Edward M. Favor

Edward Addison Favor (August 29, 1856 – January 10, 1936),

who was billed as Edward M. Favor or Ed. M. Favor, was an American vaudeville

comedian, singer, musical theatre performer and pioneer recording artist, who

was one of the most popular stars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth

centuries.

He was born in New York, the son of Franklin Cushman Favor

and his wife Lydia, née Lowe. Suggestions that the family name was originally LeFevre

have been discounted.

He began working in vaudeville as a light comedian in about

1876, and in or before 1877 married Edith Sinclair (1857-1942), who had been a

successful child actress. Billed as Favor and Sinclair, the couple worked

together as a duo and in musical comedies. In 1887 they appeared together as

members of the Edith Sinclair Comedy Company in A Box of Cash, in which he

played an Irish-American character. Despite the popularity of his Irish character

roles, there is no evidence that he had any Irish ancestry. In 1893 he and his

wife appeared on Broadway in Edward E. Rice's long-running burlesque 1492 Up To

Date.

He made one of his first recordings in 1893, of "The

Commodore Song", taken from his previous show, Ship Ahoy. Among his other

early successes were "Say Au Revoir, But Not Goodbye" (North

American, 1894), "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" (Edison, 1894),

and "My Best Girl's A New Yorker" (Columbia, 1895). By the late 1890s

Favor recorded for most of the major recording companies, in between his

vaudeville commitments. In 1899, he was one of the first to record on the

Zonophone label, and in 1900 recorded for the first time for Victor Records. He

continued to appear on stage and, in 1900, was described in Broadway magazine

as "one of the best light comedians on the stage" and, with his wife,

as "one of the big attractions in vaudeville."

He continued to make successful recordings for the next

decade, sung in his "Irish-American piping tenor".[3] These included

comic numbers for Edison, Columbia and other companies, such as "Hamlet

Was A Melancholy Dane", "Who Threw The Overalls In Mrs. Murphy's

Chowder?" (1901), "On a Sunday Afternoon" (1902), "Bedelia

(The Irish Coon Song Serenade)" (1903), "I Think I Hear A Woodpecker

Knocking At My Family Tree", and "Pocahontas" (1906). He also

made recordings with his wife, Steve Porter, and the American Quartet.

He made his final recordings for Victor in 1911, and for

Edison in 1914 when he recorded "On The 7:28" and "Indoor

Sports".

Favor continued to appear in theatrical shows through the

1920s and into the early 1930s. In 1933 he appeared in the Broadway productions

of John Ferguson and Merton of the Movies, and in 1934 in America - Very Early.

He died at the age of 79 in Brooklyn in 1936.