Dreams of Dance Music on a Gramophone

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

However today we are not in Lettice’s flat, nor even with Lettice since she has gone to see her potential new client Mrs. Hatchett in Sussex. Rather we are out on London’s busy Oxford Street with Edith, Lettice’s maid, who is taking advantage of her mistress’ absence and is running a few errands and enjoying a little bit of unofficial free time with her friend and fellow maid, Hilda, who has Thursdays free until four o’clock.

 

“Oh, look Edith!” Hilda enthuses as she walks up to the plate glass shop window of His Master’s Voice*. “A gramophone! I’d love one of my own to play music on.”

 

“Have you a few guineas saved, Hilda?” Edith laughs as she stands alongside her friend and admires the music shop’s display of gramophones and records.

 

“If only! But a girl can dream, can’t she?”

 

“Miss Lettice has her own gramophone and ever so many records. All the latest and most popular jazz music that the bands play in the clubs. She even has some records sent to her from friends in America!”

 

“Oh lucky you, Edith! To get to hear the latest music must be wonderful! Old Lady Brunton has an old Edison cylinder phonograph, but she only listens to Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba, if at all, mind you. Says jazz music is the devil’s work, she does!”

 

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan, Hilda. Look!” Edith points to one of the posters fastened inside the frame of the window. “His Master’s Voice has just released a recording of the Mikado!”

 

“Oh you can keep your Mikado, Edith. Give me Al Jolson, Marion Harris or Paul Whiteman any day.” Hilda sighs as she looks at Victor records around the portable gramophone and spies ‘Margie’ by Paul Whiteman.

 

“Miss Lettice likes jazz music,” Edith’s voice breaks into her daydreams. “And thanks to her, I do too.”

 

“I’m so jealous, Edith.”

 

“You might not be Hilda, when you’re me after one of Miss Lettice’s cocktail parties. The music’s grand, but the cleaning up certainly isn’t, especially at one in the morning.”

 

“True. Old Lady Brunton never has guests, ‘cept for the occasional lunch or dinner. Tea party’s more her thing. I’m still jealous of you though, getting to hear all the new music.”

 

“Well we can too, Hilda.”

 

“What? Are you suggesting we go back to Cavendish Mews and play your Miss Lettice’s records?”

 

“Well, no Hilda, although we probably could, and she wouldn’t know. No, I was thinking of going in here!” She points through the window into the record lined interior of His Master’s Voice. “They have listening booths you know. You can listen to music for free whilst you decide if you want to buy a record.”

 

“Oh we couldn’t Edith!”

 

“Why ever not, Hilda?”

 

“We’re just a couple of maids out on a lark! We can’t afford to buy records. Even you on your good wage from your Miss Lettice, Edith.”

 

“Who said anything about buying records? I was only thinking we could go in there and pretend we were thinking of buying a record. We can ask to listen to one each.” Edith nods firmly at her shocked friend. “And anyway, who cares if we are two maids out on Oxford Street? Miss Lettice tells me that I’ve as much of a right to the good things in life as anybody else. I’ve got my good shopping cloche and coat on, and you look smart in your afternoon off clothes. We could be a couple of office girls for all the floor walker knows. Come on! It’ll be a lark!”

 

“Oh I don’t know, Edith,” Hilda looks doubtful.

 

“Faint heart never won fair lady, Hilda. Besides, don’t you want to hear your beloved Paul Whiteman?”

 

“Oh… oh alright!” Hilda smiles.

 

“Good!” Edith replies. “Now remember, chin up Hilda. We have as much right as anyone to the good things in life, and that includes music.”

 

And with heads held high, the two maids walk through the glass doors and into His Master’s Voice to enjoy the elicit delight of listening to music they don’t have to pay for.

 

*The Gramophone Company, who used the brand of Nipper the dog listening to a gramophone, opened the first His Master’s Voice (HMV) shop in London’s busy shopping precinct at 363 Oxford Street in Mayfair on the 20th of July 1921. The master of ceremonies was British composer Sir Edward Elgar. The shop still remains in the possession of more recently financially embattled HMV and it is colloquially known as the ‘home of music since 1921’.

 

This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.

 

This week the theme, “music” was chosen by Di, PhotosbyDi.

 

I love the image of Nipper the dog, who comes from a painting entitled “His Master’s Voice” by Francis Baurrad painted in 1899. The original painting has Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph, but the purchaser of the painting, William Barry Owen, was one of the owners of the Gramophone Company, and he asked Francis to replace the phonograph with a gramophone. Thus, one of the most recognisable brands in the world was born. I grew up listening to records, including Gilbert and Sullivan and other operas on a large His Master’s Voice wireless which was the size of a sideboard and I imagine frightfully expensive at the time it was purchased, so when Di mentioned the theme, I contrived to create something encompassing the music brand we all know, and one I associate with memories of my maternal Grandparents that I hold dear. This HMV window display may be different to what you may think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

 

The wonderful nickel plated ‘morning glory horn’ portable gramophone, complete with His Master’s Voice labelling, is a 1:12 miniature artisan piece made by Jonesy’s Miniatures in England. It arrived in a similarly labelled 1:12 packing box along with the box of RCA Victor records that you can see in the bottom right-hand corner of the window display and the user’s manual in the bottom left-hand side of the window display. The gramophone has a rotating crank and a position adjustable horn.

 

The advertisements for His Master’s Voice are all examples of the company’s 1920s promotions and were created by me after extensive research.

 

In the shelf lined shop behind the window display there are records with sleeves in the 1920s livery and designs of record labels His Master’s Voice, RCA Victor, Columbia Records, Parlophone Records, Vocalion Records and Zonophone Records, all produced by the Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. They also made the two record sleeves that appear in the window display. All the sleeves contain removable records that feature matching labels.

 

The Gramophone Company Limited was based in the United Kingdom and founded on behalf of Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the His Master\'s Voice (HMV) label, and the European affiliate of the American Victor Talking Machine Company. Although the company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931 to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI), its name "The Gramophone Company Limited" continued in the UK into the 1970s.

 

The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American record company and phonograph manufacturer headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.

 

The Columbia Graphophone Company Limited was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a management buy-out after the parent company went into receivership. In 1925 it acquired a controlling interest in its American parent company. The British firm also controlled the US operations from 1925 until 1931. That year Columbia Graphophone in the UK merged with the Gramophone At the same time, Columbia divested itself of its American branch, which was eventually absorbed by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1938. As Columbia Records, it became a successful British label in the 1950s and 1960s, and was eventually replaced by the newly created EMI Records, as part of a label consolidation.

 

Parlophone Records is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone\'s business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI). Vocalion Records was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company as a jazz music label.

 

Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899–1903. The name was acquired by Columbia Records, Victor Talking Machine Company, and finally the Gramophone Company/EMI Records. It has been used for a number of record publishing labels by these companies.

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