The Billy Murray Pages

The Annotated
Billy Murray Discography

The 1935 Brunswick Session

By Allan Sutton
THE BILLY MURRAY PAGES — INDEX
The Bluebird Sessions  |  The Beacon Session
   

Brunswick Record Corporation artist and coupling sheets for Murray's 1935 session. The notation
"12-7-35 Sp" refers to the December 7 Brunswick Supplement pictured below. The ARC-BRC
session sheets and other CBS documentation contain additional data — including the
identity of "Loraine Leopold" — which will be listed in an upcoming work.
(Mainspring Press collection)

Billy Murray returned to the Brunswick studios (by then, a part of the American Record Corporation / Consolidated Film Industries conglomerate) in July 1935, in the company of Bradley Barker. The result was six sides dramatizing Aesop's fables, which were issued for the Christmas trade in December of that year.

Barker, like Murray, was struggling with a fading career. He had been a successful juvenile stage actor in New York, and had later appeared in a substantial number of silent films, but was unsuccessful in making the transition to talking pictures — at least, as an actor in the flesh. He did, however, enjoy a reputation as an imitator of animal sounds for the motion pictures, a talent that is also apparent on these recordings. His major claim to fame was as the original "roar" of the MGM Lion. He also crowed for Pathé's news-reel rooster, and provided the call of the wolf on the radio series "Renfrew of the Mounted."

CBS later dubbed this material to 7" matrices, in somewhat rearranged form, for anonymous issue on its children's labels. Details of those records will appear in an upcoming work.

   

Brunswick Supplement for December 7, 1935
(Courtesy of Anna-Maria Manuel)

The 1935 Brunswick Session

New York (American Record Corporation studio): July 19, 1935

BILLY MURRAY, BRADLEY BARKER & COMPANY
     
AESOP'S FABLES — Part 1    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Fox and the Grapes; The Milkmaid and her Pail; The Dog in the Manger
B-18275   Brunswick 7567  (released December 7, 1935)
 

AESOP'S FABLES — Part 2    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg; The Donkey in the Lion's Skin
B-18276   Brunswick 7567  (released December 7, 1935)
 
AESOP'S FABLES — Part 3    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Fox and the Crow; The Lion and the Mouse
B-18277   Brunswick 7568  (released December 7, 1935)
 
AESOP'S FABLES — Part 4    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Travelers and the Ax; The Jay and the Peacock; Two Fellows and a Bear
B-18278   Brunswick 7568  (released December 7, 1935)
 
AESOP'S FABLES — Part 5    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Boy Who Cried "Wolf"; The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
B-18279   Brunswick 7569  (released December 7, 1935)
 
AESOP'S FABLES — Part 6    (Adapted by "Loraine Leopold")
The Hare and the Tortoise; The Dog and his Shadow; The Ants and the Grasshopper
B-18280   Brunswick 7569  (released December 7, 1935)

    

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