Here’s a wax cylinder recording circa 1908, straight from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive (and shared on YouTube by The Ragtime Chronicle).
This one includes two “comic” ghost stories. No name, no exact date, at least according to UCSB. All we know is that it was recorded some time between 1908 and 1911, with an inscription on the box that read “Used / Ghost Stories.” Here’s my transcription attempt:
“One dark night, a Swede took a shortcut home through a graveyard. Of course the hour was late, the weather misty, and objects could be seen only through a haze. As he passed along, a ghost came out from behind a monument. It is no disgrace to the Swede to say he was scared, and ran, and he kept running until he was tired out. Then he sat down on the end of a log to rest, and the ghost sat down on the other end. Said the ghost, ‘We had a pretty hard run.’ The Swede jumped up and simply said, ‘I think we will run some more!'”
“Now, an Irishman handles ghosts differently. In a certain matter of reform, Shan has repeatedly disobeyed the warnings of the priest. As a last resort to cure him, the priest concluded to scare him. Knowing that Shan would be late going home, and that he would use a frequented pass through the graveyard, the priest took advantage of a new dug grave, and concealed himself until Shan should appear. Luck was with the priest, for he had hardly gotten into the grave when Shan was heard coming along the path. At the right moment, the priest said, ‘Woe, my soul, it cannot rest. My soul, it cannot rest.’ Shan stopped and sobered up mighty quick. ‘No wonder you can’t rest,’ said he, ‘You are only half buried.’ And without more ado, he took a spade that had been left by the gravedigger, and covered the grave up.”
Yeah, I guess those are a bit funny.
Obligatory historical context: Wax cylinder recordings were invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. They were the first commercial sound medium, played on cylinder phonographs, and were actually known as records before records were a thing. They were popular from around 1888 to 1929, until disc recordings won the earliest of the format wars. They were popular for personal recordings like this one. Digging through them feels like running into weird audio diaries in Columbia or something.
Techmoan has a video showing off some old phonographs and even recent vaporwave recorded on classic wax cylinders, too. Worth a look!
