The Search for John O'Reilly - A Collectors' Mystery
by
This seemed unimportant at first sight -- just four ten-inch Zonophones of
Irish Songs by an unknown tenor. The records were considered in the light of
possible G&T counterparts. Initially, it appeared that these recordings had
only appeared on the Zonophone label: there was no trace of John O'Reilly
offerings on G&T. But X 42208 had a familiar look about it. A G&T
recording of 'Believe me ..." with violin obbligato had been issued in April
1905 under catalogue number 3-2217. The singer was none other than John
McCormack.
The questions began. Had the McCormack G&T of "Believe me ..." been
transferred to Zonophone under a pseudonymn? Were the other O"Reilly Zonophones
also disguised McCormack's? Our curiosity had been aroused; we wanted to know
more about Mr. O"Reilly.
The search began with an analysis of the G&T's. The McCormack discography
by McDermott Roe listed eighteen titles with piano or violin and piano
accompaniment. Bennett's 'Voices of the Past' confirmed the titles and added
issue dates. All the records were issued between December 1904 and April 1905.
The McCormack biographies agree that the G&T's were made in London in the
autumn of 1904. Brian Rust in a recent 'Collectors Corner' (The Gramophone, July
1972) suggest at least two sessions within a few days of each other. All
eighteen recordings (Nine seven-inch and nine ten-inch discs) are listed below. The G&T analysis had turned speculation into a hypothesis. John McCormack
had recorded 25 songs in September 1904 and eighteen of them were issued on the
G&T label within a few months. One G&T was transferred to Zonophone in
1906 together with three unpublished items left over from the 1904 sessions. The
pseudonymn John O'Reilly was used for the Zonophone issue.
This led to a consideration of pseudonymns. Most collectors will know that
this was a frequent practice in the early days. The catalogues were enhanced by
lengthy lists of artists - even if many of them sounded suspiciously alike - and
the name change enabled re-issues to be disguised as new recordings.
G&T frequently used pseudonymns. Burt Shephard was Charles Foster, Peter
Dawson was Hector Grant, john Harrison was Harold Johnson, to name only a few.
The Hector Grant and Harold Johnson aliases seem to have been confined to the
Zonophone label. A recent article by Leonard Petts in the Talking Machine
Review listed a 1907 transfer of 66 recordings from Zonophone to G&T
with pseudonymns used for every record. The famous Florrie Forde became May
Rivers, Albert Whelan became Syney Parks and the already mentioned Hector Grant,
really Peter Dawson with a Scots accent, became colourless Victor Graham. This
did not identify John O"Reilly. But it did establish that G&T used
pseudonymns and that the practice was sometimes linked with transfers from
Zonophone to G&T or vice versa. There would have been nothing unusual in
creating Mr. O'Reilly from Mr. McCormack.
The next stage should ideally have been an opportunity to to listen to at
least one of the O'Reilly Zonophones: a vocal comparison with a McCormack
G&T together with a Zono matrix number would have been invaluable.
Unfortunately no O'Reilly recordings could be located - they must be very rare -
and it seemed that our search had come to an abortive end. Then came a stroke of
good fortune. Whilst perusing material at the British Institute of Recorded
Sound we discovered a reference to the O'Reilly Zonos which quoted matrix
numbers. Zono X42208 was 5931b, X42209 was 5945b, X42210 was 5940b and X42310
was 5927b. In addition two further O'Reilly recordings were revealed: -
Listing the ten-inch discs in matrix number order shows the relationship.
Here at last was solid evidence that O'Reilly and McCormack were one. The
only alternative was to believe that two tenors with a similar repertoire
recorded in the G&T studio at the same time on the same day. And that was
too much of a coincidence. The search for John O'Reilly ended, for us at any
rate, with John McCormack.
The denouement was not without a touch of irony. The starting point of our
quest had been the similarity between G&T 3-2217 and Zono X42208; they were
both versions of "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" with violin
accompaniment and we had assumed one recording. They were in fact different
recordings with consecutive matrix numbers. There were no recordings common to
both G&T and Zonophone.
The writers would appreciate information from anyone who owns or has seen or
heard an O'Reilly Zonophone. This would confirm that published pressings do
actually exist.
We wish to end this collectors detective story by thanking those who provided
the clues and those who assisted towards the solution. Amongst the latter we
esecially wish to thank Mr. Patrick Saul and his staff at the British Institute
of Recorded Sound.
One of the most fascinating aspects of discographical research is its
unpredictability. The search for one answer may reveal another question. This is
an account of one such question which came to our notice when investigating the
G&T matrix series. The first hint of a mystery came whilst studying the
April 1906 catalogue of the British Zonophone Company. The 'Tenor Selections' on
page 17 contained the following entry:--
Mr. John O'Reilly
X 42208 Believe me, if all those endearing charms.
(with violin obbligato)
X 42209 The Minstrel Boy
X 42210 Hath Sorrow thy young days faded (shaded?)
X 42310 The Green Isle of Erin.
Seven-inch Discs
Catalogue No. Matrix No. Title
3-2513 6462a Love thee dearest
3-2514 6466 Killarney
3-2515 6467a? Norah, the Pride of Kildare
3-2516 6468a Come Back to Erin
3-2519 646-a? Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
3-2520 6464a When Shall the Day Break in Ireland
3-2521 6469a Eileen Allanah
3-2522 6471a The Minstrel Boy
3-2525 6470a The Irish Emigrant
Ten-inch Discs
3-2139 5947b Kathleen Mavourneen
3-2163 ? Meeting of the Waters
3-2164 5928b Molly Bawn
3-2168 5924b Snowy Breasted Pearl
3-2169 5933b Killarney
3-2170 5934b Come Back to Erin
3-2171 5944b Foggy Dew
3-2216 5930b Killarney
3-2217 5932b Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
The Pierre Key biography of McCormack yielded invaluable details of the
G&T contract. McCormack undertook to record 25 songs [a total of 34 sides
were actually recorded, -ed.] for a fee of £25 without any obligation to
re-record masters which were found to be technically defective. This meant that
if all his attempts were technically acceptable there must have been seven
unpublished recordings as only eighteen G&Ts were issued. This confirmation
of possible unpublished material was important as three of the Zonophone titles
were not on G&T.
X-42258 5923b Avourneen
X-42318 5938b Eileen Allanah
Matrix No. Catalogue No. Artist
5923b X-42258 O'Reilly
5924b 3-2168 McCormack
5927b X-42310 O'Reilly
5928b 3-2164 McCormack
5930b 3-2216 McCormack
5931b X-42208 O'Reilly
5932b 3-2217 McCormack
5933b 3-2169 McCormack
5934b 3-2170 McCormack
5938b X-42318 O'Reilly
5940b X-42210 O'Reilly
5944b 3-2171 McCormack
5945b X-42209 O'Reilly
5947b 3-2139 McCormack
Copyright, © John Ward, Alan Kelly, 1974
Reproduced with the permission of John Ward
and Ms. Pamela Russell
(Former Editor, The Record Collector)
[Editorial Note: The publication of this article led directly to the recognition of the six Zonophone sides, as McCormack recordings. As such, they were completely new to the McCormack discography, unknown until 1974 even as unpublished recordings. The appearance of this article catalyzed a search for the six O'Reilly sides, resulting in the discovery of four of them, which have now been reissued on compact disc. Alan Kelly's continuing research on the early recording logs of the Gramophone Company has clarified many uncertainties about matrix numbers and dates. His research revealed that McCormack in fact recorded no less than 34 sides in four days in September 1904 for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company. Ten of these sides remained unpublished and are not thought to have survived. All of the McCormack G&T's and the four extant Zonophones have been reissued on Opal CDS 9847.]