ABSTRACT

American vaudeville singer and comedian, born in Cincinnati. He started doing a blackface act in 1874, and in 1878 teamed with John Merritt. Golden’s first records were Columbia cylinders of ca. 1893, beginning a 30-year recording career for many labels. He may have been the first artist to record for Berliner. His best-selling recording was “Turkey in the Straw,” cited by Walsh as “an infectious masterpiece”; he inscribed it for many labels, beginning with Berliner #726× (9 Dec 1896), and sold millions of copies. Victor’s 1927 catalog still carried it (#17256), the only survivor from the ”40 Golden Titles” in the catalog of a decade earlier. Other important work was in duets with J. Hughes, such as “Clamy Green,” and “Bears’Oil,” which had enormous sales. Golden’s last records were for Columbia in 1922. [Brooks 1979; Walsh 1944/6.]

One of the earliest records issued from the West Coast, by the Golden Record Co., Los Angeles, from 1922.