New Orleans’ First Record Label:
Louis Vasnier and the Louisiana
Phonograph Co., 1891
Tim Brooks
Author, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth
of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919
New Orleans, 1890
The Phonograph in New Orleans
Early 1880s: Tin foil phonograph exhibited
 1889: Four brothers found Texas Phono. Co.
in Galveston
 H. Lee and Robert Sellers
 Hugh and Thomas Conyngton
 1891: They found Louisiana Phono. Co.
 Jan. 26, 1891: Demonstration at Tulane
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Louisiana Phonograph Co.
Emphasized entertainment from start
 Import music cylinders from North
 Active program recording “local talent”
 Conyngtons proselytize in The Phonogram
 May 7, 1891: 1st coin-in-slot machine
placed in May’s Palace Drug Store on Canal
and Chartres
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Canal Street, 1890s
West End Pavilion, Lake Pontchartrain
The Phonogram, July 1892
The Phonogram, August 1892
Louis “Bebe” Vasnier
Born 1858 in New Orleans, “creole of
color”
 House painter
 Talented comic, banjo player
 1880s: Johnson & Vasnier’s Colored
Minstrels, as sideline
 1891: Makes first recordings
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Louis “Bebe” Vasnier
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1891-93: Actively recording
Sold nationally, played by exhibitors in north
Samples sent to Thomas A. Edison
Promoted at Mardi Gras
Repertoire:
 Banjo solos, quartets
 “Brudder Rasmus” sermons
Louisiana Phonograph Co. – Later
History
1893: Major economic downturn in U.S.
 1893-94: Company winds down
 1894: Moves out of Equitable Bldg.
 1896: Becomes kinetoscope agency
 1897: Last listing in city directory
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Louis Vasnier – Later History
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1897-98: Reported as sick, off stage
1898: Moves to St. Louis, MO
1899: Marries
1900: Advertises in Indianapolis Freeman
 Original monologues
 Five dialects
 “The only colored comedian who can do it”
Jan 24, 1902: Dies of consumption
The Vasnier Cylinder
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Only surviving example
“Trophy” owned by a series of collectors
 John Coles, Rich Reinold – 1980s
 Reported clear, understandable
 None preserved it
 To John S. Dales (U.K.)
 By 1990s, audio destroyed
When will we ever learn?
For more on this and related subjects
see Lost Sounds
Thank You!
www.timbrooks.net