SH Dudley (singer)

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HH Dudley

SH Dudley , also Samuel Holland Rous (born January 15, 1864 in Greencastle , Indiana , † June 6, 1947 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American singer ( baritone ) and one of the recording pioneers of the early shellac record era .

biography

Samuel Holland Rous was the son of John P. Rous (d. 1917), a music professor at Asbury College . He lost his hearing and could no longer work in his profession. That's why Samual Holland Rous had to leave school at the age of 13. Without ever having had any vocal training, he joined a traveling operetta company at the age of 20 and toured with 34 different troupes (including the Grand English Opera Company and the Tavary Grand English Opera Compan ) and more than 70 operettas by the end of the 1880s - and opera productions by the USA, Canada and Mexico, where he soon took the stage name SH Dudley.

In 1895 his friend, the singer Steve Porter , brought him for recordings for Edison Records , where he soon became a solo, duet and quartet singer (first as S. Holland Dudley, then as SH Dudley, on some recordings with the bird imitator Joe Belmont also under the name Frank Kernell ). With John H. Bieling , Harry Macdonough and William F. Hooley he formed the Edison Quartet , which also worked for the Victor Talking Machine Company under the name Hayden Quartet .

In 1902 he became Assistant Director at Victor and in this role was responsible for the selection of the pieces to be recorded (around 500 per month), the engagement and support of the singers, the monthly bulletins and public relations. From 1912 to 1919 he was also the author and editor of the Victor Book of Opera and the Victor Catalog , an alphabetical listing of all the recordings that Victor Records brought out.

SH Dudley married the soprano Sofia Romani (actually Sophie Muller; born January 7, 1865 in The Hague ; died June 7, 1947 in Los Angeles) in St. Paul, Minnesota on December 3, 1894 . She died the day after her husband, after being paralyzed for several years.

Recordings

Improved record

The first recording, entitled Nancy, for Eldridge R. Johnson , founder of the Consolidated Talking Machine Company , a forerunner of the Victor Talking Machine Company , was dated May 22, 1900. It was released under the Improved Record label in the same Year.

literature

  • Tim Gracyk, Frank Hoffmann: Popular American Recording Pioneers 1895-1925. The Haworth Press, New York 2000, ISBN 1-56024-993-5 .
  • Frank Hoffmann & Howard Ferstler: Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound. Routledge, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48427-4 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dudley, SH
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rous, Samuel Holland; Dudley, S. Holland; Kernell, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Greencastle , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1947
Place of death Los Angeles , California