Guide to the Arnold Jacobsen Collection ARS.0122
Finding aid prepared by Franz Kunst
Archive of Recorded Sound
© 2012
Braun Music Center
541 Lasuen Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, California, 94305-3076
650-723-9312
soundarchive@stanford.edu
The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved.
Title: Arnold Jacobsen Collection
Dates: 1889-1994
Collection number: ARS.0122
Collection size:
13 boxes
: 227 open reel tapes ; multiple folders
Repository:
Archive of Recorded Sound
Abstract: The Arnold Jacobsen Collection consists of open reel tapes of 78-era popular vocal music and accompanying documentation from
the collection of record dealer and store owner Arnold Jacobsen.
Language of Material: English
Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for
assistance.
Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.
Arnold Jacobsen Collection, ARS-0122. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
Calif.
The Arnold Jacobsen Collection was donated to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound by Maurice Jacobsen in 2006.
This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The Arnold Jacobsen Collection consists of tapes of 78-era music and speech from the collection of collector, dealer, and
record store owner Arnold Jacobsen, as well as correspondence, song lists, and other business records. Through his record
store, The Memory Shop, and later his own custom-taping enterprise Arnold's Archives, Jacobsen would sell and trade copies
of songs and home-made compilations, as well as the rare original recordings themselves. Many of these thematic compilations
were provided for institutional clients (such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, and the National Baseball
Library) for educational purposes, but Jacobsen's service also appealed to fans of old songs who needed help locating obscure,
out-of-print recordings.
Most of Jacobsen's tape compilations were not retained; he did not necessarily possess the best available copies of records,
and the filled-to-the-brim quarter track mono tapes did not age well. However, the valuable lists that accompanied the tapes
were kept. These subject indexes are grouped around virtually any subject, including World War One, dentistry, baseball and
other sports, U.S. states, obesity, coffee, alcohol and Prohibition, aviation, horses, dogs, cats and other animals, children,
smoking, depression, cartoon characters, America's Bicentennial, big band theme songs, disaster songs, and political campaign
songs. There are were also compilations for certain artists (especially Al Jolson and Bing Crosby) and label surveys (such
as Berliner, Zonophone, and early Columbia).
While the majority of recordings Jacobsen worked with were commercially-released 78 rpm records of popular music, the collection
also contains spoken word, air checks (both radio and television), film soundtracks, home recordings, and live performances.
Some of this material was obtained from other collectors and dealers, and others were recorded by Jacobsen himself. An abbreviated
list of tape contents can be found below.
The Archive of Recorded Sound stores approximately 430 discs from the Jacobsen Collection seperately; please refer to the
Archive's Transcription and Instantaneous Disc Collections database for a listing of Jacobsen housed there. Stanford University
Special Collections holds the Arnold Jacobsen Collection of 19th Century American Theater Programs, 1888-1913 (M1632).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Jacobsen, Arnold
Box 1, Box 4, Box 5, Box 2, Box 3, Box 6, Box 7
1. Tapes
Physical Description:
227 open reel tapes
: 211 7" reels ; 4 3" reels ; 12 5" reels ; 5 audiocassettes
Box 1 partial listing: Opera airchecks from WQXR-FM/WOR-AM, 1974-1978 (nearly all Metropolitan Opera, but also at least one
from the Opera Association of Western Michigan).
Box 2 partial listing: Ben Lehr Park Church Organ ; Ann Margret TV Special 10/28/73 ; Veterans Salute ; Metaphysics for Everyday
Living Lessons ; Gen. Meyer Brainwashing Lecture ; Inter-aircraft Communications ; Baseballiana ; Mozart Requiem, Easter Eve.
4/5/58 ; Victor Herbert Railroad Hour ; Teddy Powell Show (Announced) ; Fanny, Civic Theatre rec. by Douglas Leitch ; Operatic
Cylinders ; Packburn Demonstration Tape ; Boston Transportation Museum Project ; Hebrew 78s ; Horowitz TV Concert ; Eternal
Light ; Howie - J.A, Music Show 3/17/68 ; Memory Shop Radio Show - Wood - 1950 ; Comparison of Sweet and Dixie Arrangements
; Lucia - Mad Scene 1904-1940 ; Reminiscences of a Record Collector (Musical Excerpts) ; Tom Ozinga Interview WUOH/WVGR 4/1980
; Museum Show ; Chuck Forster, Etc. ; Electricity Salute
Box 3 partial listing: Presidential Voices Project ; Jazz Drummers ; Studs Terkel interviewing Earl Hines ; Florida Songs
; Unusual Instrumental Solos ; Excerpts And Notes from Arnold's Archives ; Jewish Comedy ; Wizard of the Nile (Schenectady
Light Opera Co.) ; Sweet Lorraine ; Eddie Cantor Radio Show with Dinah Shore and Cesar Romero ; Rare Cylinders ; Hobo and
Bum Songs ; Political Campaign Songs ; Public Library Project ; Rigoletto (West Michigan Opera Co. 9/21/78) ; Rose Songs ;
Darrow - Scopes ; Rosie the Riveter Project ; Coney Island Project ; Al Jolson Dialects and Imitations ; Mother Project
Box 4 partial listing: Many old radio programs, probably purchased from a single dealer. Most feature Al Jolson. Lux Radio
Theatre 4/2/45, 6/2/47, 2/16/48, 5/22/50 ; Rexall Show 1/21/48 ; Shell Chateau 6/29/35, 7/6/35, 7/20/35, 7/27/35, 8/3/35,
8/10/35, 8/17/35, 8/24/35, 8/31/35, 9/21/35, 9/28/35, 10/17/35, 1/25/36 ; Eddie Cantor 1/3/37, 3/6/47, 1/8/48 ; Colgate Show
3/30/43 ; Jolson From Korea 10/25/50 ; Ask Eddie Cantor 6/5/61 ; Jolson Calvacade ; Kraft Music Hall 10/2/47, 10/30/47, 11/6/47,
11/27/47, 1/1/48, 1/8/48, 1/29/48, 2/12/48, 2/19/48, 3/4/48, 3/11/48, 3/18/48, 3/25/48, 4/8/48, 4/22/48, 5/13/48, 5/20/48,
6/3/48, 10/21/48, 3/29/49 ; Bary Gray Show 10/7/46 ; Operation Nightmare 6/9/47 ; Showtime 4/7/47 ; Irving Berlin Tribute
8/3/38 ; Martin Block Radio Show ; Soldiers in Greasepaint 11/25/43 ; Bill Stern Newsreel 10/20/50 ; A Salute to Jolson 10/23/70
; Milton Berle Show 6/6/45 ; Bob Hope Show 4/8/47 ; NBC Studio in Hollywood Opening 12/7/35 ; Al Jolson Memorial Broadcast
10/24/50, 10/23/51 ; Philco Hall of Fame 5/28/44 ; Life Buoy Program 9/7/3710/18/38, 11/1/39, Jack Benny 5/18/47, 4/2/50 ;
Bing Crosby Show 10/30/49, 12/28/49, 1/4/50, 2/15/50,5/3/50 ; Philco Radio Time 1/15/47, 3/5/47, 12/3/47, 5/7/49 ; The Debutante,
Bel Canto Opera (Wagner HS, New York) ; Hoagy Carmichael Project ; Musical History Course ; Haley's Comet Tribute ; Life 50th
Anniversary with Barbara Walters 11/15/86 ; Columbia Black and Silver Records ; Ex-President Hoover, Military Situation ;
Opportunity USA 5/16/49 ; Here's To Veterans 1/7/48, 11/23/48 ; Amos and Andy 12/17/46 ; ASCAP on Parade 1939
Box 5 partial listing: Berliner/Zonophone ; Bishop's Appeal ; Auto Songs ; Laurel & Hardy Silent Movies TV Soundtrack ; Rudolf
Ganz Interview with Manager of Chicago Symphony ; Nixon Watergate Speech 8/15/73 ; Beethoven Emperor Schnabel/Stock Chicago
Symphony ; O'Halloran's Luck, TV 1961 ; Boris Godunov, Don Giovanni 1975 ; Hit Parade 4/11/36 ; Desert Island Discs 11/7/92
; Sherrill Milnes Concert at St. Cecilia, Grand Rapids 10/16/91 ; Grand Rapids Symphony, Theo Alcantara, Conductor. Mozart,
Jupiter Symphony (#41) ; WGUR Program 2/8/66 ; Ward Show ; Early Movies ; [radio songs, speeches and commentary 1941-1949]
; Mississippi Project ; Streisand Show, 1960? ; JFK Memorial ; Breton School Play ; Bennett, Symphonic Story of Jerome Kern.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, conductor ; TV Pilot ; Jolson - Chevalier Recreated Duets ; Guest Star ;
Temple Emanuel Musical History Course
Box 6 partial listing: Herbert Hoover Military Situation 12/12/50 ; Oberhaus Film Project, Popular Hits Circa 1900 ; Bob Hope
25th Anniversary TV Show ; Temple Emanuel Service - Musical Excerpts ; Psychic Science and the Christian Bible ; Warners 50th
Anniversary 12/12/73 ; Duke Ellington TV Tribute 7/22/74 ; Metropolitan Opera airchecks 1975-78 ; Toscanini Programs ; Ben
Bernie, Off the Air 1939 ; Irving Berlin Interview ; Zuben Mehta TV Show 3/13/70 ; George Jessell Carnegie Hall Concert ;
Cagney Salute 3/18/74 ; TV Audition, Arnold Jacobsen ; Big Bud Show WZZM 7/66 ; Train Songs ; Spoken Word (France) ; Shipwreck
Songs ; Sewing Songs ; Senior Citizen Project ; Frank Lloyd Wright Discusses Architecture ; Archeology Project ; Tap Dancing
Project ; Political Songs and Speeches ; History Speaks ; WJR 35th Anniversary 1957 ; LaGuardia Reminiscences and Tribute
Box 7 tapes (17) are not labeled and will require an audio preview to identify.
2. Paper
Box 9
articles and miscellany
Physical Description:
1 folder
Includes photocopy of article from Grand Rapids Press 11/25/1979 ; article from New York World-Telegram 5/15/1948 ; article
from Grand Rapids Express 12/8/1982 ; Turnover Magazine article photocopy, correspondence and photograph 1948 ; "Reminiscences
of a Record Collector" radio script 1973 ; Arnold's Archives flier, etc.
Box 9
collection dispersal correspondence
Physical Description:
5 folders
One folder of correspondence chronicling Jacobsen's attempts to sell his collection to the University of Michigan and the
Ford Museum, and four folders from a gift donation to the Chicago Public Library, including a grant application, agreement,
and lists.
Box 9, Box 7
concert programs and playbills
Older programs include the following: Detroit Symphony 1925 ; Edith Mason ; Chaliapin 1923 ; Paderewski 1923, 1930 ; Jascha
Heifetz ; Josef Lhevinne 1924 ; Ignaz Friedman ; Geiseking 1928 ; Werrenrath ; Schumann-Heink ; Rosa Ponselle and Tito Schipa
1923 ; Hofmann and Kreisler 1908 ; Kreisler 1922 ; Iturbi 1932 ; Gigli and Ponselle 1922 ; Farrar 1920 ; Elman 1926 ; De Gogorza
1926 ; Czerwonky 1923, 1925 ; Chicago Symphony 1922, 1923 ; German Grand Opera Co. 1930 ; London Symphony Orchestra 1914 ;
Friedrich Music House Victrola Concert 1919 ; Powers Theatre, Anna Pavlova 1924 ; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 1901 ; Wagner
Opera Company 1921 ; Metropolitan Opera at The Auditorium (Chicago?) 1899 and Boston Opera House 1910 ; Lyceum Theatre (Buffalo,
New York) 1899 ; Star Theater (Buffalo, New York) 1889-98 ; Academy of Music (Buffalo, New York) 1982 ; Music Hall Programme
(Buffalo, New York) 1890 ; Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts 1923.
Newer programs include: Ivan Davis (autographed) 1961 ; Mstislav Rostropovich and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra 1981 ; Radio
City Music Hall 1956 ; Fiedler, Boston Pops 1969 ; Cincinnati Symphony 1953 ; Stadium Concert Review (Memory Shop ad p.52)
1946 ; Metropolitan Opera in Boston 1969 ; Isaac Stern 1994 ; Dionne Warwck c.1968 ; Sweet Charity (some autographs) 1969
; Beverly Sills and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra 1979. There are also a few museum brochures.
Box 9
Box 7, Box 9
Memory Shop files
Box 10
Box 9
correspondence
Physical Description:
2 folders
Box 9
Box 9
wantlists 1960-1965
Physical Description:
1 folder
Box 9, Box 7
periodicals
includes copies of Listen 1952, 1953, 1959 ; Listening Post 1-4/1959 ; New York Times Magazine cover story on laser discs
5/25/1975 ; Jazz World Index 1981 ; Lyric Opera News 1980-1981 ; The Big Bandwagon 1978 ; Memory Lane News ; Jazz Notes 1986
; Buddy DeFranco Newsletter 1988, 1989, 1993, etc.
Box 9, Box 7
photographs
Two large photographs of Jacobsen and The Memory Shop (c.late 40s) ; Spike Jones' Musical Depreciation Revue promotional pictures
(mostly reproductions) ; series of c.1937-1938 promotional pictures of Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Dave Apollon,
Cass Daley and others (all autographed for Mary Ellen McCrary Visscher).
Box 9
Box 8
song lists (from binders)
Physical Description:
14 folders
Box 7
song lists (from tape boxes)
Physical Description:
1 folder
Box 11
subject and name index files A-F
Box 12
subject and name index files G-O
Box 13
subject and name index files P-Z, plus performer list and partial category list