A Chronological Dive Into Charles Lawman

A random encounter with a 2000-D series Columbia, and one long dive into the Internet Archive later...

The record in particular I found was a great quality 2157-D. Alone With My Dreams is perfectly pleasant with his honeyed voice, but my favorite is the flip. You Will Come Back To Me is moody and I couldn't help but add it to the favorites section.

Even with some annoying damage to this disc, I continued to play it! Once I felt confident in my transferring abilities, and the need for me to fill my YouTube descriptions with fun facts took over, I decided to research. With these tends of things, I usually just find scraps, but I was more than delighted to find a fair amount about Charles. So, here's the highlights.

August 25th, 1901–
Charles Swan Lawman is born in Knox County, Ohio to Gaylord Lawman and Mary Alice Ewing.

November 17th, 1928–
Records Sleepy Baby (Columbia, mx. W147515), a male vocal solo, with violin, cello, and piano, in Chicago. There are no known pressings.
(Brooks/Rust via DAHR)

April 28th, 1929–
See the alt. text for transcript (might be iffy on the stations)



(HistoricImages via eBay)

Records When We Get Together In The Moonlight (We Get Along Great) and Oh Sweetheart, Where Are You Tonight? (Col., 1856-D), his official debut record, in New York City.
(Brooks/Rust via DAHR)

"However, the whisperers continue to add new members, of whom one of the most interesting is Columbia's Charles Lawman... The M. Lawman sings with more masculinity than some of his fellows and his diction is excellent."
– The New Yorker, Vol. 5 Iss. 20, Jul. 1929

February 20th, 1930–
Records Alone With My Dreams and You Will Come Back to Me (Col., 2157-D) in New York City.
(Disc label (RDI) via DAHR)

"Charles Lawman displays a nice sustained tone, but a conventional style, in Alone With My Dreams and You Will Come Back to Me..."
– Music Lovers' Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4 No. 8, May 1930

January 21st, 1931–
Records Say “Hello” To The Folks Back Home and I Hate Myself (For Falling In Love With You) (Melotone, M-12089), his first record with the Brunswick Studio Orchestra, in New York City.
(Laird via DAHR)

February 20th + 27th, 1931–
Records Prairie Skies and Wabash Moon (2420-D), his final record with Columbia, in New York City.
(Disc label (RDI) via DAHR)

March 11th, 1931–
Records You'll Be Mine In Apple Blossom Time (rec. 2/26) and When Your Lover Has Gone (Regal, 10320), his first and only record with ARC, in New York City. It is with the Bob Haring Orchestra.
(Disc label (RDI) via DAHR)

June 9th, 1931–
Records three Timely Tunes discs with the Sam Johnson Orchestra (C-1575, C-1580, C-1583) in New York City.
(Disc label (BHC verso) via DAHR)

June 26th, 1931–
Records At Your Command (mx. BRC-69973) and The Kiss That You've Forgotten (Is The Kiss I Can't Forget) (mx. BRC-69974) for Victor in New York City with Leonard W. Joy as the director. Both takes were destroyed.
(Disc label (BHC verso) via DAHR)

May, 1931–
Records There Must Be A Bright Tomorrow (mx. C1329), his first recording for Crown with Leroy Montesanto as the flip.
(Online Discographical Project)

January, 1932–
Records Too Many Tears and Strangers (3272), his last recording for Crown and as Charlie Lawman & His Orchestra.
(Online Discographical Project)

February 2nd, 1938–
Elaine Smith of Orange, California, has a successful audition with the Hollywood Conservatory of Music and Arts and shall receive special training from Charles Lawman, "radio artist now devoting his time to training promising pupils for such work. He pronounced Miss Smith's voice one of strength and richness capable of great development."
(Santa Ana Register via Internet Archive)

November/December, 1941–
An article in the The Southwestern Musician and Texas Music Educator describes singer Jimmy Cash's experience with having Lawman as a vocal coach for two years.
(Internet Archive)

"Behind the present success of Cash and many other successful professional pupils is the long road of experience of Charles Lawman. Some fifteen or twenty years ago the front covers of important popular songs of the day, the labels on widely selling Columbia phonograph discs, and the announcements of the Bowes Capitol Family broadcast carried the name of Charles Lawman.



For three years with the Columbia Recording Company, five years with the CBS and other contracts with NBC, Lawman carried over his training and experience into the teaching studio, one of the busiest in the movie capitol."
– The Southwestern Musician and Texas Music Educator, Vol. 8 Iss. 2

June 10th, 1955–
"Charles Lawman, 53, Hollywood voice coach and recording artist of the 1930s, yesterday was found dead in his office at 1552 Crossroads of the World. Hollywood police said that the death apparently was from natural causes. Lawman's home, police said, is at 10770 Bluffside Drive, North Hollywood. His body was found by Cal Essey, building manager." He is buried at Mound View Cemetery in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
(Los Angeles Times via FindAGrave)

And that is as much as I can find on my own! In total, he recorded 21 songs with Columbia, 8 with Crown, 5 with Brunswick, 5 with Victor, and 2 with ARC. I also found that someone else, Crown Records on Facebook, has a plethora of information about Charles Lawman posted on his account here. It details accounts from his second wife about him, especially the day he left us. I implore you to read it!

 

Label: Columbia
Catalog #: 2157-D
Matrix: W150005/W150006

Sgt. Andrew Dunlap via Teamsters Unions of Seattle

As a follow-up to my last post, here is yet another flexi-disc, but here's the kicker: it not only comes from the same place as the last, but may even be from a family member. At first, I thought it must've been the little cub scout all grown up, but upon closer listens, it turns out to be someone with a different name. Don't worry if you can't understand some of the words when you take a listen, the video has a transcript in the description!

Like the previous one, I also believe this one to be 1943. However, it has a little bit more of concrete proof. First, within the recording, Sgt. Andrew mentions that it is Wednesday, July the 14th. Things like this occur pretty regularly, but that very year had one of those. For me to truly believe this, I found out the second piece of proof: the logo of National Hollywood. According to Phonozoic's labelography of home recording discs, that logotype (at least for acetates) can be attested to 1943. This solves it, for me at least!

This recording starts with a cut-off introduction from the Teamsters Unions of Seattle, introducing a Sgt. Andrew Dunlap. He discusses a camp that he's at, and catches up with the family. Another voice steps in, someone most likely someone that ranks above Dunlap, and talks extensively about how much he hates giving orders.

Cub Scout Bill Dunlap – USO Letter On A Record

This is one of the first things I ever picked up that was at 78 revolutions per minute. It brought me so much joy to listen to (once I bought the proper cartridge), and really expanded my view of the tangibility of recorded media. I could hold history in my hand, and now, can share it with whomever I desire.

As for what this record actually is, I'll let the WKU Libraries blog explain its provenance best:

 

 

"During World War II, servicemen could enter a booth at USO clubs operated by the National Catholic Community Service and make an audio recording.  The result was a two-sided, wax-coated cardboard disk, 6-1/2 inches in diameter and playable on a turntable at 78 r.p.m., that could be mailed to friends or loved ones back home."

This "letter on a record" is of 10-year-old Cub Scout Bill Dunlap that I believe could be 1943, but really could be any time during the USO's WWII tenure. On both sides, he sings "The U.S. Air Force" song, as well as his very own Den 7's theme. It's definitely adorable, and there's a fair amount of interesting things about this. There's a point in which he whistles for a dog, a person tells him to sing lower, and he also recites the of-the-era cub motto. 

I've begun to upload my transfers to YouTube, and that includes both sides of this one! I've embedded it below, and I plan on uploading most of my unique (foreign, acetate, flexi, etc.) records there. I also updated my first & previous post to include the link to the video transfer, rather than an audio link. Enjoy!

Riding the Waves with Hisao Itou

I stumbled upon this recording not too long ago, which inspired me to create this very blog— along with taking advantage of a run-of-the-mill shellac lot of 136 (!!) being sold for 50 bucks. This one, however, I did allow myself to be taken advantage of. $10 gone...

I believe this particular record was released in 昭和13年11月, also known as November of 1938. This fantastically put-together list of a majority of Nippon Columbia releases was instrumental in me finding this information. The catalog number, as you can see in the above image, is 29974— yet, I have had no luck thus far finding this exact release anywhere on the vastness that is the internet. Through their site, I found the closest catalog number, and voilà!

波乘り越えて | なみのりこえて | nami nori koete

overcoming/riding the waves

Anywho, this is a fantastic song by the phenomenal Hisao Itou— a ryuukouka (流行歌, lit. popular song) singer whose career began around 1932. He was someone, like many other talents of the time, who placed great interest on singing gunka (軍歌, lit. military song). He also starred in a few films, as was the standard back then, it seems.

Where those others dropped off, Hisao continued to record all the way until the early 80s— still making radio hits along the way such as イヨマンテの夜 (lit. Night of Iyomante), which you can watch a live performance of here.

Sadly, I am not in any way close to being fluent in Japanese, so the lyrics to Riding the Waves are beyond me. One day soon, I hope to find someone to help me translate it— until then, please enjoy.

Label: Columbia, Nippon
Catalog #: 29974
Matrix: 204698