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Music Lovers' Phonograph Monthly Review (PMR) was an American monthly magazine for record enthusiasts founded in Jamaica Plain, Boston, by Axel B. Johnson. The first issue was dated October 1926 (Vol., No. 1) – after the first issue date of Gramophone, a similar magazine founded in London by Compton MacKenzie. As put by George Wilson Oman (1895–1947) – an Edinburgh-born Chicago-based telegraph operator and organizer of the Phonograph Art Society of Chicago – "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. 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. PMR – through the succession of Music Lovers' Guide (1932–1935) and The American Music Lover (1935–1944) – is sometimes attributed as the forerunner, or inspiration, to the American Record Guide, albeit, there are no business entity succession links.




 * ; ISBN 0-8389-0351-7;.



Era
The magazine launch occurred (i) after Columbia (May 1925) and (ii)  after Victor (November 2, 1925; "Victor Day") debuted their new systems – orthophonic (electrical) recording technology – 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.

History
Strictly speaking, the magazine had a short life. But, in a sense, it was the forerunner to ....

The PMR was an outgrowth of the Boston Gramophone Society. The Boston Gramophone Society and Chicago Gramophone Society, both founded in 1925, seems to have been the first such societies in North American.

Beginning with the issue of October 1930 (Vol. 4, No. 1), the cover name was shortened to Phonograph Monthly Review.

The first serious journalistic criticism of recorded sound was Phonographische Zeitschrift (de), which launched in 1906 in Berlin, followed by National Magazine and World of Today, who, in 1909, began publishing record reviews. In the 1920s, The New York Times reviewed records, weekly. Criticism of a high standard, according to Hoffman in his 2005 work, Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, "examining both performance and technical aspects of new records," began in 1923 in the United Kingdom with Gramophone. According to Hoffman, "The first magazine devoted entirely to commentary on new records was the Phonograph Monthly Review"Criticism.

Others
Domestic publications


 * Recorded Music (1933)


 * The Musical Record (1933)


 * Bulletin (free, published by Wurlitzer) (1933)..

International publications



Newspapers
 * Lawrence Gilman (1878–1939), New York Herald Tribune

Magazines
 * The American Mercury

First issue

 * Smith, a 1921 graduate of Harvard College, was a Boston-based music critic.
 * Smith, a 1921 graduate of Harvard College, was a Boston-based music critic.
 * Smith, a 1921 graduate of Harvard College, was a Boston-based music critic.
 * Smith, a 1921 graduate of Harvard College, was a Boston-based music critic.

Influence
Some of the first gospel record reviews were by 1920s popular music critics who wrote review columns in various periodicals of the time.

One of the most important of these was Phonograph Monthly Review, founded in 1926. It published some of the first reviews of black gospel music and spirituals. In “From Jazz to Symphony” in the January 1927 issue, Moses Smith wrote that,

"The closest approach to American folk music is the Negro spirituals." – Moses Smith, in reference to the recording, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen," sung by ????,  Brunswick 13071; Matrix 5390; recorded April 1921; sung by Theo Karle (né Theo Karle Johnston; 1893–1972), tenor, arranged by Harry Burleigh  Columbia 71-M; Matrix 77522-3; recorded November 21, 1917; sung by Oscar Seagle (baritone vocalist) with orchestra; arranged by Harry Burleigh → Audio via YouTube  Victor 20068-A; released 1926; sung by Paul Robeson, piano accompaniment and arrangment by Lawrence Benjamin Brown → Audio via YouTube.

Phonograph Monthly Review – mainly devoted to classical music – included reviews of popular music' its record review section called “Analytical Notes and Review.”

Seminal popular music critic R.D. Darrell, using the pseudonym “Rufus”, wrote the “Popular and Dance Music” section. Darrell regularly reviewed “race” records, including spirituals and gospel music.

The Music Lover's Guide
The Phonograph Monthly Review was succeeded by:
 * The Music Lover's Guide,, first issued September 1932 (Vol. 1, No. 1), edited by Axel B. Johnson with the assistance of Rob Darrell. It was published by The New York Band Instrument Company. It lasted only two issues. But, in 1935, it was replaced again by:
 * The American Music Lover (Vol. 1, No. 1; May 1935). In September 1944, the publication name changed to The Listener's Record Guide, and then, a month later, to the American Record Guide.

Editors and management
 1919: Possibly 61 E Concord St. (Back Bay?) (add to sell canary stuff in newspapers.com) →   1921: 1054 Dorchester Ave. (newspapers.com) → from an add for barbers  1922: 16 Corinth St., Roslindale  1924: In 1924, Axel B. Johnson was a barber residing at 64 Hyde Park Avenue, Forest Hills, Jamaica Plain, Boston. (derived by matching (i) address given in The Gramphone when he was temorary Secretary of the Boston Gramphone Society and (ii) city directories).  1929 &I 1830: The 1929 and 1930 Boston Directory listed Johnson as living at 47 Hampstead Rd., Forest Hills, Jamaica Plain (off Arborway, a 2-family unit).</li> <li> in March 1932: 69 Marion St., Medford. (see Vol, 6, No. 6)</li></ol>
 * Axel B. Johnson, founder, publisher, and Managing Editor of The Phonograph Monthly Review, was for a brief time secretary of the Boston Gramophone Society. In PMR, 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 Johnson (1877–1929), died in Jamaica Plain November 13, 1929. Their residence, at the time, was 47 Hampstead, Jamaica Plain.


 * Axel Johnson was a wealthy alcoholic and had also been hurt in an auto accident.




 * James Vogdes Yarnall (1895–1973), Secretary of the Philadelphia Phonograph Society, in 1927, called Johnson the "father of the phonograph society."


 * Frank B. Forrest, Business Manager of the Review, was also a charter member of the Boston Gramophone Society.


 * 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. In 1939, Darrell received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
 * It amazes and astonishes ... Dr. Stokowski senses to the utmost the opportunity each climax, of each of the striking orchestral effects, and spurs on his men realize every possibility as richly and as vividly as their abilities allow. And under Stokowski's baton their abilities are apparently unlimited!


 * Darrell, who also wrote for Disques, by 1927, in PMR, was writing jazz reviews. According to James Lincoln Collier, in 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."


 * 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 Luthern Church in Roxbury, and was it pastor until 1914. His mother, Elizabeth H. Biewend (1869–1941), had been an instructor as Wellesley College.


 * Marion Simon Misch (Mrs. Caesar Misch; 1869–1941)

Contributors

 * Richard Gilmore Appel (1889–1975), Literary Editor and contributor, was head of the Music Division at the Boston Public Library.

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 * Richard Palmer Blackmur (1904–1965)


 * , Carlos Roqué Alsina (piano), Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Ernest Bour (conductor). Recorded November 12, 1975.




 * Strawinski:

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 * Henry Cantwell Cox (1890–1954) – who, beginning in March 1925, became President of the newly organized Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc. –


 * Frank Dorian


 * Vories Fisher (né Franklin Vories Fisher; 1901–1969) → Fischer, Vories


 * Theodore Feland Gannon (1901–1979), business manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.


 * George Clarence "Clare" Jell (1881–1955), Ontario-born and naturalized U.S. citizen, known for his connection to the Columbia Masterworks Library.


 * S.E. Levy. He resided in Shanghai


 * Interested in both "popular" and "serious" recordings of the past was S.E. Levy. He resided in Shanghai and in 1928 wrote about "phonographic conditions" in that part of China. He died in 1931, as Jim Walsh informed PMR readers. Walsh called Levy "the world's foremost authority on old records."


 * John S. Macdonald


 * Alfred Henry Meyer (1888–1944), music critic for the Boston Transcript for about 10 years. He was a faculty member of Boston University since 1929 and, in 1941 until his death, served as Dean of its School of Music. He was an authority on American modern music. He was a graduate of Oberlin College and studied at had studied also at Harvard and the New England Conservatory of Music.


 * George Wilson Oman (1895–1947) – an Edinburgh-born Chicago-based telegraph operator and organizer of the Phonograph Art Society of Chicago


 * PMR was, as far as I can tell, the first American publication to feature on a regular basis articles written by some writers who were primarily interested in old recordings and the industry's earl w ears. One such writer, George Wilson Oman (1895–1947), who wondered aloud about the origins of Busy Bee machines and recordings, and in a subsequent issue a Columbia Research Department employee explained how the Busy Bee came from "a premium house in Chicago operated by the O'Neill-James Company," adding that "their General Sales Manager was Mr. Bisbee, hence the origin of the name, 'Busy Bee.'" Additional background information was given about Busy Bee as well as the American Record Company (maker of the odd-sized blue discs that collectors often identify by the Indian on its label).


 * 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. He compiled Indices to Volumes I, II & III of the Phonograph Monthly Review, which was published in 1930 by The Phonograph Publishing Company.


 * William Henry Seltsam (1897–1968), who, early in 1932 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, founded the International Record Collectors' Club, who, 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.


 * 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, be became an executive at Columbia Masterworks in New York.


 * Ulysses "Jim" Walsh (1903–1990)


 * Harry Macdonough. Macdonald died on September 26, 1931 – unexpectedly, according to industry insiders-and the October 1931 issue of PMR paid tribute by summarizing his remarkable career in "J.S. MacDonald [sic] ('Harry MacDonough' [sic])." Details had been provided by "that indefatigable historian, Mr. Ulysses J. Walsh." Jim Walsh contributed often to PMR.


 * It amazes and astonishes ... Dr. Stokowski senses to the utmost opportunity each climax, of each of the striking orchestral effects, and spurs on his men realize every possibility as richly and as vividly as their abilities allow. And under Stokowski's baton their abilities are apparently unlimited!


 * → Letters sent by various PMR readers indicate that as early as 1930 Jim Walsh was recognized as an authority on "popular" recordings of the past.


 * Walter Leslie Welch (1901–1995), who, in 1959 with Oliver Read, co-wrote From Tin Foil to Stereo, discusses cylinders in a letter in the October 1930 issue.

Artist

 * Emma Cartwright Bourne (maiden; 1906–1986), born in Norfolk, Connecticut, designed a new cover for PMR, beginning with Vol. 5, No. 1 (October 1930), issued days after marrying – on September 30, 1930, in Arlington, Massachusetts – PMR's managing editor, Robert Donaldson Darrell. She was a 1927 graduate of Vassar College, her mother's alma mater (class of 1900). She had studied art with Richard Andrew (1869–1956) of the Massachusetts School of Art. Her design, in an art deco style, features abstract images of phonographic discs with an acoustic tonearm and soundbox, rather than an electrical pickup. Smith College holds a lithographic portrait of an African-American man attributed to her and dated ca. 1940. Emma was a 3rd great grandchild of Shearjashub Bourn (1721–1781), Associate and Chief Justice of Rhode Island.

Phonograph Monthly Review (digitized online)

 * LCCN unk84135656;, &.

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 * 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

The Music Lovers' Guide (digitized online)

 * LCCN unk84120280, LCCN BibId: 12193536;.
 * The name, Music Lovers' Guide was conceived as early as 1931 by the New York Band Instrument Company.

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 * Final issue → Vol. 3, No. 2
 * Or is this the final? →

The American Music Lover (digitized online)
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 * Final issue → Vol. 10, No. 12 (August 1944)

Peter Hugh Reed
In 1927, Peter Hugh Reed was the founding Secretary and Treasurer of the New York Phonograph Society. To quote Peter Doggett in his 2015 book, Electric Shock, "In 1936, Peter Hugh Reed set out to challenge the enemies of swing. His particular target was Compton Mackenzie, whom he quoted as thus, 'jazz is a surrender, paradoxically a tired surrender, of the mind to the body.'"

The American Record Guide (digitized online)


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The Gramophone








Emma Cartwright Bourne





 * . CAIA was a New York group active from the late 1930s through the mid-1940s founded by James Waterman Wise (1901–1983), a son of Stephen Samuel Wise and Louise Waterman Wise and brother of Justine W. Polier. James, among other things, is known for having warned of the dangers of Nazism in several books as early as 1933.






 * ; ISBN 0-9320-8755-8;.



PMR references

 * Note: Prescott, was responding to contributor, George Wilson Oman (1895–1947) – an Edinburgh-born Chicago-based telegraph operator and organizer of the Phonograph Art Society of Chicago. Prescott, a recording pioneer on various levels, had been affiliated with International Zonophone Company, which incorporated in Jersey City March, 7, 1901. His brother, Frederick Marion Prescott became Managing Director and J.O., himself, was one of the shareholders.























Addresses



 * In 1928, Axel B. Johnson was a memnber of the West Roxbury Liederkranz Club.

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Check it out

 * https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1977-07.pdf


 * Re: Axel's ownership of singing birds








 * Smolilan is a 1998 Grammy nominee (41st Annual Grammy Awards) for Best Album Notes for The New York Philharmonic: The Historic Broadcasts; 1923 to 1987, issued 1998.


 * "Ulysses James Walsh is a name to reckon with in the record collecting field."





<li> , doi 10.7208/9780226067674-004.</li></ol></ol>


 * ISBN 0-0254-2960-4.


 * ; ISBN 0-3132-9060-1.


 * ; ISBN 0-9671-8190-9;.


 * Category:Magazines established in 1926
 * Category:Magazines disestablished in 1932
 * Category:1926 establishments in Massachusetts
 * Category:1932 disestablishments in Massachusetts
 * Category:Jamaica Plain, Boston
 * Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States
 * Category:Classical music magazines
 * Category:Music magazines published in the United States
 * Category:Magazines published in Boston
 * Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States
 * Category:Music archives in the United States