Ethel Olson and Norwegian New York
“Cut out dat dare shimmy music and play some of dose old good Norwegian tunes”
One hundred years ago today … Vaudeville star Ethel Olson recorded “Det Nye Piano” (Norwegian for “The New Piano”) at Victor Studios, 46 W. 38th Street, New York.
Listen to the track here:
Image and sound recording via Library of Congress.
Ethel Olson and her sister, Eleanor Olson, children of Norwegian immigrants, were early-twentieth-century fixtures of the US Scandinavian vaudeville circuit. They were not specifically connected to New York City, but no doubt they were popular with the substantial Scandinavian communities that dotted the city, and were clustered specifically in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
The New York Norwegian community was sizable enough to warrant a daily newspaper in Norwegian, the Nordisk Tidende (“Norwegian Journal”). Check out the February 21, 1920 edition here.
Ethel Olson herself was the composer of “Det Nye Piano,” a spoken-word satire on Norwegian immigrants striving for the American dream while simultaneously competing with the neighbors.
The Olson sisters published the lyrics to their original songs in Norwegian Dialect Stories, available to us courtesy of the Internet Archive. Here are the words to “The New Piano”:
Oh, Lena! Lena! Are you here? Oh, now our piano has yust come. Can you hear Lilly's piano playing: "Dance Your Little Lady On De Missouri River" and all dat kind of stuff? Oh, I'm so glad our piano has come. It is yust lovely. Oh, my, it looks grand. But I vould like to look at yours. I vould like to see yust exactly how your piano is. Oh, my, isn't it awful small. Oh, I should say so. You should see ours. I tink our piano — now don't feel bad — I tink our piano is anyvays five feet higher. And broad, I tink our piano is anyvays tree feet broader. Oh, my, vat a difference.
Anyvay, is dat all de notes you get on your piano? You should see ours. I
tink ve get anyvays five dozen more notes. You know, ve get many more black
vuns, you understand. Vat kind of vood is it in your piano? Oh, ya, uh-huh. You
should see de vood in ours, dat mahog um, mahog uh — oh, I don't know, dat
some kind of mahog business. Is dat all de pedalls you get? Ve get five on ours.
Ve get vun dat makes noise yust exactly like a mandarin orchestra, and
vun makes a noise like a brass band. Vun makes a whole lot of noise, and vun
don't make kvite so much. And vun don't make any noise at all. Miss Thompson
haraldri sett sant piano i livet, sierhon.
Oh, my, is dat all you get to sit on. You should see vat ve get. Ve get a great
big long benk, you know, so all de children can play at de same time. Othervise,
it's fighting and everyting. And how tin de legs on your piano. You should see de
legs on our piano. I tink dare anyvay five feet ticker. Now don't feel bad, but it's
yust good to see vat odder people got.Oh, Louie! Louie! Cut out dat dare shimmy music and play some of
dose old good Norvegian tunes. Hurry up now. (sings) La, la, la, la, la . . . Oh,
dat's good. Come on over. Ve'll put on de coffee and have a good time.