George W. Johnson (1846-1914) South Border 44

 George W. Johnson was the first  recorded African American performer on record.  The first recording apparatus invented was tin foil in 1870. Since songs and music were difficult to record, the first recordings were whistling. George W. Johnson was born to slaves on a Virginia plantation and made his way to New York in the 1870’s. He made his living “whistling tunes” on the ferries for pennies.

 He was discovered and starting whistling into a recording apparatus for 20 cents a song. By 1888 Thomas Edison had improved recording with a wax cylinder device.

George’s records became very popular, and added a song called “The Laughing Song,” which became one of the largest selling records of the time. It was a contagious lilting song that is still recorded to this day.

 He called himself the “The Whistling Coon” because of the trend of the time to call African Americans that. Many of his early recordings are highly collectible. He was the biggest star of the first decade of the recording business.

 His personal life was quite a story in itself. He was arrested for murdering his common law wife, a German woman named Roskin Stuart. They both had a fondness for drinking gin and at one point she had shot him the ankle with a gun. She was thrown (or fell) out of a two story window one time and was in the hospital for months.

Another time, she was found beaten and unconscious and died in the hospital. George W. Johnson was charged with the murder. Since two other common law wives of his had died of unusual circumstances, he went to trial for murder.

 The music industry rallied and raised over 2 thousand dollars for his defense and he was acquitted as far as records show. Many years the rumor was  that he was hung for this murder, but through records found, he worked the last years of his life as the doorman at the Lyceum Theatre and died destitute of heart disease in 1914.