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Matrix: B-18567 (I'll wed the girl I left behind / M. J. O'Connell)

"Josef Pasternack became Musical Director the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1916. His father and grandfather had been bandmasters in Poland, and he began the study of the violin at age four, under his father's tutelage. At age ten he entered the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he initially studied piano and composition. He also took up the study of a new instrument each month, so that by the time he left the Conservatory he could play every instrument in the orchestra except the harp. (Sources: Victor ledgers; Wikipedia)"


Matrix: C-17603 (Hannah Jane / William Sterling Battis)

"Nasby, Petroleum V., pseud. of David Ross Locke,1833–88, American journalist and satirist, b. Vestal, N.Y. Locke was editor of the Findlay, Ohio, Jeffersonian when he first became prominent by publishing in it (in 1861) the Nasby letters. The writer, Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, was ostensibly an ignorant, violently prejudiced, proslavery sympathizer, and the letters, which caught the fancy of readers from Lincoln down, were of aid to the Union cause in the Civil War. (Source: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.)"


Matrix: [Trial 1913-06-26-01] ([Indian songs] / Louis Shotridge)

"Louis Shotridge was born about 1882 into a noble Tlingit family. Serving first as a field agent and later as a full-time employee of the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum, he acquired many historically significant Tlingit artifacts on behalf of the museum, a practice that was controversial even at the time. He also produced meticulous exhibition notes and collected oral histories from tribal elders. (Sources: Wikipedia; M. Enge, Collecting the Past)"


Matrix: B-23558 (Strathspey / Maud Powell)

"This was Maud Powell's last recording engagement in Camden; she died nine days later. Source: R. Sooy, Memoirs of my Recording and Traveling Experiences for the Victor Talking Machine Company (see Resources, http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/resources.php)"


Matrix: [Trial 1922-12-16-01] (Spiritualism / Harry Houdini)

"Harry Houdini was known as an anti-spiritualist. This is his only known recording for Victor."


Matrix: [Trial 1923-05-26-01] (Polka / Shura Cherkassky)

"Shura Cherkassky (October 7, 1909 – December 27, 1995) is one of the few artists known to have recorded acoustically and on compact disc."


Matrix: B-26035 (Si mes vers avaient des ailes! / Geraldine Farrar)

"Reynaldo Hahn, who was born in Venezuela but moved to Paris at age 3, was only 13 when he composed "Si mes vers avaient des ailes," which he dedicated to his sister Maria."


Matrix: B-25130 (Melody in A major / Fritz Kreisler)

"Brig. Gen. Charles Gates Dawes became U.S. Vice President in 1925 and was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year. He composed music as a hobby; his tune "Melody in A major" became the pop song "It's all in the game.""


Matrix: C-27039 (Saturday night / Harry Lauder)

"During an engagement with Harry Lauder, a misunderstanding between him and Mr. Pasternack led up to a pointed, insulting remark by Lauder. Pasternack refused to finish directing the engagement. However, the engagement was finished with Mr. Lauder’s director, Mr. Charles Frank. (Source: Sooy Memoirs)"


Matrix: C-4470 (A hunt in the Black Forest / Victor Orchestra)

"Victor Record #31645. Imagine Spike Jones conducting the William Tell Overture. This descriptive orchestral piece will make you smile. An enchanting 100 year old recording that begins with bird chirps, coo coo noises, and a rooster crow. Then the music races off. A pack of hunt dogs are barking at the end. You will marvel how they got all that on an acoustic record! The sound effects are awesome. "