivolous field, but my heart was in the other.
That one thing has always surprised me greatly about Quinn. That was the one thing that when I first read his letters that I thought I would not expect to hear from him. In the time that Walsh wrote to him(which was from 1932 to 1937), Quinn was hit pretty hard by the depression, and often told Walsh of his woes in the business from the Depression, here are a few of those, including his reaction to hearing about Byron G. Harlan's depression troubles(which were far worse than Quinn's...):
From 1932:
[I have] Been very successful until old man depression took a wack[sic] at me and running "true to the times" I got a setback... If the good Lord will keep me in good health I'm going to work hard to recover some of the lost ground.
A few months later he said this:
...business has taken on a little "boom'" which gladdens my heart so much as times have been terribly bad, and now that things are showing a little animation I am spurred on to greater efforts in order to replenish the exchequer and thereby the better enabled to keep the traditional "Wolf" from trespassing too far over the sill of our domicile.
One thing about Quinn's writing, is that the man used a whole lot of 1890's slang. Sometimes I'm not 100% sure what he's referring to in reading his letters, but most of the time I can understand it. Those boys he worked with(like Len Spencer and Fred Hylands!) really seemed to have gotten to him!
Any hoe, here's his writing hearing about Harlan's disposition:
...mighty sorry to hear of Byron's sorry plight, Gee! it's tough but we've all had experiences. I practically had no season at all, last twelve months, and I name a few and you probably have heard of them and you would sure be surprised... Oh, for those old phonograph days "When De'Dough Came Rollin In".
Quinn's last letter to Walsh went like this:
New York, May 13th, 1937
My Dear Ulysses,
Our good friend, Robert Maybach, has told you that which indeed is too true. My wife passed away on April 24th, having suffered greatly from an old malady, a rupture, which was primarily the cause of her final "taking off". She grew weaker and weaker and on April 23rd she told me "she wanted to die" so intense was her pain that now there is one consolation in my heart --she can no suffer no more. Had she lived, Ulysses, until May 5, we would have celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary. She was 70 years old last December 16th. She was much beloved by all who knew her. They called her "Mother" Quinn in the profession. She was 12 years old when I first met her; we were married when she was in her sixteenth year. She left a great family:she had six children, eleven grandchildren, and two great granddaughters , Jean and Joanne... I wish to thank you for your expressions of sympathy, which are both comforting and consoling, and will be remembered with deep gratitude. Remember me to our mutual friend, Mr. Rouse. Singular how we can love people we have never met in the flesh. Give him my best wishes and ask him to write to me. I need you both now to help me "Bear the Cross". I will write to you soon again regarding your inquiry about Len Spencer, and other matters I wish to look up. You probably know about Ed Meeker[who had just recently died in 1937].
Yours in the faith,
Dan W. Quinn
Now before I close off, here is one of the most disappointing possibilities of any of these early recording stars, this is one thing that Quinn said back in 1932:
I had thought of writing a book concerning my experiences both on the stage and phonograph--it surely would be mighty interesting reading--of this I am certain, as many times I have related several little incidents "setting the table on the roar", so to speak, and I have a fund of them.
That would have been the most interesting and valuable book ever published about the early recording business. It almost sets me to tears when I think that Quinn actually wanted to do this, and when he said that, he had several more years left. It will forever be disappointing.
I hope you enjoyed this!
Very interesting! Thank you!
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