You’re listening to: Jaudas’ Society Orchestra on an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder from 1919 and…

You’re on the Sound Beat.

The Girl Behind the Gun, from the musical comedy of the same name, was composed by Ivan Caryll.

The play opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York on September 16, 1918. The book and lyrics were written by the popular team of PG Woodehouse and Guy Bolton. Wilda Bennett and Donald Brian starred.

It would close in February of 1919 and reopen later that year in London with a new title: “Kissing Time”. Sterling Holloway and Yvonne Arnaud led a star studded cast for 430 performances.

You can listen to the whole song and hundreds of other cylinders right now at the Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection.

Sound Beat is produced at the Special Collections Research Center at the Syracuse University Libraries.

Episode image: Scene from Kissing Time, printed in and scanned from “Kissing Time”, The Play Pictorial, May 1919, p. 82–95. This image is in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States prior to January 1, 1928.

This episode was written with Sound Beat intern Lincoln Marion.