Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Character Studies--Victor Emerson(1866-1926)

That's Emerson in 1917.
 and that's Emerson in c.1898-99
(I figured out this picture! It's not Steve Porter, but it's Victor Emerson! see the similarities now?)

Now this man as always had mixed opinions surrounding his leadership at Columbia. Some say he was a very "formal and charming man"(said John MacDonald in 1904), but others had said that Emerson was the one who owed half their life to them. He wasn't the "CEO" of Columbia, but the fact that he was the studio manager is enough to know what his job was at Columbia. He was indeed that chap who began the Emerson record company in the mid-1910's, and watched it fall downward in the early 1920's. He was the one who witnessed much of the wild Columbia antics of the late-1890's and was the "boss-man"(pardon my crass historical reference...) of the studio "wage-slaves"(which included everyone on salary there!).


Emerson was not trained musically at all, therefore he was practically tone-deaf and had not an ear for music. That really explains pretty much everything about late-1890's Columbia. Emerson became the studio manager in 1897 at Columbia, and it took some getting used to. 1897 was a very big transition year at Columbia, and Emerson was right in the middle of it, from the studio manager, pianist, orchestra director, "contracted" staff, and even location, all of these things were changed in 1897. Emerson was a seemingly kind an quiet studio manager at first, seeing George Schweinfest, Ed Issler, Russell Hunting, Len Spencer, and all the regulars in '97 come in was not discomforting to him. But in later 1897, a new threat came to him----Fred Hylands. 
Ooh! How Hylands must have been intimidating to Emerson! It couldn't have been Emerson that hired Hylands, there's no way the he'd be in that sort of mindset to drag him by the collar into their studio. Emerson must have enjoyed Steve Porter though(who came in around the same time as Hylands), as Porter was a similar man to Emerson in many ways. Porter's tantalizing accumulated wealth also kept him of interest to Emerson, and his fellows in management at Columbia(like Edward Easton for example). Emerson was said to be a demanding man in the studio, standing oftentimes just behind the mouths of the horns off to the right corner of the room. You'd never be able to see him when coming in to the big recording room, as he'd be hidden, like a hawk, being the source of surveillance behind the back of the piano. Whenever  one of the artists walked in, they oftentimes poked their heads through the main door of the studio to see if Emerson or Easton was there, if not just yet, then they could come in safely without any comments from Emerson. Some of his comments would be similar to,"How you made so many great takes of (place song title here) last week!", or something like, "You should re-do that song", or even like, "I shouldn't like to think that your take of (place song title here) was very good, so you should do some other ones." He would give out all sorts of lousy suggestions to the staff members, as though he actually gave a rap about the music that he was managing. He really didn't care about the music, he was all about the technical and business side of the field he was in. He tried to become one of the "Columbia clan" but his far too conservative and harsh ways could not get him "initiated" into the clan. Emerson's figure was easy to identify at Columbia. Someone like Fred Hylands was probably told in secret about how to talk to and charm Emerson not long after he began working on salary. Emerson was about 5'5 or 6, with hair tinted bronze blond, thin eyebrows, bent nose, and a slightly crooked mouth, that looked very often like it was naturally a frown. The thing about him were those strictly blue eyes, which were like a hammer on an anvil when he gave a stare to one of the staff members. His eyes being the hammer, and when they bolted at the other eyes of a staff member, the hammer struck the anvil. He was a nuisance to much of the Columbia clan and their doings in the late-90's, and this can be proven by the fact that he was not invited to Porter's yacht races in the summers of 1898 and 1899, which only the clan were invited to. Many of them did buy him lavish gifts to show a feigned sense of affection and invitation into the "clan", though they were surely used as distractions from all their faults from working in Emerson's studio. He remained high in Columbia's management well after 1900, and saw all of the Climax feud of 1901-02, managing to escape the battle without any wounds. As the clan began to disband after 1902, Emerson began to make the artists work more and more, which was the opposite of what was needed to be done after the universal change to the gold moulded process. After many years at Columbia, he left them in c.1913, under unsolved and/or uncertain circumstances, but one thing is for certain, he began the Emerson label a few years after that. In 1915, he finally had the first Emerson records put out on the market, of which they were first very small 5-inch records with a fanciful label adorned with an image of a steamboat. One of which you can see here:
(from my collection)
 Emerson records started to become very popular by 1917, which is the first year that they began making 10-inch vertical cut records. Emerson was aware of the competition he was up against at this time, including his old friend Russ Hunting over at Pathe. They were actually alright records, that sounded alright on the machines that were available at the time, but they were still not the most popular records selling during The Great War. His sales dropped steadily from 1919 to 1923, which was about the time that he ended sales of "Little Wonder" records, and not long after that, the Emerson record company also fell. He only lived another three years, dying at age 60. 

I got a whole bunch of information on this post from this link here:
Enjoy the knowledge treasure trove!
(no mentioning of of Fred Hylands as a Columba pianist though...)


I hope you enjoyed this! 

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