Recorded November 1910; 259 seconds. [TRANSCRIPT]
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Recorded November 1910; 259 seconds. [TRANSCRIPT] .wav VERSION
(5.4MB) | .mp3 VERSION
(2.9MB) | .ra VERSION
(1.4KB) |
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Depite the scratchiness of this recording, it's a very eloquent means of
access to the way Uncle Tom's Cabin was heard by at least a generation of
American audiences. It was recorded in November, 1910, on one of Edison's "Four Minute" Ambersol Cylinders. Star billing belonged to Len Spencer; the other performers are simply listed as "& Co." Spencer almost certainly enacts all the male voices, and it's possible that a single woman does Ophelia, Eva and Topsy. Within its four minute limits the program contains a mix of travelogue (the sounds of a steamboat) and musical variety show (with clear minstrel show origins) along with a gesture toward the sentimental and religious elements in Stowe's story (Eva and Tom). This mix (including the interpolation of Dixie, theme song of the Confederacy, into the re-presentation of Stowe's abolitionist story) is typical of what Uncle Tom's Cabin had come to "mean" half a century after she wrote it. One of the things you can hear very clearly is the essentializing or stereotyping of the book's characters: Topsy's laugh or Ophelia's "How shiftless!" stand for, respectively, the African American pickaninny and the New England spinster. And in this version those two remain in antithetical relation to each other. The TRANSCRIPT below should make it easier to follow the recording. |
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CREWMAN: Say, Cap, de las' bale's aboard. CAPTAIN: All right. All ashore goin' ashore. OPHELIA?: Good-bye, Liza. SEVERAL VOICES: Good-bye. CAPTAIN: Over with that stern line there. SOMEONE ON SHORE: Dere goes de boat. "BLACK MALE": Dat's right! Pick on dem ole banjos. Whoop up a tune, boys. "BLACK MALE": Don't stop, don't stop. Play dat good ole tune Dixie. laughing and "uh-huhing."] ST. CLARE: Tom? "BLACK MALE": Tom's not here, Mas'r. TOM: Here I is, Mas'r, wid Miss Eva. EVA: Yes, here we are, Papa. I've been reading to Uncle Tom and he's been singing such beautiful hymns and he's going to teach them to me. ST. CLARE: What, Eva? Take singing lessons from Uncle Tom? [laughs] OPHELIA: How shiftless! ST. CLARE: That reminds me, Cousin Ophelia, I've made a purchase for you. Here, Topsy! TOPSY: [laughs] Here I is. OPHELIA: Good gracious! How shiftless! Cousin St. Clare, what on earth can I do with her? ST. CLARE: Why, educate her. Topsy is a fresh-caught specimen. There's missionary work for you. OPHELIA: I never thought of that. Well, I'll do what I can. Topsy, come here! TOPSY: [laughs] OPHELIA: Stand still! How old are you, Topsy? TOPSY: I dunno. OPHELIA: Don't know how old you are! How shiftless! Who was your mother? TOPSY: Mother? Never had none. OPHELIA: No mother! Where were you born? TOPSY: Never was born. 'Spec I just growed. [laughs] Golly Ise wicked. OPHELIA: How shiftless! What can you do? TOPSY: Fetch water, wash dishes, dance breakdowns and sing. EVA: Oh, Papa, do let Topsy sing. ST. CLARE: All right, Eva, my darling. Go on, Topsy. TOPSY: [after music starts: laughs, then sings--] Way down south in de cotton and de corn,[then laughs and talks a bit, "dat's right," etc., probably while dancing TOPSY: [laughs] MALE VOICES: [laugh] OPHELIA: How shiftless! |
| Digitized by Steven Smolian Smolian Sound Studio Frederick, Maryland |
Additional processing by Adam Soroka Digital Media Center Clemons Library, Univ. of Virginia |
