Скачать или смотреть Edison Bell Handephon Gramophone, Piccadilly Players with Florence Oldham

Good day YouTubers! Today we have the Picadilly Players with Florence Oldham performing Virginia from 1928. Playing this is my Edison Bell Handephon portable gramophone which dates from 1924. These and similar models by Edison Bell were sold in large quantities in the 20s but seem not to have survived all that well as you don’t often see these come up now.

This one is in lovely condition and plays very well and sits between the issue of the HMV PAO first portable gramophone in 1920 and the later HMV Gramophones (101,102) that we are now familiar with. This is quite a nifty, little performer and even has its own record storage compartment below the horn.

The record itself is a very peppy little number by the Piccadilly Players directed by Al Starita with Florence Oldham on vocals.

Any information the experts can add about Florence Oldham to this upload will be more than welcome as I know nothing about her and haven’t been able to find much out on the Internet either save that she was active from the very late 20s to the early 30s, was a comedienne and singer and quite active it seems on the radio.

UPDATE: Herewith a few notes on Florence Oldham courtesy of Terry Brown, many thanks! Florence Hester Oldham was born on 24 October 1903 at 62, Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, to a family of ‘potato merchants’. Took piano lessons and began concert party performances in and around Manchester from 1923. Obtained a BBC audition and made her first broadcast on 22 May 1926. Became a ‘wireless star’, and appeared at least once a week in various, variety, cabaret and concert party shows, as well as an accompanist for others, and as the self-accompanied ‘Whispering Soprano’, racking up over 70 radio show appearances by the end of 1927. Made her first variety stage appearance in June 1927 at the Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion. Continued in variety across 1928/1929, with fewer radio appearances. In 1930 performed in South Africa, (the first of several trips), where she met her husband, Australian John Landeryou, who returned with her to the UK, with his brother Eddie. Florence returned to variety, whilst her husband and his brother performed a song/dance act as, ‘Jack and Eden’. Florence remained a variety stage star and occasional broadcaster throughout the 30s and 40s, with her last performances in 1951. Her husband died on 16 October 1993. Over her career made solo recordings on Zonophone, Columbia and Decca, as well as vocal chorus work with various dance bands. She died at the Royal Free Hospital in St Pancras, London on 10 January 1971.

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