George Graham (monologist)


George W. Graham was an American monologist, patent medicine salesman, and pioneer recording artist.
Graham was born in Alexandria Virginia to George C. Graham and Mary E. Graham, an Irish immigrant. The family moved to Washington D.C. by 1880, where George Jr. would spend the rest of his life. George entered show business by 1892, but throughout his career, supported himself by selling patent medicine. In his biography The Music Goes Round, Frederick Gaisberg, pianist and recordist for Berliner Gramophone, describes Graham as follows:
Despite the freewheeling image suggested in Gaisberg's account, Graham was moderately successful on the vaudeville stage, though his common name makes it uncertain whether all entertainers advertised as "George Graham" refer to the same man.
Graham began recording for Emile Berliner's United States Gramophone Company in 1895, while it was still a small upstart based in Washington D.C.. Graham's repertoire ranged from vaudeville inspired comic routines like "Talk on Drinking" to poetry like Eugene Field's "Departure", but he is best known today for slice-of-life monologues like "Advertising Plant's Baking Powder", various imitations of a street fakir, or various imitations of an African-American preacher. This type of recording was popularized by W.O. Beckenbaugh in his "Auctioneer" series, and by Len Spencer and Russell Hunting in various imitations of side-show shouters, dime museum lecturers or betting bookies, and may have served to give rural listeners a taste of city life.
Graham continued recording for Victor, Columbia and Zonophone between 1900 and 1903, notably including the series "An Evening with the Minstrels" with Len Spencer, Billy Golden, Vess Ossman and others. He died in 1903 under unknown circumstances.