Another ragtimer who doesn’t get a lot of mention in the histories is Arthur Collins. Arthur Francis Collins was born in Philadelphia in 1864, took singing lessons, toured with opera singer Francis Wilson, married in 1895 and retired from music. But he was still a young man and couldn’t stay away from music for long. He joined the De Wolf Hopper Company and then signed a contract with Edison in 1898. He recorded a couple of cylinders that year—“Zizzy Ze Zum Zum” and “Just As the Sun Went Down.” The following year, he cut “Hello Ma Baby” in a decidedly different light than Michigan J. Frog:
Hello! Ma Baby - Arthur Collins (1899) - YouTube
He sang baritone in the Peerless Quartet from 1909-1918, a highly successful act. He also had a long running collaboration with singer Byron G. Harlan (author of the now legendary jazz standard “The Darktown Strutter’s Ball”). Known as Collins & Harlan, they often billed themselves as “The Half-Ton Duo” since both men were somewhat portly in build. Although they sang in two-part harmony, many of their numbers were performed as a male-female duet with Harlan supplying the comical female voices.
Collins & Harlan, ''****** Loves His Possum'' (1906) - YouTube
This one was a big hit for the Half-Ton Duo.
In 1905, Collins cut “The Preacher and the Bear” on a cylinder for Blue Amberol (and re-cut it 1908 on a Victor disc). It was a huge hit selling two million copies (this was back when a few thousand was considered a major hit). It was, by far, the biggest selling recording of the ragtime era.
The Preacher and the Bear - Arthur Collins - YouTube
The 1905 cylinder version of “The Preacher and the Bear.”
His 1910 recording of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” with Byron Harlan was #1 for 10 weeks. Collins recorded all through the 1910s and even became the first artist to use a form of the word jazz in a song title with his 1917 release, “That funny Jas band from Dixieland.” On October 20, 1921, Collins was performing onstage for the Edison Company in which the audience was to guess whether he was really singing or whether they were hearing an Edison Diamond Disc machine. The stage went black and Collins turned to leave the stage and fell through a trapdoor some fool stagehand had left open and was seriously injured. The following year, he was well enough to record a number for the Gennett label and then resumed working with Byron Harlan for Edison but he developed heart ailments which were exacerbated by the effects of his fall in 1921 which he had never fully recovered from and, by 1926, Collins retired from music permanently. He moved to Florida where he spent the next seven years until his death on August 3, 1933 at age 69. He was a very prolific artist who recorded over 300 records (few, if any of them recorded electrically) in a career that spanned over a quarter of a century.
Because his material was often blatantly racist by today’s standards, Arthur Collins has been largely forgotten by the public, known only to a comparatively small circle of ragtimers and jass enthusiasts. But he was the most famous of the ragtime singers in his day and the biggest seller among them. He paved the way for jazz singing by opening a path for later artists as Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and Cliff Edwards—not to mention Louis Armstrong. He was the first white artist to routinely record the songs of black songwriters.
