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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.) Bangs, David C. Poem dedicated to gramophone inventor Emile Berliner by his first spoken-word artist. Photostat poem in the form of a gramophone record, 7 1/2 inches round to sight, with inset photograph of Emile Berliner mounted in center. Typed transcript of the poem with signature of Bangs mounted on verso of frame (dampstained and faded), along with an inked note (by Berliner?) noting that Bangs "made the first talking record on the Gramophone, 1891." Not examined outside of frame. [Oak Park, IL?], December 1923
Emile Berliner (1851-1929) was inventor of the phonograph record, and founder of the pioneering Berliner Gramophone Company in 1895; it became the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. Berliner's early releases were not limited to music; he often hired elocutionists to record short speeches. One of his earliest recorded speakers was David C. Bangs (1860-1935). We can't confirm that Bangs was the first to record for Berliner, but in Berliner's first published catalogue in 1895, "the eminent versatile elocutionist Mr. David C. Bangs" was the only spoken-word performer and the only named performer of any kind. The Christmas poem which Bangs composed is dedicated "To Emile Berliner, Christmas 1923" and begins "An humble little lad from foreign shores / With reason as his only torch . . . / Worshipping at the shrine of Science / His face turned upward to the shining Star of Hope / He stands today upon the pinnacle of fame."
