Pianist Edythe Baker plays her original arrangement of selections from The Dubarry, a German operetta from 1931 with music after Carl Milloecker by Theo Mackeben. The story concerns Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, King of France, and became popular in Great Britain and the US. Baker's performance was recorded on the British label, Decca in 1932, GB4498. It is apparently a rare record, made during the early days of the Depression, and few of the discs were issued.
Edythe Baker (1899-1971) was an enormously gifted American pianist, composer, singer and dancer who grew up in the Kansas City area. Her abilities, drive and beauty propelled her to the upper echelon of the entertainment industry during the 1920s. She appeared as soloist, stage performer, and made over 70 piano roll recordings during the late 1910s through the mid-1920s. In the latter 1920s she moved to London, where her career flourished, and she came into contact with the social set (that emphasized American entertainers) surrounding the soon-to-be and later abdicated king, Edward,It was there that she came into contact with Gerald d'Erlanger. After her marriage to d'Erlanger, Baker renounced her performance career.
However, she apparently made an agreement with him that she would make phonograph recordings. Thus, it came to be that she recorded 24 sides of her unique arrangements of popular tunes of the early 1930s on British Decca. Her marriage to d"Erlanger ended in 1934, but subsequently she did not return to her performing career. Her Decca recordings are therefore Baker's last documented creative musical endeavors.
For more information about Edythe Baker:
Visual montage are taken from vintage photos of 1920--30s Weimar.
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