Phonoland

I have some old 78's that have paper labels and a light green-stamped title: GOLF, HONEYMOON No.1, COUNTRY DOG and THE BULL. ALL are risque in content for their time. The HONEYMOON No. 1 is particularly full of double-meanings and sounds like the couple is having a "real honeymoon" kind of time. At the end of the record, you are told what they have been doing all along.

AND the woman on the record sounds exactly like the late great Mae West. A collecting friend put the recordings in the twenties based on the type of plastic, paper and sleeve used. He also thought the woman was Mae West too.

Also there are very few markings of the inner groove--on the records I have there is a D7 on one side and D8 on the other; and on another a D21 and D22 on each side as well. Does anyone now what these might be? I was told they were considered an early form of "adult entertainment!"
thanks!

I'm not doubting it, rj, but Mae was known to be a little more refined than any really "dirty" record. The majority of the ones I've seen came out just after WWII - some had actual label names, others had just "titles". It wouldn't surprise me if known celebrities made some anonymous adult recordings. One of the ones I have has one side devoted to outtakes of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis cutting radio spots for their movie "The Caddy" - they get pretty raunchy after a while (the guy who sold it to me asked me if I was put off by "blue" material - this was in the politically-correct 90s, if my memory serves me right). That side has a totally blank white label - no title of any kind on it. Did she do any records like this? Personally, I don't know. Would she do them? Probably not.

For those of you that like these "Adult" records, heres one I put on youtube called "Tootlin' Gal".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcGvQJgBmYs

If you can give the name of the manufacturer and catalog number which should be on the label that would help tremendously to identify it. Mae West was a major star and it seems her recordings would certainly identify her as the singer on the label. Chances are it's an imitator.

Some of those were pressed as anonymously as the artists who recorded them, so it might be difficult.
I dated a Mae West imitator once...or rather, she could DO a good Mae West, she wasn't a professional impersonator. What was really cute was that she was in her early 20's and was only 4'8" - not a dwarf or a midget, just a tiny, well-proportioned lady. Hearing her do Mae made her all the more charming.

I have a Dorothy Shay album. She sounds a lot lie Mae West, and her recordings were risque.

Even "established" artists got pirated by the adult record "companies". John Ryan, for example, did his double-entendre records for his own label but I did come across a blank label 78 with his "Moustache Song" on it - while I've never seen a copy I believe this would have been on a legitimate label first, even if it was his "own".
There's a rumor floating around novely collecting circles that the earliest version of "The Crepitation Contest" was narrated by Lord Buckley but that hasn't been proven yet. I used to have a 78RPM acetate (probably an after-hours job done at a radio station; it's unlikely someone would've cut two 12" acetates on a home recorder) of a version of "the contest" and my copy may have been one of the earliest ones...it MAY have been L.B. but since I got rid of the records years ago, I'll never know for sure.

That may have been either a radio program recorded in advance, or an aircheck or linecheck recording that was required from 1938 to the mid 1950s as an aftermath of the War of the World broadcast in 1938.

Based on the subject of the recording, I really doubt it was ever meant to be broadcast.
I'm a gambler when it comes to blank-label or unlabeled acetates. If they're cheap, I'll pick them up. I took a chance 25+ years ago on a lot which came from a San Antonio TX studio - most were just test-cuttings to get sound levels and channel balances but one turned out to be interesting: a 78 RPM dub of Carol Burnett's first record, "I Made A Fool Of Myself (Over John Foster Dulles)". All that was written on the disc (no label) was "John Foster" - since it was released on a major label (ABC-Paramount) I have doubts that this disc was THE first acetate of the record. It may have been just a disc-cutter test (other discs had portions of a Frank Sinatra recording on it) dubbed from the commercial release of the record. But, since the store I bought it from went out of business 20 years ago, I'll never really know the answer.

FYI: the famous did get raunchy on occasion. Spike Jones cut an alternate take of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", only they weren't "kissing"! It was never commercially released but bootleg copies did go out. Bing Crosby had some wild outtakes which got released on phony RCA Victor 78s - again, never intended for commercial release.

The Sons Of The Pioneers recorded several as well. I have 3 of them.