Cohen on the Telephone

Cohen on the Telephone, also known at Cohen at the Telephone is a comedy monologue which is believed to be the first to sell a million copies.^[1] It was released on both cylinder records and 78 rpm records.

It was first recorded in London on July 1913 by Joe Hayman for Regal Records and was issued in the U.S. by Columbia Records.^[1][2] The success of that record led to cover versions recorded by performers such as Barney Bernard whose version was recorded on March 1916 for Victor Records^[3] and George Thompson whose version on Edison Records was released in 1916.^[4] In 1927, Victor issued an electrical recording of that monologue by Julius Tannen.^[5]

The monologue is Mr. Cohen's attempt to contact his landlord using a telephone of the period. The humor is derived from Cohen's difficulty in being understood on the then primitive telephone with his thick Yiddish accent:

=="Hello, I'm Cohen...I'M COHEN...No- I ain't Goin...I'm sitting here....Hello! This is your tenant Cohen...YOUR TENANT COHEN....No, NOT Lieutenant Cohen..."

Because these recordings are now in the public domain, they are easily available for streaming or downloading on various web sites such as archive.org and YouTube.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.ruclip.com/video/ZrX-Q9bFJJI/78s-cohen-on-the-telephone-joe-hayman.html
2. ^ http://faujsa.fau.edu/jsa/discography.php?jsa_num=503633-A
3. ^ http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700002364
4. ^ http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr%201=1016&query=2815&num=1&start=1&sortBy=&sortOrder=id
5. ^ http://faujsa.fau.edu/jsa/discography.php?jsa_num=504072-A