“A Ta Fenêtre Fleurie”
Robert Marino, vocal; M. G. Andolfi, piano
circa 1929 (Pathé N 3377 mx 201241)
Robert Marino – A Ta Fenetre Fleurie]
“Mon Coeur Est Tous Près De Son Coeur”
Robert Marino, vocal
circa 1929 (Pathé N 3377 mx 201454)
Robert Marino – Mon Coer Est Tout Pres De Ton Coeur]
Here is a French Pathé record. As noted in a previous posting, Pathé disc records used vertical “hill and dale” grooves rather than the lateral “zig zag” grooves of conventional 78/80 rpm records. As a result of the expiration of the patents for lateral recording, by the mid 1920s Pathé had phased out its use of vertical grooves in the USA and UK. However, because Pathé had a much larger market share in France, there was sufficient demand for vertical records in that country that the company continued to issue them through 1932.
Unfortunately, my inability to read French has made it difficult for me to find much in the way of information about French tenor Robert Marino. I did locate a discography online (.pdf file) showing that he recorded over 60 sides for Pathé between 1928 and 1930.
I base the circa 1929 recording date on a July 1929 newspaper page (.pdf file) which included radio listings for Paris. At 6:35 PM on July 9, Radio Paris was to air a program called A Half Hour With Pathé with “A Ta Fenêtre Fleurie” being one of the records scheduled to be played. Presumably the records selected for play on a Pathé program would have been ones that were available for listeners to purchase.
I think both sides of this record are very pleasant to listen to. If anyone has information about Robert Marino or a more precise recording date, please feel free to share it in the comments.
Radio Dismuke
Hi, thanks for your great blog. I love your radio channel too.
Here are a few informations about Robert Marino (I didn’t know him before discovering him on your blog).
He was born in Paris in 1890 and his real name was Robert Duguet. He starded singing ans studying music at the age of 10 in a famous music school where he received a very classical formation by wellknown masters. The he spent 3 years in Morocco (then a french colony) for military service and 4 more years in the army during World War I (seven years under uniform !).
After the war he starded working for the government during a few yeabut swiched quickly to become a singer. He made his first recordings for the label “Opéra” in 1925. As a tenor, he had a classical and opera répertoire. He sang at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo during the 1926-1927 season. But his interpretations of popular songs of ancient time (i.e.: XIXth century) were far more successful than his classical répertoire.
following (don’t know what I made wrong with my keyboard… sorry for that).
Robert Marino joined “Pathé” in 1928 and recorded for this company till World War II. He recorded a huge number of popular old songs and re but never became an artist of first level, nothing comparable to Maurice Chevalier or Charles Trénet who were huge stars. He also recorded many songs for films and performed live in theaters in Paris and all France, but also in Germany, England, Turkey, Egypt… and maybe in Italy that he knew very well. He was a very well educated man, and could speak (and sing) in italian, spanish and english.
He died in 1974, at the age of 84.
(these informations come from a “biography” written by Raymond Nicole and found on a pdf file on the net. Hope this will help.
One more thing : the correct spelling for the second song is “Mon cŒur est touT près de Ton cŒur” (My Heart Is Near To Your Heart).
Sorry for my poor english…