"Belle Brandon" Frank Coombs, Lakeside Indestructible Cylinder (1910) T. Ellwood Garrett & Woolcott
Frank Coombs sings "Belle Brandon"
Lyrics are by T. Ellwood Garrett.
Music is by F. Woolcott.
'Neath a tree by the margin of a woodland,
Whose spreading leafy boughs sweep the ground,
With a path leading thither o'er the prairie,
Where silence hung her night garb around;
Where oft I have wandered in the evening,
When the summer winds were fragrant on the lea,
There I saw the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And we met 'neath the old arbor tree.
Belle Brandon was a birdling of the mountain,
In freedom she sported on the lea,
And they said the life current of the red man
Tinged her veins, from a far distant sea.
And she loved her humble dwelling on the prairie,
And her guileless happy heart clung to me,
And I loved the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And we both loved the old arbor tree.
On the trunk of an aged tree I carved them,
And our names on the sturdy oak remain,
But I now repair in sorrow to its shelter,
And murmur to the wild winds my pain.
And I sat there in solitude repining,
For the beauty dream night brought to me,
Death has wed the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And she sleeps ’neath the old arbor tree.
Belle Brandon is called "a birdling of the mountain"--a way of saying the speaker's one-time (now deceased) girlfriend Belle Brandon was in tune with nature, enjoying the freedom of birds.
Frank M. Coombs was born on July 26, 1871, in Bedford, Iowa.
He had settled in Seattle by 1889--that is, after the city's fire--and worked as a letter carrier.
He left that job to sing on vaudeville stages and tour with minstrel companies, working with Lew Dockstader (five seasons), Weber and Fields, and the Primrose Minstrels.
He also gained experience during a season with Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Company; a season under Victor Herbert in the musical comedy The Only Girl; three seasons on the road in the same production; and many seasons with Keith-Orpheum and other vaudeville circuits.
He played in all major U.S. cities and entertained abroad, such as in Japan and the Philippines.
His counter-tenor voice was higher than Richard Jose's but not as high as Will Oakland's.
He made his first cylinders around 1900 for a short-lived firm that specialized in supplying slot machines.
His recording career began in earnest in 1910 with a double-faced Columbia disc featuring "Silver Threads Among the Gold" backed by "Nellie Was a Lady" (A835). The record was his most popular.
Columbia's 1915 catalog states, "Another of the singers first introduced to the record-buying public by the Columbia is Mr. Frank Coombs the counter-tenor, well-known as having 'the sweetest voice in vaudeville.'"
The November 1913 Columbia catalog lists 20 recordings by Coombs working as a solo artist in addition to two numbers done with the assistance of the Brunswick Quartet and five duets with baritone William H. Thompson.
Two duets with Ernest Aldwell--"Sweet Kentucky Lady, Dry Your Eyes" and "There's a Little Spark of Love Still Burning"--appeared in March and April 1915, respectively. The session that produced the latter (January 22, 1915) was his last for Columbia.
Though best known as a Columbia artist, Coombs also sang over a dozen titles from 1910 to 1913 for the U. S. Phonograph Company, the Cleveland-based maker of U-S Everlasting cylinders.
Two Coombs discs issued by Victor were announced in the December 1912 supplement: "Afterwards" (17175), which was coupled with the Peerless Quartet's "By the Old Cathedral Door," and the ballad "Beautiful Isle of the Sea" (35259). He never worked for Edison.
In later years Coombs returned to Seattle, living at 175 West 58th Street. Beginning in 1926 he broadcast a weekly show of child talent, "Uncle Frank's Children's Matinee." It first ran for four years on KOL, then for eleven years on KJR, until his death in Seattle's Columbia Hospital. He had been in poor health for the last several years of his life.
He was buried in Washelli Cemetery under the auspices of Fortson-Thygesen Camp No. 2 of the Spanish War Veterans, of which he was a past commander.
Coombs died on October 31, 1941.
"Belle Brandon" Frank Coombs, Lakeside Indestructible Cylinder (1910) T. Ellwood Garrett & Woolcott
Frank Coombs sings “Belle Brandon”
Lyrics are by T. Ellwood Garrett.
Music is by F. Woolcott.
‘Neath a tree by the margin of a woodland,
Whose spreading leafy boughs sweep the ground,
With a path leading thither o’er the prairie,
Where silence hung her night garb around;
Where oft I have wandered in the evening,
When the summer winds were fragrant on the lea,
There I saw the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And we met ‘neath the old arbor tree.
Belle Brandon was a birdling of the mountain,
In freedom she sported on the lea,
And they said the life current of the red man
Tinged her veins, from a far distant sea.
And she loved her humble dwelling on the prairie,
And her guileless happy heart clung to me,
And I loved the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And we both loved the old arbor tree.
On the trunk of an aged tree I carved them,
And our names on the sturdy oak remain,
But I now repair in sorrow to its shelter,
And murmur to the wild winds my pain.
And I sat there in solitude repining,
For the beauty dream night brought to me,
Death has wed the little beauty, Belle Brandon,
And she sleeps ’neath the old arbor tree.
Belle Brandon is called “a birdling of the mountain”–a way of saying the speaker’s one-time (now deceased) girlfriend Belle Brandon was in tune with nature, enjoying the freedom of birds.
Frank M. Coombs was born on July 26, 1871, in Bedford, Iowa.
He had settled in Seattle by 1889–that is, after the city’s fire–and worked as a letter carrier.
He left that job to sing on vaudeville stages and tour with minstrel companies, working with Lew Dockstader (five seasons), Weber and Fields, and the Primrose Minstrels.
He also gained experience during a season with Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera Company; a season under Victor Herbert in the musical comedy The Only Girl; three seasons on the road in the same production; and many seasons with Keith-Orpheum and other vaudeville circuits.
He played in all major U.S. cities and entertained abroad, such as in Japan and the Philippines.
His counter-tenor voice was higher than Richard Jose’s but not as high as Will Oakland’s.
He made his first cylinders around 1900 for a short-lived firm that specialized in supplying slot machines.
His recording career began in earnest in 1910 with a double-faced Columbia disc featuring “Silver Threads Among the Gold” backed by “Nellie Was a Lady” (A835). The record was his most popular.
Columbia’s 1915 catalog states, “Another of the singers first introduced to the record-buying public by the Columbia is Mr. Frank Coombs the counter-tenor, well-known as having ‘the sweetest voice in vaudeville.'”
The November 1913 Columbia catalog lists 20 recordings by Coombs working as a solo artist in addition to two numbers done with the assistance of the Brunswick Quartet and five duets with baritone William H. Thompson.
Two duets with Ernest Aldwell–“Sweet Kentucky Lady, Dry Your Eyes” and “There’s a Little Spark of Love Still Burning”–appeared in March and April 1915, respectively. The session that produced the latter (January 22, 1915) was his last for Columbia.
Though best known as a Columbia artist, Coombs also sang over a dozen titles from 1910 to 1913 for the U. S. Phonograph Company, the Cleveland-based maker of U-S Everlasting cylinders.
Two Coombs discs issued by Victor were announced in the December 1912 supplement: “Afterwards” (17175), which was coupled with the Peerless Quartet’s “By the Old Cathedral Door,” and the ballad “Beautiful Isle of the Sea” (35259). He never worked for Edison.
In later years Coombs returned to Seattle, living at 175 West 58th Street. Beginning in 1926 he broadcast a weekly show of child talent, “Uncle Frank’s Children’s Matinee.” It first ran for four years on KOL, then for eleven years on KJR, until his death in Seattle’s Columbia Hospital. He had been in poor health for the last several years of his life.
He was buried in Washelli Cemetery under the auspices of Fortson-Thygesen Camp No. 2 of the Spanish War Veterans, of which he was a past commander.
Coombs died on October 31, 1941.
“Belle Brandon” Frank Coombs, Lakeside Indestructible Cylinder (1910) T. Ellwood Garrett & Woolcott
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