Sarah Emery Hamlin was an American child actor, pianist, and recording artist.
Biography
She was the daughter of Dr. Cyrus E. Hamlin and Hattie Bennion; also the great-granddaughter of former U.S. Vice PresidentHannibal Hamlin. She is a shadowy figure today, and would probably be completely forgotten were it not for a series of 78rpm spoken word recordings she made for children in the 1910s and 1920s. Sally recorded primarily for the Victor Talking Machine Company, but also recorded a few 7" discs for Emerson Records. These records were readings of poetry by such authors as Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley, classic stories such as Cinderella and Rumpelstilskin, and even excerpts from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. Sally also recorded piano rolls for Duo-Art and a piano solo "The Butterfly", for Victor, which was never issued. Sally Hamlin was fifteen years old when she signed a one year contract with Victor on April 12, 1917 and made the trip from her home at 7 Woodruff Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York to Victor's recording studios in Camden, New Jersey. During this period, her most popular records were made. Sally delivered James Whitcomb Riley's dialect poems "The Raggedy Man" and "Our Hired Girl" with natural girlish charm and they were instant successes. Her recordings of Eugene Field's "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "The Sugar Plum Tree" are notable for Sally's use of sprechstimme, particularly in the final stanzas which are accompanied by harpist Francis J. Lapitino. This dreamy half spoken, half sung performance is one of the earliest examples of sprechstimme in a commercial recording. On November 1, 1926, Sally Hamlin signed another contract with Victor, this one for a two-year period. While her earlier recordings had been made by the acoustic recording process, this group was recorded using the new electrical process, introduced in early 1925. Victor had her re-record some of her previous readings utilizing the new electrical process, and recorded some new titles such as "The Little Kitten That Would Not Wash Its Face" and Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. Among this group is her record of "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Shoemaker And The Elves". This record contains perhaps the first instance of sampling in a commercial recording. Sally's recordings of these two famous Christmas pieces contain musical fade-ins from other records in Victor's catalog. Although it was surely done as a cost-cutting measure, being cheaper than hiring an orchestra or a pianist, it nevertheless is sampling by definition. None of Sally Hamlin's work has ever been officially reissued commercially on LP or compact disc. Later in life, Sally Hamlin married Karl M. Chworowsky, a minister of the Unitarian Church. They were both accomplished pianists who gave recitals together. She outlived him by 23 years, passing away at the age of 84 in Bar Harbor, Maine. She is buried in the Hamlin family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.
