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These are some recordings of
my Father’s Father’s Mother’s
Brother, Eddie Healy, a vaudeville singer who often performed with another
singer named Allan Cross. Eddie Healy was born in Providence, RI
in the 1890s. He apparently had a beautiful voice as a child, and began
performing at a young age. It was feared that when his voice changed, his
singing talent would go away, but his voice changed and remained beautiful
and he went on to have a successful career as a performer. At some point he
began singing as part of the duet “Healy & Cross,” who
achieved a degree of fame on the Orpheum and Keith Circuits, headlining at
the Palace Theater and the Loews State Theater. In the early 1930s, Healy
retired from show business, settled down, and opened a chop house in Providence. He died in
1939. His apartment caught fire, and he was forced to jump out the window from
a high story to his death. I have been told that Uncle Eddie was my
grandfather’s favorite Uncle. When I was a young child, my Grandmother,
when telling me about my Grandfather’s uncle, showed me the one piece
of sheet music that belonged to the family. It was called “I Hear You
Calling, Pal of Mine,” and it contained an insert on the cover that was
a picture of Healy & Cross, who had performed it. Although Eddie
Healy-related items were to be found at my grandparents’ house (his
tuxedo, some of his books, many photographs of him, etc.), that piece of
sheet music was the only item I had that gave me any idea of what kind of
music he performed. It wasn’t until late 2005, when I went through a
brief genealogy obsession, that I was able to track
down more sheet music. Since then, I’ve been buying it up one item at a
time whenever it appears on ebay, or other online
stores. A few months after I began searching, I was lucky enough to even find
a 78 rpm record. The revelation that there were recordings out there of him
was quite exciting. Since then, I have obtained seven. These seven records
represent perhaps the entirety of his recorded output. Looking through some
information on the record company that produced them, they were the only
seven I could find that bear his name. If anybody knows of any other
recordings that may exist, I would be very grateful if you were to get in
touch with me.
      
      
      
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