Latest Updates - Handy's Orchestra

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Comment by cyeaman SUBS:

[YouTube Video]

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Comment by cyeaman SUBS:

[YouTube Video]

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Comment by xiphophilos:

I know, it does take some time, doesn't it? ;-) Thanks for doing an impressive job with them, scrough! I notice you even managed to make some of the more tilted images look straight - far better than I could ever have done. You are a real artist!

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Comment by scrough:

xiphophilos - all images now edited, so back to you. han - please don't make a habit of this ;)

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Comment by xiphophilos:

This is a large collection of ebay pictures, and it shows nicely how popular this record was. But before I could rearrange anything, I would have to crop all these images to a circle, and right now, I'd rather not do that.

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Comment by han enderman:

Co A-2418 - I hope xiphophilos will have much pleasure in reorganizing the images, as I have added JZ, KZ (2 variants with different layout of the original credit), CY, FX and JW labels. The large KZ image (with green sticker) was said by seller to be take 3 and I think you can see a faint 3. The 1st KZ label (#2a A) was coupled with a JZ label (#1 B).

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Comment by xiphophilos:

I've now seen an actual first release. It lists the orchestra only as "Handy's Orchestra", not "Handy's Orchestra of Memphis," and features the label printing date code JZ (= October 1917).

Based on the catalog numbers, Columbia A2417, A2418, A2419, A2420, A2421, all credited to Handy's Orchestra, must have been released around December 20, 1917. They didn't get mentioned or listed in The Talking Machine World's December 15, 1917 issue. Maybe the company thought that only African-Americans would be interested.

Instead, individual dealers promoted the records in their local newspapers. The oldest promotional ad I have now seen is:
Tulsa Daily World (Tulsa, Okla.), Tuesday, January 1, 1918, page 6.

Only in February 1918, when Columbia was printing repress after repress of these records, did they list the first two of these five records (A2417 and A2418) in The Talking Machine World, but the as Dance Records of the Month.