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Tim Brooks
TIMOTHY C FABRIZIO(EDITOR)
Compiled and annotated by Allan Sutton. Denver, CO: Mainspring Press, 2001. 340 pages (softcover). ISBN: 0-9671819-1-7. $53.00 (postpaid). Publisher's Web site: www.mainspringpress.com
This is actually the second edition of a slender volume by Sutton first published by Greenwood Press in 1993 under the title A Guide to Pseudonyms on American Records, 1892-1942 . Just as the author has vastly expanded and improved his excellent guide to 78-rpm era record labels, American Record Labels and Companies , his work on artist pseudonyms has been significantly enhanced in this new edition. 1. One indication of the amount of new material is the page count: 340 pages, vs. 148 for the 1993 edition.
The book is organized into several sections, the largest of which (269 pages) is the listing by pseudonym, with alphabetical entries ranging from the Acme Male Quartet (a disguise for the Shannon Four on Pathé and related labels) to the Zylo-Specialty Orchestra (the Green Brothers on Banner and Regal). This is followed by a number of helpful appendixes, including ''Selected Group Personnel,'' which lists the members of groups such as the American Quartet and the Victor Light Opera Company; a list of birth and legal names (did you know that Roy Acuff's real first name was ''Claxton''?) and a directory to record label groups, useful because many pseudonyms were shared across related labels. There is also a Performer Index, which lists real names followed by the pseudonyms used by those performers.
All of these sections lend themselves to entertaining browsing as well as reference work. For example the longstanding rumor that blues singer ''Flo Bert'' was actually black operatic soprano Florence Cole-Talbert is recounted, but called ''highly suspect''. ''Gertrude Dwyer'' is revealed to be an actual performer and not a pseudonym for Vaughn DeLeath, although the name was used on two of DeLeath's recordings (the probable source of the confusion). ''Vel Veteran'' was used on Grey Gull for Irving Kaufman and Arthur Fields (but not for Vernon Dalhart, as often claimed). ''Andy Boy'' on Bluebird was not a pseudonym -- ''Boy'' was the man's real last name. And remarkably, ''Atwood Twitchell,'' that most obvious of invented...