Sold Date: January 1, 2024
Start Date: December 25, 2023
Final Price: $149.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 5244
Buyer Feedback: 0

What I am offering is the following:

ARTIST: Solomon Smulewitz

LABEL: Zon-O-Phone 3010 (Yiddish)

TITLE: God and His Laws are Correct

VISUAL CONDITION: G+

AUDIBLE CONDITION: Plays average

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaP8irIZDgQ&t=10s

CONTROL CODE: 2491-78-823

Solomon Smulewitz (: שלמה שמולעװיץ, 1868–1943), sometimes known by the anglicized name Solomon Small, was a Russian-born American , folk poet, , playwright, recording artist, and composer for the . He wrote hundreds of songs, many of which were recorded during the heydey of the Yiddish-language recording industry in the 1910s and 1920s in New York.

He was born on April 13, 1868, in , ,  (now located in ). His mother died during his birth, and he was raised by a stepmother; his father Yehuda Leyb Smulewitz was a . He later said that he had an extremely difficult childhood. Solomon sang in his chorus from the age of 5. When his father died seven years later, Solomon went into the tailoring trade while still singing in cantorial choirs in exchange for his meals. He left to join the chorus of a traveling theater troupe and was very successful in girls' roles. After being left behind in an inn as a mashkn (a pledge that the others would come back and pay their bill), he went back to the cantor in Pinsk but was thrown out. He became a .

He wrote his first song at the age of 12: The desolate orphan, an autobiographical plaint. Having learned Russian, he sang and played the  from town to town, finally settling in , where he became a successful , also writing songs for other local wedding singers. He wrote for 's play productions in . He published his first book in 1891.

He emigrated to the United States, to England, and then back to the United States again. He was embraced by some of the leading figures of the New York Yiddish Theatre, including  and . He began to write many one-act plays, which became quite popular. In America, he toured singing his own songs, which eventually totalled around 500 (in a letter to the press, he claimed 300 written to his own melodies and 200 sets to melodies by others). The most famous were A brivele der mamen, Dos talesl, Al tashlicheinu, Khave, and Dos blumenkrentzele, which became well known both in America and Europe and became so widely sung that they were thought to be folk songs.

From 1905 to 1909, he issued a yearly collection of his lyrics called "Der teater zinger." In 1916, he published "Poeziye un lider." His 500-page autobiography was never published. His song "Khave" was so popular the famous Russian singer  included it in his repertoire. He was a prolific recording artist.

Smulewitz had a strong and piercing  voice which suited early recording capabilities well; after 1920 both his manner of singing and style of composition went out of fashion. Smulewitz fell on hard times and, to make a living, continuously toured the United States and  from  to  and , often with his daughter Dorothy, without much success.

He died on January 1, 1943, in .

SHIPPING: $7.99 media mail.   Records are put in a sleeve, which is in turn put in a bag to hold them in place.  Then two cardboard squares are placed on each side of the records, making a sandwich, then taped together for protection.  Using a 14x14x4 (or 6 inch) box depending on the number of discs.  The empty spaces are filled with packing peanuts and the box sealed with tape, marked fragile, and shipped off to its new home.  I'm not interested in making the sale, only to destroy the record in shipping.

 If you're tired of poor grading, please give me a shot.  My grading tends to be some of the strictest you'll find on Ebay.   My V is a lot of other dealers' E for example.  Buy with confidence.  

 YouTube name: JLStanton1968  

I have quite a few videos showing rare 78s playing you may enjoy.  Check it out!

 VISUAL GRADING SCALE (I am using the VJM Record Grading System):

N- Nearly Mint, but has been played.  No visible signs of wear or damage (I will only use this if I feel the record is as close to being unplayed and undamaged as possible, usually for stock that appears pristine in every way.  It has to be great for me to list it as such)

E+ Plays like new, with very, very few signs of handling, such as tiny scuffs from being slipped in and out of jackets

E Still very shiny, near new looking, with no visible signs of wear, but a few inaudible scuffs and scratches

E- Still shiny but without the luster of a new record, few light scratches.

V+ is an average condition 78 in which scuffs and general use has dulled the finish somewhat. Wear is moderate but playing is generally free from distortion. Surface noise not overly pronounced.

V Moderate, even wear throughout, but still very playable. Surface noise and scratches audible but not intrusive.

V- Quite playable still, but distortion and heavy greying in loud passages. Music remains loud in most passages. Surface noise and scratches well below music level.

G+ Grey throughout but still serviceable. Music begins to sound muffled. Heavy scratches.

G Quite seriously worn and scratched, but music level is still higher than surface noise.

G- to P I don?t intend to list any records in this condition unless they are of a historic nature.

AUDIBLE GRADING SCALE (This is something I came up with because it?s what I?d personally want if I were buying from a dealer online).  For 78rpm records, I use an Audio Technica LP120 to do the sound grading.

Plays New: Just what you'd expect.  The record plays with virtually no surface noise other than the music.

Plays Just Below New: Slight static, barely perceptible.  If you have to think about if it plays new or just below new, it's just below new.

Plays Average: A solid listen, albeit one with a certain acceptable amount of white noise in the background. 

Plays Below Average: Heavier white noise makes listening not as nice as higher audible grades.

Plays Like Crap: I won't be selling any of these?