The Pink Lambert: A Collection of the First Celluloid Cylinders
Before disc records, there were wax cylinders that had to be made one at a time--until a man named Thomas Lambert of Chicago devised a method for mass producing cylinders out of celluloid. Here is a found collection from the U.S. Midwest of 22 of these incredibly rare records, all dating to about 1902. It is a perfect cross-section of popular music and performers from the turn of the 20th century, featuring recording pioneers Harry Macdonough, Joseph Natus, Arthur Collins, Steve Porter, and an ensemble called the American Quartet that included members of the Haydn Quartet. There are whistling solos, band pieces, comedy sketches, vocal duets and quartets, and a cornet solo by Otto Mesloh, formerly of Sousa’s Band. Classics of the South during the Civil War are here, such as “Dixie Land,” along with American standards, such as “The Mocking Bird” and “In the Good Old Summer Time,” and the sacred hymn “Lead Kindly Light.” You will be listening to the type of entertainment common to American homes 100 and more years ago, filled with awe at the peculiar sounds that our ancestors found gratifying and humorous. Often, those sounds were coarse and racist, and they’re all here, blemishes uncensored.