Sunday, April 26, 2020

RCA-Victor

This makes such a good story--too good--that you just have to cross-check. "Francis observed that when he played the records of his dead brother's voice, the dog would run over to the phonograph and listen intently. Francis painted the scene, calling it "His Master's Voice" and tried to sell the painting."

"The painting His Master's Voice in its original form was completed during 1899 and originally showed the dog (who had in fact died four years previously) listening to a cylinder phonograph."

Or in more detail:

It is difficult to say how the idea came to me beyond the fact that it suddenly occurred to me that to have my dog listening to the phonograph, with an intelligent and rather puzzled expression, and call it 'His Master's Voice' would make an excellent subject. We had a phonograph and I often noticed how puzzled he was to make out where the voice came from. It certainly was the happiest thought I ever had.

Or in another page: "The little dog was puzzled by where the voice came from, and Barraud found it very amusing." ... and ... "Barraud named the painting "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph," and eventually he decided to rename it to "His Master's Voice.""

FWIW: "Nipper (1884–1895) was born in Bristol, England, and was a mixed-breed Jack Russell Terrier. The playful dog’s tendency to bite the backs of visitors legs earned him the name."

Yes, the story was a bit too good to be perfectly accurate...

2 comments:

  1. I never heard the story before.

    It's a shame to hear it debunked immediately, too good to be true but there are real life examples of pets pining away over videos of their owners who have passed away.

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  2. I think this will occur more as quality gets better. None of our dogs ever paid much attention to the TV, except very occasionally the sound of another dog would cause them to perk up. But my son's dog recognises my voice on Zoom calls.

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