"Truscalina Brown" Silas Leachman on Victor 1132 (1902) Chicago-based vaudevillian Edison Phonoscope

Описание: "Truscalina Brown"

Silas Leachman

Victor 1132

Silas F. Leachman was born on August 20, 1859.

He was a Chicago-based vaudevillian who made recordings because he had the right voice at the right time in the right place--he was loud and versatile, which was needed for the technology of the time.

He was born in Louisville, the son of two native Kentuckians, William and Lettie Field Leachman (perhaps his middle initial stands for "Field"). He grew up in a family with two sisters and six brothers. In his early adult years he was a minstrel, singing and playing piano.

His approach to recording was documented in the April 8, 1895, edition of the Chicago Tribune, an account that was repeated in the April 27, 1895, issue of Scientific American. The Chicago Tribune article is titled "He Sings For The Phonographs":

"Away out in the extreme northwestern part of the city [Chicago], near the Milwaukee Railroad tracks, Silas Leachman puts in four or five hours every day singing at the top of his lungs, though not a soul is in hearing but his wife. When he gets tired of singing he varies the proceedings by preaching a Negro sermon, or gives an imitation of an Irish wake, and altogether conducts himself in a way that would lead the neighbors to consider him a fit subject for a lunatic asylum--if there were any neighbors, but there are not. This is the reason Mr. Leachman chose the lonely spot for his residence. No one ever goes there to hear him sing, and yet he is getting rich at it. He earns something over $50 every day, though he never sees one of his auditors."

Frank Dorian, a Columbia executive for decades (at one point he became assistant to the Columbia Phonograph Company's president), noted, "Silas Leachman was a local Chicago singer whose records were quite popular for a few years. He was not much of a musician, but he had an agreeable voice and a pleasing way of singing." He went on to tell Jim Walsh in a letter that he believed Leachman confined cylinder making to "brown waxes" marketed by the Talking Machine Company of Chicago (105-107-109 Madison St.) in the 1890s.

Leachman was versatile. The 1899 Talking Machine Company catalog shows him covering "the new rag time" (which is how "All Coons Look Alike To Me," 063, is characterized), sentimental ballads ("Mother Is In The Baggage Coach Ahead," 056), patriotic numbers ("When Johnnie Comes Marching Home," 0105, and "My Boy Was a Sailor on Board the Maine," 0147), and hymns ("Nearer, My God, To Thee," 090).

Further evidence of the singer's versatility is in the March 1898 issue of The Phonoscope: "Silas Leachman, the 24th ward politician, is the fortunate possessor of a voice ranging from bass to first tenor, and he has made a number of quartet records in Chicago. The singer puts on the cylinder first whatever part is easiest from the song, sings the second part, then third and fourth."

At the turn of the century, litigation forced the Babson Brothers to close down the Talking Machine Company, after which Leachman became one of the first artists associated with Eldridge R. Johnson's new Victor Talking Machine Company. Victor had no Chicago studio, so the singer evidently made special trips to Camden, New Jersey, where he recorded enough each time to justify long distance travel. His first Victor session was on May 13, 1901. Titles issued on seven-inch discs include "A Big Fat Coon" (788), "I've Got Money Locked Up In The Vault" (789), and "Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes" (792).

The 1902 Victor catalog listed 32 selections under his name; 23 of these were still included in the August 31, 1904, catalog, along with seven more records issued after the printing of the 1902 list.

His death certificate reveals he was a clerk in the personnel department of the Chicago police department in the eight years immediately prior to his death on April 28, 1936. He had been receiving medical treatment since April 19 for arterial hypertension and heart disease.

The April 29, 1936, issue of the Chicago Tribune reports on page 21: "Silas F. Leachman, 78 years old [other sources suggest he was 76], for the last 13 years inspector of personnel of the city police department, died of heart disease in his home at 3715 Concord place [sic] yesterday after a brief illness. Inspector Leachman was known among his friends as 'the Kentucky colonel,' because he was born in Louisville and formerly owned race horses. He was a trained singer and once sang in 'Madame Butterfly.' His widow, Amelia, survives. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in the chapel at 2410 North avenue [sic]. The body will be cremated in Montrose cemetery."