Arthur Collins sings “Handicap March Song" on an Edison brown wax cylinder from around 1899.
Arthur Collins was among the half dozen most prolific recording artists during the acoustic era.
He was closely associated with the comic song "The Preacher and the Bear," which he recorded for many companies. One trademark was a short laugh, often interjected between lines in songs.
In the December 1942 issue of Hobbies, Jim Walsh attributed Collins' popularity to these qualities: "There probably has never been a sweeter, more naturally musical baritone voice than his....Then, too, Arthur Collins managed invariably to get into the wax the impression of a warm, lovable personality. The unctuous sound of his chuckles in dialect work is unfailingly charming. His negro [sic] heroes usually were in hard luck, but they bore up bravely and saw the funny side of their own misfortunes."
Arthur Francis Collins was born on February 7, 1864, in the home of his grandfather, Reverend Joseph Perry (a chaplain in the U.S. Navy), on Gerard Avenue in Philadelphia.
The oldest of ten children, he was about 14 when his father--Captain Arthur Collins, a devout Quaker--retired from seafaring occupations and bought a home in Barnegat, New Jersey, where he opened a country store. Collins' wife supplied this information to Walsh, who reported it in the November 1942 issue of Hobbies.
Collins joined the lifesaving station on the New Jersey coast. By 17 he was singing at church festivals and concerts, and his parents sent him to Philadelphia to take voice lessons. He joined the Old King Company, an unsuccessful touring company.
He then joined a company starring Fay Templeton, but this company also failed. He next sang in summer operas in St. Louis and eventually toured with Francis Wilson in Merry Monarch and The Lion Tamer, remaining with Wilson for ten years, according to the October 1916 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly.
In 1895 in New York City's St. Timothy's Episcopal Church he married an Irish-born singer named Anna Leah Connolly (18 May 1867 - 14 May 1949), leaving show business to study shorthand, typewriting, and bookkeeping.
Around 1898 the marriage produced a son. Page 65 of the September 15, 1918 issue of Talking Machine World features a photograph of a proud Collins "saying good-bye to son," with 20-year old Sergeant Arthur Perry Collins taking leave in uniform, headed for France.
Collins worked for a cigar company but resigned after six months when his right arm became lame. After recovering, he worked for the De Wolf Hopper Company, singing in Wang, and soon received a letter from Edison's National Phonograph Company inviting him to make a trial recording.
One of his most popular numbers in the earliest years was Thurland Chattaway's "Mandy Lee," recorded in early 1900 for Edison (7404) and in two sessions for Victor in that year.
Walsh states in Ronald Dethlefson's Edison Blue Amberol Recordings 1915-1929 (Brooklyn, NY: APM Press, 1981), "By a hasty count, which may be off a few notches, he made, from 1898 to 1912, no fewer than 227 solo two-minute cylinders, including both brown wax and the louder and less fragile Gold Moulded type, introduced in 1902....the team [Collins and Harlan] recorded approximately 65 Blue Amberol duets."
Collins is mentioned for the first time in the trade journal The Phonoscope in the February 1899 issue. It is noted that he was among the artists making Giant Tone cylinders. He probably made cylinders for a few other small firms around this time.
He began making Berliner discs on November 25, 1899, recording at that first session "My Hannah Lady" (0754), "I've Just Received A Telegram From Baby" (0753), "All I Wants Is My Black Baby Back" (0756), "Mandy Lee" (0757), and others.
He recorded over 50 titles for Berliner's National Gramophone Company. These titles from 1900 indicate his versatility: "The Mick Who Threw the Brick," "The Blue and the Gray" (associated around that time with Richard Jose, who sang it often on vaudeville stages), and "On The Road to Mandalay" (this was probably the Walter W. Hedgecock version of Kipling's verse set to music; the well-known version by composer Oley Speaks was not published until 1907).
Since he worked regularly for Berliner, he naturally was among Victor's earliest artists, recording often in its first year. His first session for Eldridge R. Johnson's new company was on July 20, 1900. Accompanied by a pianist, he recorded seven titles. He returned the next day to record another eight titles, this time accompanied by the Metropolitan Orchestra.
Collins may have been the first singer on Victor records accompanied by more than piano.
Collins' wife reported to Walsh that the singer preferred the term "The King of Ragtime Songs" to other titles.
The baritone died on August 2, 1933.
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