Dan W. Quinn: King of Comic Song

When Dan W. Quinn passed away on November 7, 1938 he’d been out of the limelight for 20 years. With the Big Band Era in full swing (!) he was little remembered by the record buying public despite having been one of the first stars of the medium, with an estimated 2,500 sides to his credit, recorded between the years 1894-1918.

Born ca. 1859-60, Quinn grew up in San Francisco and New York. An ironworker in his young adulthood, he started out singing on an amateur basis at church and social functions. His talents were brought to the attention of Thomas Edison, who employed him on an experimental basis starting in 1892. Within a few short years Quinn was singing on the major labels of the day, not just Edison, but Columbia, Victor, Berliner, Gramophone, et al. He sang just about the well-known Tin Pan Alley and Music Hall hits of his day. stuff like “The Bowery”, “The Sidewalks of New York”, “The Band Played On”, “Daisy Bell” (better known as “Bicycle Built for Two”, “A Hot Time in the Old Town”, “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Baily?”, and Vesta Victoria’s big 1892 song “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-Wow”. At one point, he sang with an outfit called “Spencer, Williams, and Quinn Imperial Minstrels”, which seems to have been strictly a studio trio (as opposed to one that performed onstage). One wonders if the other two were Len Spencer and Bert Williams; all three are represented on this record reissue.

In 1906 Quinn left the recording biz for nearly a decade to perform in vaudeville, night clubs, the concert stage, and musical theatre. There are recordings of him singing songs from the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz; I haven’t been able to nail down if he had performed in any live productions of the show. From 1915 through 1918 he returned to recording for a time, although musical tastes were beginning to change by then. After that he continued to work in show biz as a booker.

Archeophone Records has produced a wonderful CD featuring 30 songs from throughout Quinn’s career. Anthology: The King of Comic Singers Dan W. Quinn, 1894-1917 may be purchased here. That comes with a 52 page booklet that is no doubt the last word on what’s known about Quinn’s life.

For more onthe history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.