Sally Hamlin, 1922
Sally Hamlin (born Sarah
Emery Hamlin, 1902, Brooklyn
, New York
, USA, d. May 1977?, Bar Harbor, Me?) was a
child actor and recording artist. She
was the daughter of Dr. Cyrus E. Hamlin and Hattie Bennion; also
the great-granddaughter of former U.S. Vice President
Hannibal Hamlin. She is a shadowy figure
today, and would probably be completely forgotten were it not for a
series of 78rpm
spoken word recordings
she made for children in the 1910s and 1920s. Sally recorded
primarily for
Victor,
but also recorded a few 7" discs for
Emerson Records. These
records were readings of
poetry by such authors as
Eugene Field and
James Whitcomb Riley, classic stories
such as
Cinderella and
Rumpelstilskin, and even excerpts from
Pollyanna by
Eleanor H. Porter. Sally also recorded a piano solo
"The Butterfly", which was never issued.
Sally
Hamlin was fifteen years old when she signed a one year contract with Victor on April 12, 1917 and made the
trip from her home at 7 Woodruff Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York to the Victor recording studios in
Camden, New
Jersey
. During this period, her most popular sides
were recorded. Sally delivered
James Whitcomb Riley's dialect poems
"The Raggedy Man" and "Our Hired Girl" with natural girlish charm
and they were instant successes. Her recordings of
Eugene Field's
"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "The
Sugar Plum Tree" are notable for Sally's use of
sprechstimme, particularly in the final stanzas
which are accompanied by
harpist Francis J. Lapitino. This dreamy half spoken, half
sung performance is one of the earliest examples of
sprechstimme in a commercial recording.
Sally Hamlin, 1917
On
November 1,
1926,
Sally Hamlin signed another contract with
Victor, this one for a
two-year period. While her earlier recordings had been made with
the acoustic recording process, this group of sides was recorded
electrically, and issued as Victor "Orthophonic" 78s. She
re-recorded some of her previous readings, utilizing the new
electrical recording process, and added some new titles such as
"The Little Kitten That Would Not Wash Its Face" and
Lewis Carroll's
Jabberwocky. Among this group is her record of
"
The Night Before
Christmas" and "
The
Shoemaker And The Elves". This record contains perhaps the
first instance of
sampling in a
commercial recording. Sally's readings of these two famous
Christmas pieces contains musical fade-ins from
other records in
Victor's back catalogue
(among them,
Elsie Baker's record of
"
Silent Night"). Although it was
surely done as a cost-cutting measure, being cheaper than hiring an
orchestra or a
pianist, it nevertheless is
sampling by definition.
None of Sally Hamlin's work has ever been reissued commercially on
long-playing records, or
compact discs. What became of her after her
last record was issued in 1929 is unknown.
Discography
- Abou Ben Adhem/The Arrow And The Song (Victor 21823-B;
1929)
- Butterfly, The (piano solo, unreleased; 1918)
- Cinderella, Parts I and II (Victor 21697; 1928)
- Cinderella/Jack and the Beanstalk (Victor 35664;
1917)
- Duel, The/Three Bears (Emerson 7116; 1917)
- Envy (unreleased; 1917)
- Hansel and Gretel, Parts I and II (unreleased;
1917)
- It Can't Be Done (unreleased; 1917)
- Jabberwocky/The Walrus And The Carpenter (Victor
21826; 1929)
- Jack and the Beanstalk, Parts I and II (Victor 21696;
1928)
- Little Dog That Would Not Wag Its Tail, Parts I and II
(Victor 21699; 1928)
- Little Engine That Could/Dear Little Hen (Victor
21824; 1929)
- Little Kitten That Would Not Wash Its Face, Parts I and
II (Victor 21698; 1928)
- Little Orphant Annie/Seein' Things At Night (Victor
18381; 1917)
- Mother Goose Medley/Rumpelstilskin (Emerson 7125;
1917)
- Night Before Christmas/Shoemaker and the Elves (Victor
35939; 1928)
- Night Wind, The (unreleased; 1918)
- Old Woman And Her Pig (unreleased; 1928)
- Pollyanna and The Boy/Pollyanna Arrives (Victor 35652;
1917)
- Raggedy Man/Winkin,(sic) Blynken & Nod (Emerson
794; 1916)
- Rumpelstilskin, Parts I and II (Victor 20341;
1926)
- Teeny Tiny (unreleased; 1928)
- Three Little Kittens/There Was An Old Man/One Misty Moisty
Morning (unreleased; 1917)
- The Three Little Pigs/The Duel (Victor 18685;
1920)
- Raggedy Man/Our Hired Girl (Victor 18276; 1917)
(Victor 20339; 1926)
- Wynken, Blynken, and Nod/Sugar Plum Tree (Victor
18599; 1919) (Victor 20340; 1926)
- Year's At The Spring/What Is So Rare As A Day In June
(Victor 21823-A; 1929)
Sources
- Almost Complete 78 RPM Record Dating Guide by
Stephen C. Barr; Yesterday Once Again, 1992
- Letter from Ann McDonald, librarian, Hamlin
Memorial Library dated Aug. 12, 1999
- Letter from Bernadette Moore, Archivist, BMG
Music dated May 12, 1989
- Letter from Morton J. Savada,
Records Revisited, NYC dated June 21, 1989
- Life And Times of Hannibal Hamlin by Charles
Eugene Hamlin; Cambridge/Riverside Press 1899
- Victor Records Catalogs 1917-1922
- Victor Records October 1917 supplement
(photo)
- Victor Talking Machine Company Recording Logs
1917-1928
- Victrola In Rural Schools; Educational
Department, Victor Talking Machine Co. 1921 Edition.
External links
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