[Phono-L] Charles Edison- the Avant Garde Bohemian?

[estott at localnet.com]

  I've recently picked up a few materials which gave me a new 
perspective on Charles Edison. It seems that in 1915-1916 he entered 
into a partnership with Guido Bruno. He was a colorful individual 
styled the "Barnum of Greenwich Village" who operated "Bruno's Garret" 
where for a small sum tourists could see Genuine Greenwich Village 
Artists painting, sculpting, reading poetry, and in general being 
colorful. (Needless to say most Greenwich Village artists detested 
doing this.)  Anyhow, Charles Edison is listed as the publisher of 
"Bruno's Weekly" a little pamphlet of literature and essays which (not 
surprisingly) has an occasional plug for Diamond Discs.  The back 
covers of the issues I have advertise "Charles Edison's Little Thimble 
Theater" at 10 Fifth Avenue. Performances listed are a play about 
Stephen Foster, a "Disc Concert on the square" and most interestingly 
"Passion, Poison and Petrification!" by G. Bernard Shaw, and "Miss 
Julia" by August Strindberg.   In addition a little Googling shows that 
Charles Edison contributed verse to the magazine under the name "Tom 
Sleeper".  Here is an example:

  "BIOGRAPHY

  A black crow flapped his wings in a dead tree.

  At that moment I was born.

  A camel awoke, stretched and wandered away over the desert; just then 
my mate came into being.

  We met quite accidentally at Darjeeling, married, raised five 
chindren, built a house and kept a cat.

  Later we died and were buried in the same grave.

  This completes our history . . .

  Not that it does anybody any good."

   It would seem that Thomas Edison put a stop to this activity when he 
put Charles to work in the phonograph plant.

  Eric Stott