Thursday, April 7, 2016

A Small observation

Before I get into the recording of "Peaceful Henry" by Ossman tomorrow, I just noticed something strange this evening. I was digging through some images of my computer and found something odd about that picture of Hylands that I have from 1898 in the exhibition picture. 
Yes, that one. Here's the specific picture I was looking at:
Yep. 
Now the strange thing that I caught about this picture is that strange-looking chin of his, that I never really noticed before for some reason. I have noticed that his mouth looked a little cockide, slanted downward a little. That strange little thing makes me believe even more that his teeth were a terrible mess, and why on all the times that we can hear him talk, why he's harder to understand. Yes indeed, I am listening to Harry Spencer's "Side Show Shouter" as I am writing this, and have just begun to notice that truly from Hylands' speaking at the beginning, in the middle, and at the very end. Hm. It's something that's very bizarre, but does make some sense, as other than Hylands drinking in the studio, his speech was already slightly slurred. In some ways, he had the same kind of speech that Byron Harlan had, and if you know anything about Harlan, you'd know that his weird dialect was slightly broken from a crooked mouth. If you don't really know what I'm referring to, here's a picture of Harlan from about 1917 where this mutation is evident:
Yep, think I can really see it now. 
It's very strange isn't it? Another reason why Hylands probably liked Harlan so much back in 1899 and 1900 must have been because of their very similar features all around, though Hylands was at least four or five inches taller. Fro what I can see, I can identify the same strange mouth on Hylands in this picture here:
Yes indeed, that terrible picture in The Phonoscope of the Columbia orchestra from 1898. That is Hylands, no arguments. I am certain that that is Hylands, as no other studio pianist in the 1890's had that strange figure, and had eyes that were that bright and expressive. 
To prove this sort of odd lisp kind of thing Hylands had, here are three records where you can hear him speak clearly: 
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder9828

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder11735

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4935

It's very bizarre. I just thought before I go off to bed that I ought to share this queer little thing, that can be noticed on many records I hear with Hylands now that I caught it. 


I hope you enjoyed this! 


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