The Creepy Talking Doll Of Thomas Edison
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Edison's Phonograph Doll may have been an innovative technological leap, being the first phonograph miniaturised and sold for the home entertainment market. But the doll failed to produce the expected sales. It failed on a number of fronts, the cost at $10 with a simple chemise, and $20-$25 with full dress, was many weeks worth of wages to the average consumer. The phonographic mechanism was delicate, not designed for the heavy-handed use by a child. The stylus soon wore away the fragile cylinder recordings. But over and above the high cost, and the flaws in production, the one thing that caused the doll to fail above all others was the utterly creepy and disturbing recordings themselves. Scratchy, high-pitched nightmares recorded by women in Edison's factory, mimicking the voice of a child. Edison himself even admitted that the voice emanating from the doll was creepy, when he said "the voices of the little monsters were exceedingly unpleasant to hear."
The doll was invented by Edison in 1877, and later developed by the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company. The doll spent many years going through development before it was considered ready for production. The doll was introduced onto the market in 1890. Standing 22", it was a weighty item at some 4 pounds (2Kg), due to its metal body which contained the phonograph unit. The removable phonograph was designed to play a single nursery rhyme, only a few seconds long. There was no spring motor or regulator in the device, so the child had to crank it at a steady speed, so that they could hear the recording. Too slow or too fast and it distorted the voice into an unearthly voice from the bowels of hell. |
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The first dolls were offered for sale on April the 7th, 1890, at the Lenox Lyceum in New York. The dolls were only produced for a 6 week period, with some 2,500 being shipped out, but less than 500 completed dolls were actually sold. With most of those were returned by unhappy and freaked out customers. All the warning signs had been there 2 years earlier, when The New York Evening Sun reported on a prototype of the doll, that spoke in Edison's won deep voice. "Here Mr. Edison wound up a sweet little creature as an illustration of his last remark. In a hoarse, husky, deep tone the doll growled out these words: “Oh, dear mamma, your dollie is tired now; put me in my little bed, dear mamma.” The effect was more amusing and instructive than natural."
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Recently new recordings have been digitised from the original wax and tin cylinders. Probably the creepiest of all the recordings is that of "Now I Laid Me Down To Sleep", which is the first recording played on the video segment here. More than enough to give anyone, and not just a child, nightmares for weeks. Warning! Once you hear the voice of the doll, you can never un-hear it.
With the newest recordings, posted online recently by the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, there are now eight total audio files available from these dolls, including “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “There Was a Little Girl,” “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” and “Hickory Dickory Dock.” |
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A Haven For Devil Dolls - The unassuming looking house in a leafy Kentucky suburb, that is home to the world's largest collection of creepy ventriloquists dummies.
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The Dial-A-Poem Poets - A New York City poetry project started in 1968, by poet John Giorno. It used the telephone system, to spread poetry recorded by poets and artists.
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