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Music Lovers'
Phonograph Monthly Review
EditorAxel B. Johnson
FrequencyMonthly
Publisher
The Phonograph Publishing Co., Inc.
FounderAxel B. Johnson
First issueOctober 1, 1926 (1926-10-01) (Vol. 1, no. 1)
CountryUnited States
Based inJamaica Plain, Boston
LanguageEnglish
OCLC11380159

Music Lovers' Phonograph Monthly Review (PMR) was an American magazine for record enthusiasts founded in Jamaica Plain, Boston, by Axel B. Johnson.[1] The first issue was dated October 1926 (Vol., no. 1)[a] – three years, six months after the first issue of Gramophone, a similar magazine founded in London by Compton Mackenzie.[2][3] As put by George Wilson Oman (1895–1947) – an Edinburgh-born Chicago-based telegraph operator and organizer of the Phonograph Art Society of Chicago[4] – "This magazine is to the United States what the Gramophone is to Great Britain and bids fair in its splendidly edited pages to rival the Gramophone."[5][6] The magazine ran for 66 issues – six and one-half years – ending March 1932 (Vol. 6, no. 6), under financial duress during the Great Depression.[7] Although, the suspension of the April and May 1932 issues has been attributed to, according to Gramophone magazine, "a misfortune of which we have only just heard from an American reader." "He says that the Editor, Mr. Axel Johnson, was kidnapped late in March, 'robbed, beaten unconscious and thrown from a speeding auto­mobile.'"[8] PMR – through the succession of Music Lovers' Guide (1932–1935) and The American Music Lover (1935–1944) – is considered the forerunner to the American Record Guide.[9][10][11]

History

[edit]

The magazine launch occurred (i) one year, three months after Columbia (May 1925) and (ii) ten months after Victor (November 2, 1925; "Victor Day") debuted their new systems – orthophonic (electrical) recording technology[12] – electronically-amplified sound developed by Bell Labs-Western Electric in an effort to replace the limited properties of the acoustic recording horn. The mid-1920s was also the beginning of the Golden Age of Radio and prior to the introduction of the new technology, consumer demand for old-style phonographs waned in favor of radios.

Reviews of recordings were first published in 1906 in Berlin by Phonographische Zeitschrift (de);[11] but, The Gramophone, in England, and the Phonograph Monthly Review, in North America, were the first non-record label periodicals that focused primarily on reviewing musical recordings.[13]

In 1932, Axel B. Johnson and R.D. Darrell purchased the Music Lovers' Guide.[9] The magazine ran monthly for 31 issues, from September 1932 (Vol. 1, no. 1) through March 1935 (Vol. 3, no. 7).[14][15][b]

Phonograph Monthly Review (digitized online)

[edit]
  • Johnson, Axel B. (ed.). Music Lovers' Phonograph Monthly Review. Jamaica Plain, Boston: The Phonograph Publishing Co., Inc..   LCCN unk84135656; OCLC 11380159 (all editions), OCLC 1762297 (all editions) & 499264168.
Axel B. Johnson, Managing Editor ↓
  1. Vol. 1, no. 1. October 1926 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 1, no. 2. November 1926 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 1, no. 3. December 1926 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  4. Vol. 1, no. 4. January 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  5. Vol. 1, no. 5. February 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  6. Vol. 1, no. 6. March 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  7. Vol. 1, no. 7. April 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  8. Vol. 1, no. 8. May 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  9. Vol. 1, no. 9. June 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  10. Vol. 1, no. 10. July 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  11. Vol. 1, no. 11. August 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  12. Vol. 1, no. 12. September 1927 – via Google Books. Free access icon
  13. Vol. 2, no. 1. October 1927 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  14. Vol. 2, no. 2. November 1927 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  15. Vol. 2, no. 3. December 1927 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  16. Vol. 2, no. 4. January 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  17. Vol. 2, no. 5. February 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  18. Vol. 2, no. 6. March 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  19. Vol. 2, no. 7. April 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  20. Vol. 2, no. 8. May 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  21. Vol. 2, no. 9. June 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  22. Vol. 2, no. 10. July 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  23. Vol. 2, no. 11. August 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  24. Vol. 2, no. 12. September 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  25. Vol. 3, no. 1. October 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  26. Vol. 3, no. 2. November 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  27. Vol. 3, no. 3. December 1928 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  28. Vol. 3, no. 4. January 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  29. Vol. 3, no. 5. February 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  30. Vol. 3, no. 6. March 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  31. Vol. 3, no. 7. April 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  32. Vol. 3, no. 8. May 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  33. Vol. 3, no. 9. June 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  34. Vol. 3, no. 10. July 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  35. Vol. 3, no. 11. August 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  36. Vol. 3, no. 12. September 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  37. Vol. 4, no. 1. October 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  38. Vol. 4, no. 2. November 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  39. Vol. 4, no. 3. December 1929 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  40. Vol. 4, no. 4. January 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  41. Vol. 4, no. 5. February 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  42. Vol. 4, no. 6. March 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  43. Vol. 4, no. 7. April 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Axel B. Johnson, Associate Editor
Robert Donaldson Darrell, Managing Editor ↓
  1. Vol. 4, no. 8. May 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 4, no. 9. June 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 4, no. 10. July 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  4. Vol. 4, no. 11. August 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  5. Vol. 4, no. 12. September 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Phonograph Monthly Review (name change) ↓
New art deco cover, designed by Emma Cartwright Bourne (1906–1986),[16] featuring abstract images of discs and an acoustic tonearm with soundbox rather than an electrical pickup.
  1. Vol. 5, no. 1. October 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 5, no. 2. November 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 5, no. 3. December 1930 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  4. Vol. 5, no. 4. January 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  5. Vol. 5, no. 5. February 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  6. Vol. 5, no. 6. March 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Axel B. Johnson, Associate Editor
Robert Donaldson Darrell, Editor ↓
  1. Vol. 5, no. 7. April 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 5, no. 8. May 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 5, no. 9. June 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  4. Vol. 5, no. 10. July 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Robert Donaldson Darrell, Editor
Axel B. Johnson, Business Manager ↓
  1. Vol. 5, no. 11. August 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 5, no. 12. September 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 6, no. 1. October 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Axel B. Johnson, Managing Editor ↓
  1. Vol. 6, no. 2. November 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  2. Vol. 6, no. 3. December 1931 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. Vol. 6, no. 4. January 1932 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  4. Vol. 6, no. 5. February 1932 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
Axel B. Johnson, Managing Editor
Adolph A. Biewend, Associate Editor ↓
  1. Vol. 6, no. 6. March 1932 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon

––––––––––––––––––––

The Google Books versions were digitized from originals held at the Stanford University Libraries
The Internet Archive versions were uploaded in August 2016 by the National Recording Preservation Board

Editors and contributors

[edit]
  • Axel B. Johnson (born around 1874)[18][19][20] – founder, publisher, and Managing Editor of PMR – had been for a brief time secretary of the Boston Gramophone Society.[21] He often signed his articles, "A.B.J." Robert Donaldson Darrell, Johnson's assistant and staff writer, took over as Managing Editor in 1930 after Johnson stepped down after his wife, Johanne (aka Johanna) Johnson (1877–1929), died in Jamaica Plain November 13, 1929. Their residence, at the time, was 47 Hampstead, Jamaica Plain.[22][23] Johnson had previously, from about 1922 to about 1926, been a barber in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. Before that, in 1921, he lived in Pascoag, Rhode Island.[24]
  • Richard Gilmore Appel (1889–1975), Literary Editor and contributor, was head of the Music Division at the Boston Public Library.
  • Adolf Albert Biewend (1899–1953), born in Jamaica Plain, was Associate Editor and contributor since 1926. He was a 1925 graduate of Northeastern University. He became an attorney. His father, Rev. Adolf Heinrich Angelo Biewent (1814–1919), founded in 1871 the German Lutheran Church in Roxbury, and was its pastor until 1914. His mother, Elizabeth H. Biewend (1869–1941), had been an instructor at Wellesley College.
  • Emma Cartwright Bourne (maiden; 1906–1986), born in Norfolk, Connecticut, a painter and etcher, designed a new cover for PMR, beginning with Vol. 5, no. 1 (October 1930),[25] issued days after marrying – on September 30, 1930, in Arlington, Massachusetts – PMR's managing editor, Robert Donaldson Darrell. They divorced in 1936. Bourne was a 1927 graduate of Vassar College, the alma mater of her mother, Edith Louise Hunter (maiden; 1877–1950) (class of 1900).[26] Emma had studied art with Richard Andrew (1869–1956) of the Massachusetts School of Art.[16] Her cover design, in an art deco style, features abstract images of phonographic discs with an acoustic tonearm and soundbox, rather than an electrical pickup. Bourne also, in April 1932 drew a sketch of Isaac Goldberg for Disques magazine.[27]
  • Robert Donaldson Darrell (1903–1988) – a former student at Harvard (1922) and composition student at the New England Conservatory (1923–1926) – became editor of the PMR. He took interest in jazz after hearing Ellington in 1927 and wrote positive reviews of his and other artists' work.[28][29][30][31][32] In 1939, Darrell received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Darrell, who also wrote for Disques, by 1927, in PMR, was writing jazz reviews. According to James Lincoln Collier, for the "Jazz" entry in the 1994 edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, "Darrell was the first writer on jazz to make judgements in print that generally hold up today." And, "he was the first writer to single out Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy" for extended comment."[33]
  • George Clarence "Clare" Jell (1881–1955), Ontario-born and naturalized U.S. citizen, known for his connection to the Columbia Masterworks Library.
  • George Wilson Oman (1895–1947) – an Edinburgh-born Chicago-based telegraph operator and organizer of the Phonograph Art Society of Chicago.[4][37]
  • Rev. Herbert Boyce Satcher (1890–1966), Episcopal clergyman and, at the time, Vicar of St. Aidan's Chapel in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, founded, in 1928, the Cheltenham Phonograph Society, the first known clergyman in America to found a record society. He also contributed to PMR. He was regarded an authority of hymnology.[38][39] He compiled Indices to Volumes I, II & III of the Phonograph Monthly Review, which was published in 1930 by The Phonograph Publishing Company.[40][41]
  • William Henry Seltsam (1897–1968), who, early in 1932 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, founded the International Record Collectors' Club, and, among other things, persuaded American and foreign record labels to issue special editions of historically important recordings. He wrote about early opera recordings. He went on to become curator and bibliographer of the Metropolitan Opera.[42]
  • Edward Earl Shumaker (1882–1949), President of RCA Victor from 1925 to 1931, wrote an article titled "Television" for the December 1930 issue.
  • Moses Smith (né Moses Smithkins; 1901–1964), a 1921 graduate of Harvard College, was Associate Editor and contributor. He flourished in Boston as a music critic, first, in 1924, at the Boston American, then, beginning around 1934, at the Boston Transcript. After the demise of the Transcript, he became an executive at Columbia Masterworks in New York.
  • Walter Leslie Welch (1901–1995), who, in 1959 with Oliver Read, co-wrote From Tin Foil to Stereo,[44] discusses cylinders in a letter in the October 1930 issue.

Bibliography

[edit]

Annotations

[edit]
  1. ^ The first issue of Music Lovers' Phonograph Monthly Review, dated October 1926 (Vol. 1, no. 1), was issued September 15, 1926. (Talking Machine World; September 15, 1926. p. 75)
  2. ^ As of November 2022, only one digitized issue of Music Lovers' Guide (March 1934; Vol. 2, no. 7) was fully accessible online. (Music Lovers' Guide. Vol. 2, no. 7. March 1934 – via Internet Archive → uploaded February 27, 2022, by Shellackophile). Free access icon

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Gracyk, Spring 1997, pp. 26–31.
  2. ^ Gramophone, April 1923.
  3. ^ Hughes, Taylor, Kerr, 1939, p. 797.
  4. ^ a b Gramophone, May 1927, p. 517.
  5. ^ PMR, June 1927, p. 373.
  6. ^ Lexington Leader, May 12, 1937, p. 19.
  7. ^ Etude, October 1956, p. 14.
  8. ^ Gramophone, June 1932, p. 22.
  9. ^ a b Welburn, p. 125.
  10. ^ Lindahl 1981, pp. 324–325.
  11. ^ a b Hoffman (ed.), Vol. 1, 2005, p. 250.
  12. ^ Magoun, 2000, p. 286.
  13. ^ Hoffman (ed.), Vol. 1, 2005, p. 205.
  14. ^ Milligan 1980, p. 282.
  15. ^ Shellackophile, February 27, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Who Was Who, 1999, p. 397.
  17. ^ Good, June 2020, pp. 299–301.
  18. ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 10, 1929, p. 2.
  19. ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 14, 1929, p. 6.
  20. ^ Gracyk & Hoffman, 2000, p. 5.
  21. ^ Gramophone, April 1926, p. 520.
  22. ^ PMR; Johnson, October 1926, pp. 29–30.
  23. ^ PMR, November 1926, pp. 33–35.
  24. ^ Boston Residents, April 1, 1922, p. 5.
  25. ^ PMR; RDD, October 1930, pp. 2.
  26. ^ Vassar College, 1910, p. 183.
  27. ^ Disques, April 1932, p. 64.
  28. ^ New York Times, May 7, 1988, p. 33.
  29. ^ Gennari, Autumn 1991, pp. 467–468.
  30. ^ Welburn, Autumn 1987, pp. 258–259.
  31. ^ Baker's, "Darrell," 1984, p. 543.
  32. ^ PMR; RDD, October 1930, pp. 3–5.
  33. ^ New Grove, Collier, 1994, p. 588.
  34. ^ PMR, "Mr. Vories Fisher," March 1927, p. 273.
  35. ^ PMR, November 1927, pp. 49–52.
  36. ^ Anon. 1945, p. 5.
  37. ^ PMR, June 1929, p. 305.
  38. ^ Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1966, p. 10.
  39. ^ Yale University Library, 1946.
  40. ^ Satcher, 1930.
  41. ^ American Mercury, June 1930, p. 250.
  42. ^ Hall, March 1969, p. 467.
  43. ^ Gracyk, Autumn 1998, p. 47.
  44. ^ Read & Welch, 1976 & [1959].

References

[edit]
Books, journals, magazines, papers, independent blogs
  1. "Appel, Richard Gilmore" (revised & enlarged 4th ed.). G. Schirmer. 1940. pp. 26–27. LCCN 40029670 – via Internet Archive (Friends of the San Francisco Public Library).
  2. "Darrell, Robert Donaldson" (completely revised by Nicholas Slonimsky 5th ed.). G. Schirmer. 1958. p. 350. LCCN 58004953 – via Internet Archive (ARChive of Contemporary Music).
  3. "Darrell, Robert Donaldson" (revised by Nicholas Slonimsky 7th ed.). Oxford University Press. 1984. p. 543. ISBN 0-0287-0270-0. LCCN 84005595 – via Internet Archive (Arcadia Fund).
  • Boston Residents: List of Residents, City of Boston. City of Boston, Election Department, Printing Department (publisher).
    1. "Ward 22, Precinct 11." "Hyde Park Avenue" → "Johnson, Axel B." → "Barber". April 1, 1922. p. 5 – via Internet Archive (Boston Public Library). Free access icon
  1. Link 1 – via Z-Library Free access icon.
  2. Link 2 – via Google Books (limited preview).
  1. 1939 ed (877 pages; 8°). Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. December 5, 2023. LCCN 39027032.
  2. 1939 ed (877 pages; 8°). Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc. December 5, 2023 – via Internet Archive. Free access icon
  3. 1947 ed (1947 re-print ed.). Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. December 5, 2023. LCCN 47003087 – via Internet Archive (Alibris).
  4. 1950 ed. Garden City Books. December 5, 2023 – via Internet Archive (Kahle/Austin Foundation).
  5. 1954 ed. Garden City Books. December 5, 2023. LCCN 55000368 – via Internet Archive (Universal Digital Library). Free access icon
  6. 1954 ed. Doubleday & Company (publisher). Printed in Garden City, New York, by The Country Life Press. December 5, 2023. ISBN 9780385001243 – via Internet Archive (Kahle/Austin Foundation).
  1. Collier, James Lincoln (December 5, 1994). "Jazz." → § III. "The Spread of Jazz." → 6. "Jazz in the Entertainment Industry and the Press". pp. 587–588.
  • Read, Oliver Hebert; Welch, Walter Leslie (1976) [1959]. From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph. Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc. & The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc.
  1. 1st ed. (1959) – via HathiTrust. Free access icon LCCN 59-15832; OCLC 1312922 (all editions).
  2. 1st printing, 2nd ed. (1976). December 5, 1976 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 75-5412; ISBN 0-6722-1205-6, 0-6722-1206-4
  • Satcher, Rev. Herbert Boyce (1930). Indices to Volumes I, II & III of the Phonograph Monthly Review. Boston: The Phonograph Publishing Company (publisher).
  • Shellackophile (The) – 78 RPM oriented blog, since 2010, of Walter Bryan Bishop, a musician – pianist, harpsichordist – record collector, and music educator from the Atlanta area. Re: Music Lovers' Guide, March 1932 – via Blogspot. (The Shellackophile)
News Media
  1. "R. D. Darrell, 84, Dies; Recorded Music Critic". The New York Times. May 6, 1988. p. A31. Free access icon
  2. "R. D. Darrell, 84, Dies; Recorded-Music Critic". The New York Times. May 7, 1988. p. 31. Free access icon
PMR references
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