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FEATURES INCLUDE:

A detailed chronological discography of all 496 published and unpublished Caruso recordings, including recording dates and locations, matrix and take numbers, accompaniment details, correct playing speeds, and all known issues in cylinder and 78-rpm format

Introductory chapters examining all aspects of Caruso's recording career and and records, including labels; physical characteristics and markings; recording contracts; piracies and other unusual issues; and Caruso-related records, sheet music, and ephemera

Newly discovered information concerning the recording and manufacture of Caruso's earliest releases

Eight pages of rare or unusual Caruso labels in full color

Complete subject index, plus title, partner, and issue-number indexes for easy location of any recording in the discography

216 pages, illustrated
Deluxe hardcover binding / dustjacket

ISBN 0-9671819-0-9
Library of Congress Control #2002115618

MAINSPRING PRESS PUBLICATIONS

It was only a snippet, but what more could one ask for a dime?

In mid-1915, the newly formed Emerson Phonograph Company took the audacious step of issuing a ten-cent record by Enrico Caruso. Victor H. Emerson had developed the five-inch Little Wonder record while employed by Columbia, so it was hardly surprising that he would try to duplicate that success with his new company. To get his label off to a quick start, Emerson turned to another recent arrival on the scene, the American branch of Pathé Frères. Pathé was eager to gain a foothold in the States, and the Talking Machine World for May 15, 1915, announced that Emerson "will have the right to reproduce six-inch records from the Pathé Co.'s record repertoire, which will be retailed at ten cents." Access to Pathé's internationally acclaimed catalog must have seemed like a windfall to Emerson.

The inital list of little Emerson discs was headed by a single Caruso release but featured several other luminaries from the European Pathé catalog as well, including Florencio Constantino and Harry Lauder. Like all Pathé discs of the period, the little Emersons (called "Green Label Records," although the primary color was more often turquoise) were vertically cut and played with a sapphire ball, which Emerson offered its customers for twenty-five cents. And like all Pathé discs made prior to the introduction of electrical recording, the Emersons were transcribed from cylinder masters by means of the pantograph, a mechanical copying device that permitted Pathé to remaster a single recording in an endless array of formats and sizes.

For Emerson's Caruso disc (# 301, Tosca: E lucevan le stelle), Pathé copied the 1903 Anglo-Italian Commerce Company cylinder # 84004, which had already been widely reissued in Europe on full-sized Pathé discs. Lacking sufficient playing time on Emerson's six-inch disc, Pathé simply truncated the performance to begin at the phrase, "Oh dolce, dolce." Thus reduced to a playing time of approximately 90 seconds, and dubbed from a primitive (and by then rather worn) cylinder, the Emerson is of little musical value, although it is certainly a rare and intriguing curiosity.

The six-inch Emerson-Pathé celebrity recordings seem to have run only through # 311, and many were anonymous. At # 312 an abrupt shift is apparent, with the remaining fifteen issues being undistinguished pop and "standard" fare. The six-inch vertical-cut series seems to have disappeared around early 1916, the last known issue being an anonymous duet of "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (# 326). By that time, Emerson was recording his own masters using a universal-cut method that successfully skirted the lateral-cut patents (see American Record Labels and Companies for details of the court decision in this case), and the Pathé connection was severed.

For many years a theory has circulated that Emerson's Pathé-derived celebrity records were discontinued under pressure from the Victor Talking Machine Company. Unfortunately, no documentary evidence has been found so far to support that contention, although such behavior would certainly have been in character for the territorial Victor. It is perhaps telling that Pathé itself never issued its three Caruso discs in the United States.

References

Blacker, George. "Beginning of the Emerson Dynasty: The Emerson-Pathé Connection. Record Research 239/240 (April 1989)

Blacker, George. "Beginning of the Emerson Dynasty: The Emerson-Pathé Connection - Part 2." Record Research 241/242 (Sept/Oct 1989)

Bolig, John R. Caruso Records: A History and Discography. Denver: Mainspring Press (2002).

"Emerson Phonograph Co. Formed." Talking Machine World (May 15, 1915)

Sutton, Allan, and Kurt Nauck: American Record Labels and Companies: An Encyclopedia (1891-1943). Denver: Mainspring Press (2000).