The United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Company, sometimes abbreviated as UHD&C, was an American

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

who made about 150 records of only Jewish-Hebrew nature beginning in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

with last known recording taking place in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

History

UHD&C was formed by Pierre Long and managed by H.W. Perlman. It was incorporated in Brooklyn, New York in 1904 with a capitalization of $20,000. It was an outgrowth of Perlman's piano manufacturing business and operated out of the same building that built pianos. The recordings were dubbed from master cylinders to disc in a crude process that made for noisy, audibly inferior recordings. Discs by the United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Company were pressed by at least two companies, the International Record Company and Leeds & Catlin. Most of UHD&C's promotional activity took place between January and November 1905. Facing intense competition from much larger companies for the Jewish record market and with an inferior product, UHD&C folded by the end of 1906. Nevertheless, the company holds its place in history as the first ethnically owned and operated producer of recorded sound in America.

Output

United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Company's first issued record was a recording pirated from The Gramophone Company. The output of UHD&C was strictly Hebrew and announced as such in a 1905 press release. Some of the

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

artists who recorded for this label include

Louis Friedsell Louis Friedsell (born 1863 or 1865, Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine; died 25 June 1923, New York, United States) was a conductor and composer for the Yiddish theatre. He has written the music for about 150 plays and operettas (partly by himself, partly wi ...

, Kalman Juvelier, Regina Prager, and

Solomon Smulewitz Solomon Smulewitz ( yi, שלמה שמולעװיץ, 1868–1943), sometimes known by the anglicized name Solomon Small, was a Russian-born American Tenor, folk poet, Badchen, playwright, recording artist, and composer for the Yiddish theatre. He wro ...

. UHD&C announced an agreement to record Abraham Goldfaden, but no records were issued. It released the earliest known klezmer accordion recordings. The output of UHD&C has been largely documented in ''Ethnic Music on Records'' by Richard Spottswood, Greenwood Press (1990). Some record titles and catalog numbers :

History

Output

References

See also