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Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s | 
 enlarge | Creator: Various Artists
Label: Archeophone Records
Category: Music
Buy New: $17.99
New (4) from $12.59
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 12196
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 778632900509
EAN: 0778632900509
ASIN: B000QEK41U
Release Date: May 16, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Learning a City Gal How to Milk (Cal Stewart) | | • | The Tapeworm Story (Cal Stewart) | | • | Gimlet's Soliloquy / The Rascal Detector (Unknown, 2 indexed tracks) | | • | The Whores' Union (Unknown) | | • | Boarding the Folsom / A Few Conundrums (Unknown, 2 indexed tracks) | | • | Out of Order (Russell Hunting) | | • | Did He Charge Too Much (Russell Hunting) | | • | Reilly as a Policeman (Russell Hunting) | | • | Sim Hadley on a Racket (Russell Hunting) | | • | Sim Hadley on a Racket (James White) | | • | Michael Casey Exhibiting His Panorama (James White) | | • | Dennis Reilly at Maggie Murphy's Home After Nine O'Clock (James White) | | • | Young Cylinder "A": Stroll on Capitol Hill / A Hard Head (Home Recording, 2 indexed tracks) | | • | Young Cylinder "B": The Virtues of Raw Oysters (Home Recording) | | • | Young Cylinder "C": Jokes, Riddles, Verses, a Limerick, and a Toast (Home Recording, 8 indexed tracks) | | • | Young Cylinder "D": More Verses and Jokes (Home Recording, 9 indexed tracks) | | • | Young Cylinder "E": The Lady's Friend / a Song / The Irishman's Prayer / a Joke (Home Recording, 4 indexed tracks) | | • | Young Cylinder "F": Verses and Songs (Home Recording, 4 indexed tracks) | | • | Young Cylinder "G": Poem: "I Sit Here Thinking, Will, of You" (Home Recording) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
New York City, 1896. A man walks into a bar. He sits down, orders a beer, and laughs long and hard at the bartender's newest story. It's a good tale, though too bawdy to repeat at home. The next day he goes into the same bar, gets his beer, and drops his change into a phonograph. He's listening through rubber tubes to a man telling a story similar to the bartender's. Without warning Anthony Comstock's defenders of decency charge into the bar, push him aside, destroy the record, and escort the bar's proprietor to jail for promoting indecency. The records on this CD are the few that Comstock's men missed. Scarcity and suppression have kept them silent for a century. Put aside the modern myth of a more genteel era: these late-Victorian performances are indecent even by--especially by--today's standards. And while not for mixed company, they spoke to many in the coarse language and crude humor of daily experience. They were stories told readily in the bar; yet they became legally actionable offenses when fixed in wax and played on a phonograph in that same bar. These newly-discovered recordings play like soundtracks to the moving images of prize fighters, scarf dancers, and kissing lovers flickering on the kinetoscope--the other nickel entertainment in the bar. The records and films were produced in the same years, in the same studios, by the same people. They were enjoyed in tandem by the same audiences. They were accused of violating the same standards of decency in communities where they were profitably exhibited. And together, they presaged the clashes between morals and mass media that would erupt regularly during the century to follow. This CD presents these extraordinary recordings in their unexpurgated entirety. It allows us to hear uncut and uncensored what new technology made possible and the protectors of public morals made illegal: "indecent" performances driven out of business, off the public stage, and into the privacy of unmixed company in the home.
Album Description
Newly discovered recordings, presented in entirety. Hear, uncut and uncensored what was then, new technology made possible and the protectors of public morals made illegal. These are the surviving wax recordings that were vehemently hunted down and destroyed by Anthony Comstock's defenders of decency. These late Victorian performances are indecent even by today's standards. And while not for mixed company they represent the coarse language and crude humor of the period. They are stories that were told readily in bars, yet became legally actionable when fixed in wax and played on a phonograph in the same bar. Until now, technology wasn't available to digitally capture these recordings without destroying the original wax recordings.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Absolutly Fascinating August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This CD is a really interesting bridge across time. Since the recordings weren't made for wide public release, there's a sense of mischief and getting away with something that is rare in artifacts from this time period. I'm grateful that technology has made such interesting bits of history available to anyone.
 An Amazing revealed history never before heard February 9, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As a history buff, this is the ultimate in never before heard shocking humor from an age (Victorian America) where one would never conceive that such four letter words or bawdy recitations could exist. The 50+ pages of remarkable liner notes, is certainly worthy a tribute as an Historical work in itself, detailing the history of intolerant times, as well as the word by word transcripts of each and every poem, conundrum and limerick told by both the known and unknown performers of this bygone age. Definitely a four star wonder of "one of kind" surviving recordings of naughty humor from 1890's. and certainly a "must grab" for any student and enthusiast of American Comedy history.
Read and Listen August 8, 2007
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
More than a curiosity, Actionable Offenses is an amazing record of how times have changed . . . and haven't. The quality of the recordings combined with the strong accents of the speakers require reading the transcripts included in the accompanying booklet. You won't be able to decipher the stories and jokes by casually listening, making Actionable Offenses more of an artifact rewarding the patient listener rather than a CD to pop in at a party as a joke.
Now this is a peice of HIStory!!! July 13, 2007
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
It is nothing short of amazing that these crackly bits of recorded history survived the indecency raids of the early 1900's!! The liner notes contained in this c.d. are actually a book worthy of its own section in the bookstore, and contain the fascinating history of these recordings and drama and scandal which preceded the discovery that men were recording them!!! When you listen to these jokes, limericks and stories that were recorded in backrooms and hideaways due to their scandalous contents- you will not believe what you are hearing and you will understand why (even 100 years later!)a parental advisory label adorns its cover!!! SO hide the kids and pick up a copy of Actionable Offenses. It is hours worth of fun!!!
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