"Cohen on the Telephone", also known as "Cohen at the Telephone" is a comedy monologue. The monologue was released on cylinder records,

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

records, and early

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

History of recordings

Joe Hayman first recorded the monologue in London in July 1913 for Regal Records and was issued in the U.S. by Columbia Records. Hayman's version of the monologue reached over 2 million sales in the United States. The success of the record led to

cover versions In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

recorded by performers such as

Monroe Silver Monroe Silver (December 21, 1875 – May 3, 1947) was an American actor and singer who was also a comedian and monologist using a Jewish dialect-accent in his performances. Career For various record labels, he recorded 78rpm discs of parodies ...

in 1914, and Barney Bernard whose version was recorded in March 1916 for

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

In 1927, Victor issued an electrical recording of that monologue by

Julius Tannen Julius Tannen (May 16, 1880 – January 3, 1965) was a monologist in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences for his witty improvisations and creative word games. He had a successful career as a character actor in films, appearing in ove ...

. and George Thompson whose version on

Edison Records Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important player in the early recording industry. The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edison's found ...

was released in 1916. A sound-on-film recording was made in 1923 with

by Lee de Forest in the

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

process, and with George Sidney (1876–1945) in September 1929 by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

.IMDB entry
/ref> Hayman recorded a similar routine entitled "Cohen Buys a Wireless Set" in 1923 on Columbia Records.

Synopsis of sketch

The monologue is Mr. Cohen's attempt to contact his landlord using a telephone of the period. The humor is derived from that of the Cohen's "stereotypical" tendency to make puns, and perhaps the difficulty in being understood on the then primitive telephone with his thick

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 ve ...

accent: "Hello, I'm Cohen...I'M COHEN...No- I ain't Goin...I'm stopping here....Hello! This is your tenant Cohen...YOUR TENANT COHEN....No, NOT Lieutenant Cohen..." The purpose of the call was to ask the landlord to send a repairman down to his location after a windstorm had caused property damage. In frustration, he hangs up at the end of the record and decides to arrange for the repairs himself.

References

Bibliography

*Smith, Jacob (2008) ''Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media''

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

, pages 205–207

External links

''Cohen at the Telephone'' (1923) at IMDB''Cohen at the Telephone'' (1929) at IMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen On The Telephone Comedy albums by British artists 1913 works Ethnic humour Jewish comedy and humor