I wrote a bit about Jaudas in my diss. some years ago. Born in 1869, he conducted most of Edison's accompaniments and the Edison Symphony Orchestra from 1901 to 1906 (when he began sharing duties with Frederick Ecke, who was named principal studio conductor), and also was on the NY studio committee that passed judgment on records, alongside Walter Miller and studio manager W. H. A. Cronkhite. He continued at the 79 5th Ave. studio, conducting mostly popular song accompaniments and dance records (and also the accompaniments for Kinetophone shorts, for which he had to commute to the Edison motion picture studio in the Bronx), scouting out talent, and even acting as a ticket broker for Edison executives, until 1925, when Edison let him go without notice after 24 yrs service (Edison wrote to W. H. Meadowcroft after receiving a two-page letter from Jaudas requesting to see him and talk things over: "Tell Jaudas had to do it -- phono biz is all to pieces.") The story gets sadder from there, as he wasn't able to find work after that for over two years and wrote as much back to Orange, asking for a letter of recommendation; got a very perfunctory answer from TAE. I don't know when he died, but there was a rumor that he lived at least into the 1940s.
________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of DanKj [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 1:14 AM To: Antique Phonograph List Subject: [Phono-L] Edison drops a title I was playing some cylinders (bought at a show, and sitting ever since in the brown grocery bags I used to pack them) and came across one which struck me as familiar. "The Jass" One-Step, by Eugene Jaudas' orchestra on Edison BA 3228. 'Hmm... why do I know this tune? Nobody else recorded such a title ... wait a second.' I search for Jaudas online (there is little to nothing about him, btw) and hit the same record on online ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVuZXjOk42g ) . Then I remember: I have this on a smallish hill & dale disc ... it's HONG KONG ! Somewhere between it being rejected for disc but approved for cylinder, then prepared for manufacture, somebody mistook the description "Jazz One-Step" or "Jass One-Step" for its title , and dropped HONG KONG completely. I submitted a comment to that effect, on the ootoob page. I wonder if this has happened with other tunes, being issued with wrong title (or no title really, in this case) and not pulled off the shelves. ps - the 1910 Census had him listed as "Judas", but got his father (I assume) correct as Jaudas. I submitted a correction. 128 East 86th St, 40 years old in 1910, born in New York, parents born in Germany and arrived in USA 1863. Married 4 years, no children. Aunt & Mother-in-Law living with them (that must have been fun) , parents in the next apartment in same building. Occupation: Musician. Industry: Phonograph. Out of work in 1909: Zero days. Interesting that his parents were still working at age 71: dad for the NYC Police Dept, mom a professional midwife. _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org This email message and any attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are prohibited from using the information in any way, including but not limited to disclosure of, copying, forwarding or acting in reliance on the contents. If you have received this email by error, please immediately notify me by return email and delete it from your email system. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
