Henry Burr

Henry Burr (1918)

Henry Burr , real name Harry Haley McClaskey (born January 15, 1882 in Saint Stephen , New Brunswick , † April 6, 1941 in Chicago ), was a Canadian singer and interpreter of contemporary popular music of the early 20th century as well as a radio host and producer. His pitch was tenor . He appeared under numerous other pseudonyms such as Irving Gillette , Henry Gillette , Alfred Alexander , Robert Rice , Carl Ely , Harry Barr , Frank Knapp , Al King and Shamus McClaskey . He was one of the first musicians to record popular contemporary music and is considered one of the most prolific artists of all time with probably well over 12,000 recordings. He reached number 1 in the US top 100 with 24 singles . As a tenor he appeared both as a soloist and in various formations, the most famous being the Peerless Quartet .

Childhood and youth

Burr's childhood home in St. Stephen, New Brunswick

Harry McClaskey was born in the border town of Saint Stephen , New Brunswick , Canada, the youngest of four children of AA McClaskey, a candy and tobacco shop owner, and his wife Ida, née. Connors, born. His singing talent was recognized at an early age, and when he was five years old he first appeared in public in St. Stephen. At the age of 10, his interpretation of the song Her Eyes Don't Shine Like Diamonds became the mascot of the Saint John Bicycle and Athletic Club in nearby Saint John , and at 13 he performed as a junior tenor with the Artillery Band in Saint John, where his family lived was moved in the meantime. Possibly out of doubt that he could make a career with his music, he enrolled at Mount Allison University in Sackville and worked in his father's store. On April 14, 1901, he gave his first major concert at the Saint John Opera House with the Scottish soprano Jessie MacLachlan . On October 30, 1901, he was discovered by Giuseppe Campanari , baritone at the Metropolitan Opera , when he was performing at the St. John Opera House . Campanari urged that McClaskey should go to New York City for a musical education.

Career as a musician

Stanley and Burr, "Norine Maureen," (Eddie Fox / Billy Devere), Nov. 17, 1910

Encouraged by Campanari's recognition, McClaskey moved to New York in 1902, where he took singing lessons and sang in the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church choir. Eventually he became principal tenor of the choir. His teachers included John Dennis Meehan and Kate Stella Burr, in whose honor he later took his stage name Henry Burr .

Around 1902 he began recording music for Columbia Records and first used the pseudonym Henry Burr. The circumstances were favorable for him because the Columbia star tenor George J. Gaskin was close to the end of his career. In November 1904 he began recording for Edison Records under the pseudonym Irving Gillette . Differences with the company's management meant that after October 1914 he stopped making further recordings for Edison. On January 4, 1905, he recorded for the first time for the Victor Talking Machine Company , the recordings were released in March of the same year. On April 7, 1905, he recorded Egbert Van Alstyne's In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree , which became his first number 1 hit and made him very popular. In the same year it was also recorded by Billy Murray . Burr became a very successful artist, recording thousands of songs for different labels under different pseudonyms. He worked for Leeds Talk-O-Phone , Imperial Records , Busy Bee Records and the American Record Company .

Collaborations

In 1906 Burr became the second tenor member of the Columbia Male Quartet , which worked for Columbia Records under the management of Frank C. Stanley. After the group switched to Victor, they changed their name to the Peerless Quartet . After Stanley's death in 1910, Burr took over management of the group. The group was active under different names and with different line-ups until its dissolution in 1928. Burr was also a member of other music groups such as the Metropolitan Trio and the Manhattan Mixed Trio , where he played with Frank C. Stanley and Elise Stevenson .

Business activities

From 1915 he was financially provided and looked for ways to invest his money. Together with Fred Van Eps , he founded the Paroquette Record Manufacturing Company in New York City. Paroquette made vertical writing plates with its own recordings as well as recordings by various other artists. In a highly competitive market, Paroquette's system failed and the company closed in 1917. Burr also tried his hand at a music publisher and, alongside Van Eps, was a brief partner in a factory that produced banjos .

radio

Burr with a microphone

While the broadcast technology was still in its infancy, Burr could already be heard live on the radio. His first radio appearance was in Denver , Colorado in 1920 , where he used an improvised microphone consisting of a wooden ball and a telephone receiver. The broadcast could be received as far as San Francisco . Burr is credited with having made the first transcontinental "show" singing into a phone in New York City while guests at a dinner at a Rotary club in California listened on headphones. Also in 1920 he signed an exclusive seven-year contract with Victor that made him a wealthy man for a while.

His career was over in the late 1920s with the emergence of electrical recording techniques and crooning performed by singers such as Gene Austin and Al Bowlly . Because he was interested in the commercial potential of radio, he founded Henry Burr Inc. in 1928, with which he produced radio programs. In the 1930s, this resulted in numerous broadcasts for commercial radio. Burr founded the Cities Service Concerts , which he produced for two years.

In October 1929 he probably lost a large part of his fortune on Black Thursday . A month later he was appointed head of the arts department at CBS , which had just been taken over by new owner William S. Paley . Around 1935 he was again on the radio in the National Barn Dance Show on the Chicago broadcaster WLS, which was broadcast Saturday night on NBC . He soon became the show's solo artist and remained so for five years until shortly before his death. He died of throat cancer in Chicago on April 6, 1941 and is buried next to his stepdaughter Marguarite in Mount Vernon , where he last lived. He left behind his wife Cecilia.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Edward B. Moogk: Burr, Henry. Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, accessed September 29, 2011 .  
2. ^ Exhibit of the Month: Pseudonyms & Those Who Used Them. Stanford University, December 6, 2002, accessed September 29, 2011 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Maury Dean: Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush: A Singles Un-encyclopedia . Algora Publishing, 2003, ISBN 978-0-87586-207-1 , pp. 13 .
4. ↑ Maury Dean: Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush , p. 306.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Henry Burr, tenor (1885-1941). Collections Canada, July 18, 2007, accessed September 29, 2011 .  
6. ^ ^{A b c} Douglas Dougherty: St. Stephen - Yesteryear . Parsons Printing, St. Stephen 2000, ISBN 0-9686243-0-8 .
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Tim Gracyk: Henry Burr. 2006, accessed September 29, 2011 .  

Web links

Commons : Henry Burr  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Henry Burr at Allmusic (English)
• Discography of Henry Burr on Victor Records
• Henry Burr in the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara