William Sterling Battis Returns - Part 3!

Just a couple of notes on "Scrooge" by William Sterling Battis and the year of 1916...

One thing that jumps out at me is that the 12-inch 78 rpm records were $1.25 each.

That seems expensive to me for 1916, so let's convert that into 2022 money... Wow, that would be $32.54! That's a lot for about nine minutes of audio entertainment!

The label also indicates that this is a "Character Impersonation with effects." You do hear some violin and percussion here and there and some research indicates that Ted Levy played the violin and William H. Reitz played the "traps" on the recording.

Both of those musicians were very busy with session work for Victor during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

So, for fun let's hear Ted Levy on violin as part of the Victor String Quartet in 1915:

And William H. Reitz playing the chimes on this 1913 record:

Very charming!

Bringing things back to a Christmas vibe, Mr. Reitz played the chimes on the 1915 recording of "Adeste Fidelis" by legendary Irish tenor John McCormack on the fancy Victrola label:

And while we're here, let's listen to the greatest tenor of all, Enrico Caruso with "Cantique de Noël" from 1916, also on Victrola:

Caruso and McCormack sold tons of records back then and you can hear why: those guys were the goods!