In 1919 Aileen Stanley made a test record for Columbia at 229 West 46th Street in New York City.
The song is "I'll Dance My Way Right Back To Dixieland." Music is by Billy Baskette. Words are by Grant Clarke. The verse opens, "What makes me feel so gay? What makes me feel so gay?" The chorus begins with this line: "I'm going to start today and dance my way right back to Dixieland."
A surviving pressing of the disc is dated "Oct. 1919," gives the number 63236-1 (matrix and take), and indicates that piano accompaniment was provided by "Bob," undoubtedly Robert Buttenuth (Aileen's regular accompanist and future husband).
The name "Donovan" on the white disc indicates that the test or trial was supervised by A. E. Donovan, manager of the company's professional and personal record departments.
Stanley delivers a song about returning home to Dixie, the singing style close to Marion Harris's. The performance is polished, so it is curious that Columbia failed to offer Stanley a contract.
Executives must have hoped to sign a female singer with greater name recognition--in fact, Marion Harris signed with Columbia months later.
Within a few years most American companies, large (Victor, Edison) and small (you name it!), would issue Aileen Stanley records but not Columbia.
Her real name was Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge. She was born in Chicago so it is fitting that she was among the first singers--in January 1923--to record Fred Fisher's newly published "Chicago" (dance bands recorded it months earlier but Stanley's Okeh 4792 was the first by a vocalist).
Her father and mother had emigrated from England though her father died of typhoid several months before she was born, contracting it from another daughter who also died of the disease.
Her mother, Maria, encouraged young Aileen and her brother Stanley to develop their singing and dancing talents. Another brother was named Robert.
They formed a brother and sister team called Stanley and Aileen, also the Peerless English Juveniles, even the Premier Versatile Entertainers. They toured the Midwest and West Coast by 1904, playing Nickelodeons and burlesque houses.
Discussing Aileen's early career in the Spring-Summer 1984 issue of the Journal of American Culture, Grayce Susan Burian reports that Stan ran off with a chorus girl and began a new act. Aileen chose to perform solo in vaudeville, forming a new stage name (Aileen Stanley) by reversing the name of the old act (Stanley and Aileen).
When she began working alone in vaudeville is unknown, but Billboard on February 22, 1915, included this review of her debut at New York City's Palace Theatre: "Aileen Stanley was splendid to look at and sang four songs with excellent effect. She was making her first bow to Times Square and produced applause galore and laughs for her comedy incidents..."
By 1919 she toured the Orpheum Circuit--and made this trial record.
