Silas Leachman: "On This Day in Phonographic History..."

[phonogfp]

"On This Day in Phonographic History..."

 

August 20, 1859: Born: Silas Leachman, prolific pioneer American recording artist and possibly the first commercial recording artist in Chicago, making cylinders for the North American Phonograph Company’s local branch, ca. 1892.

 

April 28, 1936: Died: Silas Leachman, American baritone reputed to have made almost 250,000 cylinder recordings for the North American Phonograph Company, the Chicago Talking Machine Company, the Columbia Phonograph Company, and disc records for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

 

#antiquephonographsociety #phonograph #gramophone #antique

 

 

[melvind]

250,000? How could anyone do that?

[phonogfp]

That's a good question, Dan!  This Leachman entry was a contribution from John Levin, so I'm sure he can cite the source.  I seem to remember an advertisement in The Phonoscope where a firm (possibly the Chicago Talking Machine Company) made a claim along these lines.

[Analogous]

Hi Dan,

 

Leachman made the claim in a Chicago Tribune article.  I agree that it stretches credulity, but let's assume that he made 5 cylinders per round and that each of those masters was used to produce 50 copies.  That's 250 copies/round.  Based on this math, making 1,000 recordings that translate into 250,000 copies is much more plausible.  

 

I wish we could ask him how he arrived at this number!

 

 

[Guest]

I read something that referred to him as "old leather lungs". I recall that he recorded into a bank of recorders and spent most of his days doing so.

[melvind]

6 hours ago, Analogous said:

Hi Dan,

 

Leachman made the claim in a Chicago Tribune article.  I agree that it stretches credulity, but let's assume that he made 5 cylinders per round and that each of those masters was used to produce 50 copies.  That's 250 copies/round.  Based on this math, making 1,000 recordings that translate into 250,000 copies is much more plausible.  

 

I wish we could ask him how he arrived at this number!

 

 

I guess with multiple records being produced at once it could be true. but it still seems a bit incredible to me. But, I don't doubt better experts than me. I've never heard one of his records that I remember. I will have to explore it. If he indeed made that many he must have had something people wanted to hear.