Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE

Subject: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 10:15 PM

I am looking for information about the recordings of RUTH RUBIN
released by the ORIOLE records label.

I have information about two albums:
Album No.2 (3 78rpm records, issued 1950)
Vol.III (LP, issued 1954, reissued by Folkways 1959)

comments on the LP and on some internet sites indicate that there
was an Album No.1 issued in the mid 1940's - I have not found
any information about this release. There are TWO other 78rpm
albums of Ruth Rubin, issued by ASCH/STINSON, and DISC, but I have
not found the ORIOLE Album 1.

Some sources also indicate a CHILDREN's song LP was issued
by Oriole - have not found any confirmation of this (however there
is a FOLKWAYS lp of this description).

Does anyone HAVE the 78rpm Album No.1 or the CHILDREN's Lp
ON ORIOLE label, information confirming their existence or scans ?????

Thanks, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 05:50 AM

I have a lot of Ruth Rubin material, but I'm away from my books just now. Remind me in 2 weeks.

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Sep 19 - 05:47 PM

The Internet Archive has one 78-rpm record that you can listen to: Oriole 100, with songs sung in Yiddish by Ruth Rubin, arranged and accompanied on piano by R. Post:

Side 1: Yankele (written by M. Gebirtig)
Side 2: 1. Bay Dem Shtetl; 2. Vigndig A Fremd Kind; 3. Basseraber Kinder Tants (no songwriter identified).

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 16 Sep 19 - 06:32 PM

Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting - that disc is from Album No.2, The major
Jewish sound archives (FAU, Dartmouth, Yivo, etc.) all have
complete listings for this album, and "Vol.III", some also
permit listening.

Thomas.

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 17 Sep 19 - 08:08 PM

Have you considered asking the people at

[e-mail]   ??

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 17 Sep 19 - 10:24 PM

Guest Starship,
Yes, I've sent query to a number of sources including YIVO, so far
no response.

Thomas.

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 04:00 AM

Oh, look at this at the YIVO Institute: The Ruth Rubin Legacy -

https://ruthrubin.yivo.org/exhibits/show/ruth-rubin-sound-archive/recordings/the-ruth-rubin-collection/titles

Subject: RE: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 09:14 PM

Coming from: Origins/lyrics: Hey Zhankoye.

Does anybody have a physical/street address for Oriole, NY?

“In the middle of November ('44) Ruth Rubin arranged for Asch to record several of her Yiddish folk songs, most of which she had learned as a child or later as a collector in the Yiddish-speaking community of Montreal. She and her husband intended to distribute the resulting album privately on their own label (Oriole); they arranged to pay Asch a fee in exchange for which he would record the album and make the necessary arrangements for its pressing and production. Although Mrs. Rubin was primarily an a cappella singer, she was convinced by someone in this instance to record the material with a backup chorus (a decision she later regretted). She and her husband knew little of Asch except that he was the son of the famous Yiddish writer….

...Six sides resulted from the session, the most famous of which was probably “Zhankoye,” a song that came out of Russia in the 1920s during the period of collectivization....

Another conflict that resulted from Ruth Rubin's recording session with Asch had more immediate consequences for both of them. After Asch had pressed and packaged the album, the Rubins came to 117 West Forty-sixth Street from time to time to pick up copies as needed. On one such occasion they noticed that he had packaged a large number of the albums on his own Asch-Stinson label rather than on their private label. The album, in fact, continued to appear in Asch catalogues as Jewish Folk Songs Sung by Ruth Rubin and Chorus and was even marketed through Asch's subsequent label, Disc Records, in 1946 after Asch Records had dissolved. Asch had not, of course, paid for the right to use Rubin's material, nor was he paying her royalties. The whole matter resulted in a lawsuit that Asch eventually settled with a sum of several hundred dollars, at a time when he could ill afford it.”
[Ruth Rubin interview with author, Making People's Music, Moe Asch and Folkways Records, Goldsmith, 1998]

Note: The suit was still pending when Asch & Stinson Trading finally parted was for good. Former partners Harris, Prosky &co. agreed to pay a third of the final settlement.