Visions
of Artists in the Home
Imagining Performances
via the Phonograph
By Doug Boilesen, 2020
Early phonograph advertisements
had multiple ways to portray recording artists coming into the home.
Identifiable artists
might be pictured inside
a horn or emerging from the horn.
Later cabinet model machines,
like the Victrola and the Grafonola, had artists coming out their
doors and louvres.
Artists could also be
pictured standing
or performing literally on a record.
This gallery focuses
on another way phonograph ads visualized artists as home entertainers.
Floating above machines ethereal performers and opera stars appeared
at your command. "The world's greatest living artists sing
for you in your home. Anytime, anywhere..." (Victor ad, 1906)
Adelina Patti singing
"Home Sweet Home," Munsey's Magazine, 1906 (PM-0977)
Magnola Phonograph ad,
The Talking Machine World, February 1917
Magnola Phonograph ad,
The Talking
Machine World, May 1917
1905
"The voice by the
fireside" - "You listen and forget it's the Victor"
1906 (PM-1365)
1906, Talk=o=phone, Pearson's
magazine (PM-0964)
Victrola, 1914
.
Columbia Grafonola
1919 - Visualizing with Songs Across the Sea (PM-0845)
Vocalion Phonograph,
Cosmopolitan magazine, 1916
The Columbia Grafonola
"The Treasure-Casket of Music" March 1916
Aeolian Vocalion
Phonograph, The Talking Machine World, April 15, 1918
Aeolian Vocalion
Phonograph, London magazine ad, March 1918
"The veritable
embodiment of the liberated spirit of music," MacLean's Magazine,
1921
Victrola Waiting to play
for you - circa 1920
Thermiodyne, "The
wonder-working Aladdin of Radio," The Talking Machine World,
March 15, 1925
