Henry Burr

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Henry Burr, sometimes called Irving Gillette and other pseudonyms, born Harry Haley McClaskey, (born 1882 - died 1941), singer of popular songs from the early part of the early 20th century, early radio performer and producer. He was one of the first singers to make popular acoustic recordings and one of the most prolific recording artists of all time, with more than 12,000 recordings according to his own estimate. A tenor, he performed as a soloist and also in duets, trios and quartets. His most famous collaboration was the Peerless Quartet.

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[edit] Early years

Born in the border town of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, on January 15, 1882, Harry McClaskey was the son of a candy and tobacco store owner. His vocal talents were recognized early and by the age 13 he was performing as a boy tenor with the Artillery Band in the nearby city of Saint John. Perhaps doubting that he could make a career in music, he later attended Mt. Allison Academy in Sackville, New Brunswick, and afterwards worked for his father. In 1901, he appeared at the opera house in Saint John in his first important concert with the Scottish soprano Jessie Maclachlan. Later that year, he was discovered by the Metropolitan Opera baritone Giuseppe Campanari who insisted that he should go to New York for musical training.

[edit] Recording artist

Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet, about 1923. From left to right: John H. Meyer, Burr, Frank Croxton, Albert Campbell. Source: Virtual Gramophone.
Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet, about 1923. From left to right: John H. Meyer, Burr, Frank Croxton, Albert Campbell. Source: Virtual Gramophone.

Emboldened by Campanari's endorsement, McClaskey ventured to New York, where he began lessons and sang with the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church choir. He ultimately rose to tenor soloist for the choir. His teachers included John Dennis Meehan (or Mehan) and Miss Ellen Burr, from whom he would adopt his stage name in her honour. It was around 1902 that he started to make recordings with Columbia Records and he used the name Henry Burr at that time. He also recorded for Edison Records, Victor, and others. Edison gave him the name Irving Gillette. In 1905 he recorded Egbert Van Alstyne's "In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree" which proved to be highly popular. It was also recorded by contemporary Billy Murray the same year. Burr proved to be a successful artist, recording as noted, thousands of songs for various labels under various names. He arrived at a particularly opportune time for Columbia, as their star tenor George J. Gaskin was in the final years of his career.

In 1906, Burr joined the Columbia Quartet, later the Peerless Quartet, as second tenor under the management of Frank C. Stanley. When Stanley died in 1910, Burr took over management of the group. It continued on as a popular recording and live performance team (with various personnel and name changes over the years) through the 1920's.

[edit] As a businessman

By 1916, he was in a comfortable position financially, and he began to seek ways to invest his money. That year, he formed the Paroquette Record Manufacturing Company with Fred Van Eps, based in New York City. The Paroquette system used vertical cut records and featured his own recordings and those of several other performers. As a novel introduction in a highly competitive market, the Paroquette recording technique was an early failure, lasting only a few months. Burr also tried music publishing, and he also shared ownership in a banjo factory with Van Eps for a short while.

[edit] Early radio

Around 1920, Burr performed live on the radio while broadcasting technology was still in its infancy. He made his first appearance in 1920 in Denver, Colorado using a microphone improvised from a wooden bowl with an inverted telephone transmitter. The broadcast was heard as far west as San Francisco. Burr is also credited with making the first transcontinental 'broadcast' by singing into the telephone in New York and being heard by diners wearing headphones at a Rotary dinner in California. Also in 1920, he signed an exclusive contract with Victor records that lasted seven years. A lucrative contract, it made him (for a time) a wealthy man.

By the late 1920s, his recordng career was over (electrical recording technologies had led to the crooner style of tenor first exemplified in the voice of Gene Austin), but the commercial potential of radio continued to interest Burr. As a result, he became involved in early radio programming, forming Henry Burr, Inc. in 1928 as a producer of radio programming. He produced numerous programs for commercial radio networks into the 1930s. He originated the Cities Service broadcast, which he produced for two years. In October 1929, he reputedly lost a substantial portion of his wealth in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Less than a month later, however, he was appointed Director of the Artist's Bureau at CBS which had just been organized under the ownership of William S. Paley. Around 1935, he returned to performing on the radio as a member of the WLS Chicago National Barn Dance troupe, which was broadcast over NBC on Saturday evenings. He soon became a featured performer on the show, which he stayed with for five years until shortly before his death. He suffered from throat cancer and died in Chicago on April 6, 1941. He left a wife, Cecilia and a step-daughter.

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[edit] Audio

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