Victor Victrola

This 1917 advertisement for Victor Victrola caught my eye as I was browsing the Internet.  1917!  That's almost 100 years ago!  Heavenly days, look how times have changed.

Of course I love the little "Nipper" in the lower left corner.


I love Nippers

And that Victrola is stunning with it's curved edges and feet.  Then, I saw all of the people standing on the stairs.  Do they all live in that house?  No, they are the musicians that Santa will "usher into your home on Christmas morning."

As I looked at the names, I realized I hardly recognized any of them.  Feeling that I should remedy that I did a bit of research on a few of the names.
These musical artists of my Great-grandparents' day-n-age were like the Celine Dions and Andrea Bocellis of our present time.

Some of the names include...
Gluck
Harry Lauder
Hempel (Frieda Hempel Soprano who lived from 1885-1955)
McCormack (John McCormack a Tenor who lived from 1884-1945)
Melba (Nellie Melba, 1861-1931 a soprano) HERE is a link to her song "Goodbye".
Sousa (as in John Philip Sousa?  Must be)
and Terrazzini (for whom I can not find anything about)

One of the names is Frances Alda.  Click HERE for a sample of her work as a soprano.  She had a beautiful voice!


Another name include Victor Herbert who had an orchestra and played cello.  According to Wikipedia, he and his orchestra recorded works for The Victor Talking Machine company from 1911 to 1923.  Here is his photo...

Victor Herbert

Another musician mentioned in the advertisement above is Enrico Caruso who sang tenor.  Click HERE for a link to a page containing some samples of his work.  I'm not a fan of Opera, but he was really good!

Enrico Caruso

For some reason this advertisement sucked me in (that's what ads are suppose to do I suppose).  I think the staircase is what caught my eye.   And once I started researching the musicians and found their music on Internet Archives (which is an amazing site, by-the-way), I spent at least an hour listening and searching for many different musicians and songs.  The search for one musician often leads to the discovery of another.  I really get sidetracked when it involves music from the 40's (and there's hours of it on Internet Archives!)

Until tomorrow, keep humming along and have a great day!

PS...to my parents, who loyally read my blog.  This is in NO WAY shape or form a hint that I want the Victrola for Christmas....not even a little bit.  I'm serious.  I'm glad you have it and I believe it is happy and content living in your house.  Someday I would eventually like to "take it off your hands", but for right now it will not fit anywhere inside our cracker jack box size of a house.  Love to you both.