LIFE

recorder
October 1906 recording expert of the DISC RECORD COMPANY Ltd. at the Stockport factory.
By late 1906 well into 1907 made recordings in India for Nicole Frères.
SOUND RECORDING COMPANY (GRAMMAVOX)
By Feb 1912 Ariel (John G. Graves) records recorded by G. L. Holland, an acknowledged expert who kindly furnished us (THE SOUND WAVE) with the information we convey (TTMR 75, p. 2199

In 1913 hired out to NIPPONOPHONE Co.(agent of Columbia Phonograph Co., New York), Tokyo, Japan.
Yokohama
COLUMBIA USA

Holland's Auto Court

GEORGE LAWRENCE HOLLAND (1878-1940)

"At the risk of being trite we must say it is absolutely astounding to what enormous possibilities the art and commerce of the reproduction of sound has risen in these days of grace. Who would have thought that when the great T. A. Edison first succeeded in obtaining a repetition of sound by mechanical means that within the teens of years almost the uttermost parts of the earth would be laid under contribution to its ever-widening influences, and that the inhabitants of the lands beyond the seas should be brought into direct touch with the centres of civilisation? Most of the nations have had their particular variety of music recorded nowadays by one or other of the big firms, and the busy cities of the Western hemisphere can hear in their own vernacular the vocal and instrumental gems of what we call the semi- or uncivilised races, quaint, barbarous or whatever we like to label them, but still a faithful replica of the people."

Thus begins a lengthy and highly informative article by someone with the initials E. S. S. about recording engineer George Lawrence Holland entitled "Round the World for Records. A Recording Expert in the Land of the Rising Sun" in the Talking Machine News of December 1913.
It is an account of his adventures in Japan, where he had been sent by the Sound Recording Company to make recordings for NIPPONOPHONE.
The article had been in my files for quite some time, not so much because of Holland's Japanese exploits of 1913, but rather because of his recording activities in the Near East (Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece) in 1910. This episode is briefly referred to in the Dec 1913 article.

Not satisfied with the available amount of information on G. L. Holland, I began to think of other ways to find out more about ...... No matter how I searched, I could not find more material.

It took me a while to locate living relatives of Holland, but finally the trail led to a certain Mrs. Virginia Royo in California. According to my research she had to be George L. Holland's granddaughter.
I wrote her a letter explaining what I was after and asked her to confirm that she was indeed G. L. Holland's granddaughter. I had enclosed my version of the Holland family tree.
Soon afterwards I received a letter confirming my findings.
She also had privided new biographical data for my family tree.
Of course, the most interesting passage of her letter was the following:
One can imagine how elated I was when I read Mrs. Royo's message:

I have found some photos of my grandfather [George Lawrence Holland] which I will have copied and immediately airmailed to you. .....................
I remember my grandmother had several recordings which were made in Japan as well as a couple of records of my mother singing (she was training for the opera at the time), but after my grandmother passed away, the records were nowhere to be found...

And, sure enough, soon afterwards I received a large envelope containing a number of very interesting photographs of George Lawrence Holland.
George Lawrence Holland's face had been already familiar to me from the pictures accompanying the article in the Talking Machine News of December 1913.
The article entitled "Round the World for Records. A Recording Expert in the Land of the Rising Sun" tells us of the trip G. L. Holland of the Sound Recording Co. made to Japan for the purpose of making recordings

- And Mr. Frank Andrews - one of Britain's leading experts in the field - had generously given me what he had on the GRAMMAVOX label
- Correspondence Frank Andrews with Colin Pryke
- Roderick Conway Morris article "Greek Café Music" in Recorded Sound No. 80 (July 1981), p. 112 (Grammavox record at NSA (BIRS))
- Grammavox article by Frank Andrews in Talking Machine Review 100
- EMI correspondence
- Picture of SS "Carmania"?
- Map of Holland's 1913 voyage
- label picture of Grammavox record


George Lawrence Holland was one of the 7 children of Alfred Holland and Mary Ann Wood.
He was born in 1878 in Holborn, London.
In 1886 his father Alfred Holland, a jeweler, his wife Mary Ann with second son Walter John migrated to the USA and settled down in Buffalo, in New York State.
Their children Bert Gauntlet HOLLAND and William HOLLAND followed in 1890 (with mother?)
Mary Ann - their mother - died in 1897 in Buffalo.
Alfred married again Rosabella ...... (maiden name unknown)
In 1899 George Lawrence Holland went to visit his relatives in the USA. On the passenger list "Buffalo, Erie, NY" is shown as his final destination.
Back in England he married Hannah Elizabeth Ball in 1900.
They had 4 children, all of whom were born in England.
In 1903 their son Alfred Frederick was born.
In 1905 George Lawrence junior was born
In 1906 G. L. Holland was working as a recording expert at the Stockport factory of the DISC RECORD COMPANY Ltd.
By late 1906 well into 1907 he made recordings in India for NICOLE FRÈRES.
On 11 June 1907 their daughter Alice Elizabeth was born.
In 1908 he visited the USA again. The passenger list mentions as his final destination: A. Holland (his father) in Buffalo, Erie county, New York.

In 1910
A letter dated 28 May 1910 in the EMI archives from Karl Friedrich Vogel (1874-1929), the manager of the sub-branch of the Gramophone Co. (Italy) Ltd. at Alexandria, Egypt, to The Gramophone Company in London:

The Sound Recording Co. Ltd., 19 Swallow Street Piccadilly, London W., made about a month ago a recording [session] in Alexandria and Cairo of arabic songs, and the recorders Mr. [Harry Hinks] Martin and his assistant [George Lawrence Holland] went afterwards to Syria and will probably also go to Turkey.
Fortunately they could not get our good singers as we followed them up step by step. A few days ago arrived 6 cases of English records, which we saw in the Custom-house. The records bear a dark blue label and the name Grammavox as trade mark.
At the Customs the value was declared at Sh.1/3. pro records. The agent here is a Greek by whom we bought 2 records at 15 P. [=Piasters?] each, he said us that for dealers he could sell the record at 13 P.
He is awaiting soon the arabic records.
We do not consider this competition as very serious for us, but anyhow you would oblige by giving us all the information you can on this Company.
Will you also be good enough to tell us at what retail dealer and grossisten prices the Grammavox records are sold in England.

In July 1912 their son Bertie F. was born.

Let us here pick up the article "Round the World for Records. A Recording Expert in the Land of the Rising Sun" here again:

"A "T.M.N." [= Talking Machine News] representative recently happened on Mr. G. L. Holland, of the Sound Recording Co., who has completed an all-round-the-world trip, with its objective in Japan, for the purpose of making records there and thereabouts. It may possibly be news to some readers that Japan possesses a very flourishing gramophone manufacturing company who do business on large scale in that land of light and sun. It is called the Nipponophone Co., having headquarters at Tokio and branches all through the islands of Japan, and it was to this firm that Mr. Holland was loaned by the Swallow Street House [=the Sound Recording Co. Ltd. of 19 Swallow Street, Piccadilly, London W.] for the purpose of making a large number of native master records.
His early stages of his trip were not conducive to much pleasure or comfort, for Mr. Holland booked by the "Carmania" on that terrible voyage of hers last year in which she had to fight her way across the seething Atlantic. However, New York was reached three days late, and the tremendous hurricane encountered served but to give the stout "Carmania" a severe straining and its passengers a terrible buffeting."

G. L. Holland had boarded the SS "Carmania" at Southampton on 28 December 1912.
On the passenger list his profession is described as recording expert.
He arrived in New York on 7 January 1913.

"Without delay our passenger set off for Buffalo, where he renewed the acquaintance of brothers and sister after an interregnum [=intermission/interruption would have been a better term] of six years."

[Holland had last visited the USA four and a half years earlier, in July 1908, so he had not seen his relatives for four and a half years. The sister either was Alice Maud or Elizabeth Jessie Holland.]

"Two days had to suffice and then on to Chicago, where another day was spent prior to San Francisco.
Mr. Holland says we have nothing like the San Francisco Overland Limited express in England in the way of luxurious travelling, combined with beautiful wild scenery. There was not much snow and ice, although the weather was very cold.
Another unique experience was travelling out of sight of land, which happened when they crossed the Great Salt Lake of Utah.
"Snowed up" was another unfamiliar episode. This occurred on the run to 'Frisco. After passing forty miles of snow sheds, which are built for the purpose of keeping the snow from the line, they arrived at a place appropriately named Summit. Here they found ten to twelve feet of snow on the track, with a tremendous blizzard aiding and abetting. Here the had to wait four or five hours for the giant snow ploughs. These soon cleared the line and a lovely run down the Sacramento Valley atoned for any discomfort. Sunshine, orange groves and magnificent vegetation was their portion into San Francisco.
One day did for the Gates of the West, as our traveller was in a hurry to push along. Then on to Honolulu on the s.s. "China", which earthly heaven was reached in seven days' lovely run. Mr. Holland calls it a paradise of splendour and sunshine, and being only 21 degrees north of the equator, the climate and vegetation is superb. Whilst here our subject had the pleasure of hearing the Hawaiian Hymn sung by natives. The tone and setting is beautiful, he says, and he advises all he love good music to get it. It is made by that enterprising Co., the Columbia.
Thence the journey was resumed for Yokohama, a bad trip leaving them three days behind schedule. After a day's rest he reported himself to the Nipponophone Co. at their service for three months. The journey to their laboratory at Tokio, and the necessary fitting, took but one day, and the next Mr. Holland was ready for the artistes. When they turned up another reference of a lifetime came along. He had ventured his hand previously, we may say, on Egyptian, Arabic, Syrian, Greek, Turkish, Indian records and especially Formosan, which latter language, in his opinion, takes the whole town of Reading.
It can be seen he had grounds for self-confidence and the magnificent set of nicely tuned-up recording instruments that he had brought along with him increased that confidence. But he got a shock. The Japanese artiste's idea of a song commences with a long series of yells at the top of his voice with powerful head notes switching off suddenly to low guttural tones varied by weird chants as interludes. Nothing daunted, Mr. Holland rearranged the instruments, and managed to get the desired results. All Japanese songs, comic or otherwise, are accompanied by their national instrument the samisen, one of the banjo species, and an instrument of which they are inordinately proud. One of Japan's favourite artistes is the prima donna, Miss Nobu Hara [one of the photographs illustrating the article is a portrait of Nobu Hara and a handwritten dedication by the artist: To Mr. Holland, Nobu Hara, Tokio, 7/3/1913. Nobu Hara's (the Japanese Melba) signature in Japanese characters].
"The impossibility of correcting the proofs prevents me authorising her name in Japanese, but it resembles a neat wall dado".
In Tokio he made about 500 masters, and at Osaka another 200 Chinese titles.
It was now time to think of England, home and beauty, so after a cordial farewell to the extremely courteous and generous Nipponophone directorate (who, by the way, presented him with a beautiful hornless machine of native manufacture) to the many friends he had made, Mr. Holland left Kobe for Tientsin and Pekin for visits, thence by Mukden, Harbin and the great Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow, and so via Berlin and Flushing [Vlissingen in The Netherlands] home.
This made a journey completely girdling the globe and producing 700 or so master records all in the short space of five months. A clever feat is our opinion."

The building/construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was begun in 1891 and completed in 1904.

When did G. L. Holland officially migrate to the USA?
He first took residence in Buffalo.
In 1917 at 175 Nevada Avenue, Buffalo.
By 1923 at 99 Chenango St., Buffalo
In Japan they were living at Kobe (and Yokohama?)
Owner of Holland's Auto Court since when?
On 8 June 1940 G. L. Holland died at his home in Santa Cruz, California at he age of 63.
He was survived by his widow Hannah Holland, daughter Alice Royo and three sons Alfred, George and Bert Holland.



George Lawrence HOLLAND
ethnicity: English
profession:
date of departure: 29 April, 1899
port of departure: Southampton, Southamptonshire, England
ship's name: SS "PARIS"
date of arrival: 6 May, 1899
port of arrival: New York
age on arrival: 20y
place of residence: ...........
final destination: Buffalo, NY



George Lawrence HOLLAND
ethnicity: English
profession:
date of departure: 18 July, 1908
port of departure: Southampton, Southamptonshire, England
ship's name: SS "PHILADELPHIA"
date of arrival: 25 July, 1908
port of arrival: New York
age on arrival: 30y
place of residence: .............
father: A. Holland, 57 Hudson Street, Buffalo



George Lawrence HOLLAND
ethnicity: English
profession: recording expert
date of departure: 28 Dec 1912
port of departure: Liverpool, England
ship's name: SS "CARMANIA"
date of arrival: 7 Jan, 1913
port of arrival: New York
age on arrival: 34y
place of residence: Nipponophone Co. Mainstreet, Yokohama
10 Barbara Road, Maine(?), CA


New York was reached three days late (hurricane)
Then to Buffalo (NY) to see his brothers and sister after six years.
Then by "San Francisco Overland Limited Express" to Chicago.
Crossed the Great Salt Lake of Utah - Summit - Sacramento Valley - San Francisco
Boarded the SS "China" for Honolulu (Hawai) - Yokohama (Nipponophone Co.)
- Laboratory Tokio (500 masters)(7 March 1913)
- Osaka (200 Chinese masters)
- Kobe - Tientsin - Pekin - Mukden - Harbin
Great Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow - Berlin - Flushing - England

(THE TALKING MACHINE NEWS Vol. VI, No. 181, Jan. 1914; pp 62-64)



George Lawrence HOLLAND
ethnicity: US citizen?
profession:
date of departure: 28 Nov, 1917
port of departure: Liverpool, England
ship's name: SS "ST. LOUIS"
date of arrival: 10 Dec, 1917
port of arrival: New York
age on arrival: 39y
place of residence: 175 Nevada Avenue, Buffalo, NY



George Lawrence HOLLAND
ethnicity: US citizen
profession: recorder
date of departure: 19 Feb, 1920
port of departure: Yokohama, Japan
ship's name: SS "SUWA MARU"
date of arrival: 7 Mar, 1920
port of arrival: Seattle, Washington
age on arrival: 42y
final destination: Buffalo, NY



Hannah E. HOLLAND
+ Alfred F. HOLLAND (20y)
+ Alice E. (N.?) HOLLAND (15y)
+ Bertie F. HOLLAND (10y)
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 22 Febr, 1923
port of departure: Hong Kong
ship's name: SS "EMPRESS OF RUSSIA"
date of arrival: 12 Mar, 1923
port of arrival: Vancouver
age on arrival: 40y
place of residence: 99 Chenango St., Buffalo, NY
They embarked at Yokohama, Japan (no date)
On the typed-out version of the Seattle Passenger and Crew list we find behind the four names the 4 different ages as follows: 3 May 1883/1903/1908/1913.
ALL WRONG !!!!!



George L. HOLLAND
+ George E. [E.= L.= Lawrence] HOLLAND [Jr.] (18y)
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 29 June, 1923
port of departure: Hong Kong
ship's name: SS "EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA"
date of arrival: 18 July, 1923
port of arrival: Victoria, British Columbia
age on arrival: 45y
place of residence: [99 Chenango St., Buffalo, NY]
They embarked at Yokohama, Japan (no date)



Alfred Frederick HOLLAND
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 2 Mar, 1927
port of departure: Kobe, Japan
ship's name: SS "SHINYO MARU"
date of arrival: 21 Mar, 1927
port of arrival: San Francisco
age on arrival: 23y
place of residence: 1248 Fall Str., San Francisco



George Lawrence HOLLAND [Jr.]
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 14 Mar, 1927
port of departure: Kobe, Japan
ship's name: SS "SIBERIA MARU"
date of arrival: 1 Apr, 1927
port of arrival: San Francisco
age on arrival: 22y
place of residence: 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY



Bertee [=Bertie F.] HOLLAND
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 20 July, 1928
port of departure: Kobe, Japan
ship's name: SS "SHINYO MARU"
date of arrival: 3 Aug, 1928
port of arrival: San Francisco, CA
age on arrival: 16y (born: 3 July 1912, London)
place of residence: 308 Somerset Ave., San Francisco



Alfred Frederick HOLLAND
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 10 Oct, 1928
port of departure: Kobe, Japan
ship's name: SS "SIBERIA MARU"
date of arrival: 26 Oct, 1928
port of arrival: San Francisco
age on arrival: 25y (28 Mar 1903)
place of residence: 331 Octavia Str., San Francisco

Also on board:
Hannok (sic = Hannah) Elizabeth HOLLAND (46y: age fits: Hannah who was born in 1882)
married in England, 6 Aug 1900
331 Octavia St., San Francisco



George L. HOLLAND
+ Hannah E. HOLLAND (55y)
+ Albert (=Alfred) F. HOLLAND (34y)
+ Augusta [NIGGEMEYER] - HOLLAND (35y)(14 Jan. 1902, Omaha, Nebraska; maiden name?)
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 24 Nov, 1937
port of departure: Southampton, England
ship's name: SS "QUEEN MARY"
date of arrival: 29 Nov, 1937
port of arrival: New York
age on arrival: 59y
places of residence:
George & Hannah HOLLAND:
100 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA

Albert (=Alfred) F. & Augusta HOLLAND:
1026 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA



Alicia ROYO (30y)
+ Virginia ROYO (9y)
+ Paris ROYO (6y)
1938 SS "PENNLAND"
19 March 1938 Antwerp
29 March 1938



George [Lawrence] HOLLAND [Jr.]
+ Sophia [SCHELFEIER] - HOLLAND (29y)
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 10 Oct, 1940
port of departure: Kobe, Japan
ship's name: SS "PRESIDENT CLEVELAND"
date of arrival: 25 Oct, 1940
port of arrival: San Francisco, CA
age on arrival: 35y
place of residence:
last residence: Yokohama
George HOLLAND worked for STANDARD OIL.
Father American Citizen



Alice ROYO
+ Virginia
+ Paris
In 1948 on M/W "SOBIESKI"
Cannes 10 Sept 1948
New York 21 Sept 1948
residence 2667 46th Ave., San Fancisco, CA



Albert (=Alfred) F. HOLLAND ( y)
+ Vera G. [HOWELL] - HOLLAND ( y)
ethnicity:
profession:
date of departure: 26 July, 1955
port of departure: Cowichan
ship's name: SS "DUIVENDIJK"
date of arrival: 30 July, 1955
port of arrival: San Francisco
age on arrival: .. y
places of residence:


GEORGE LAWRENCE HOLLAND

born on 3 May 1878 in Holborn, London.
Son of Alfred Holland and Mary Ann Wood (or Margar).
He had four brothers and two sisters.
Several members of the family emigrated to the USA.

First his parents Alfred Holland, a jeweler, and his wife Mary Ann and their eldest son Walter John in 1886 to Buffalo, Erie, NY.
In 1890 followed their sons Bert(ie) Gauntlet and William.

In May 1899 at the age of 20 G. L. Holland visited his family in Buffalo, USA.


In 1900 George Lawrence married Hannah (Annie) Elizabeth Ball in Islington.

On 28 Mar 1903 their son Alfred Frederick Holland is born in England.

On 5 May 1905 their son George Lawrence Holland Jr. was born in Islington, England.

On 3 May 1908 (or 11 June 1907) their daughter Alice Elizabeth Holland is born in London, England.

- What is the correct birthdate of your mother?

In July 1908 - at the age of 30 - George Lawrence Sr. again visited his father in Buffalo.

George Lawrence worked as a recording engineer for the Sound Recording Company.
The Sound Recording Company was founded in

In 1910 he and Harry Hinks/Hincks Martin went on a recording trip to Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Albania.

On 3 July 1912 Bertie F. Holland is born in London, England.

In late 1912 - George Lawrence then was 34 years old - he was loaned to Nipponophone for three months and in December he boarded the SS Carmania in Liverpool and arrived in New York on 7 January 1913.
The rest can be read in an article in the Talking Machine News of December 1913 entitled "Round the World for Records. A Recording Expert in the land of the Rising Sun".

He then travels on to Buffalo to see some of his brothers and his sister (which one?) "after an interregnum of six years" (in fact 5 years).

New York was reached three days late (due to hurricane)
Then to Buffalo (NY) to see his brothers and sister after six years.
Then by "San Francisco Overland Limited Express" to Chicago.
Crossed the Great Salt Lake of Utah - Summit - Sacramento Valley - San Francisco
Boarded the SS "China" for Honolulu (Hawai) - Yokohama (Nipponophone Co.)
- Laboratory Tokio (500 masters)(7 March 1913)
- Osaka (200 Chinese masters)
- Kobe - Tientsin - Pekin - Mukden - Harbin
Great Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow - Berlin - Flushing - England


In 1917 G. L. Holland travels from Liverpool to Buffalo, NY.

Did G. L. Sr. afterwards go back to England or did he stay in America?

In 1920 he leaves Yokohama, bound for Seattle, Washington.

In 1923 the entire Holland family was in Yokohama, Japan.
The names of all family members (George L. Sr, Hannah, Alfred Frederick, Alice E., Bertie F. and George Lawrence Jr.) are found on the passenger lists of two ships going from Yokohama to Vancouver & VIctoria.
Destination Chenango Str., Buffalo.

Was George Lawrence Holland's family prior to that living in Japan or just visiting?

In February 1923, his wife Hannah, together with three of their four children, return from Yokohama to Vancouver and from there to 99 Chenango Str. in Buffalo, NY.
In July 1923 George Lawrence Holland Sr. followed, together with their youngest son George Lawrence Jr., also returns from Yokohama to Buffalo (via Victoria, Br. Col.)

Was George Lawrence Sr. working for Columbia in Japan as a recorder?

From the 1927-1928 passenger lists it looks as though up to the period 1927-1928 the Holland family (mother Hannah, three brothers Alfred F., George L. Jr. and Bertie F. Holland) had been living/working in Kobe, Japan
Besides you (Virginia) were born in Kobe on 1 May 1927

Apparently in 1937 G. L. Holland, together with his wife Hannah and his son Alfred F. Holland have visited their country of birth, England, since their names occur on the passenger list of a ship leaving Southampton which arrived back in New York in November 1937.
On the passengerlist their address is given as:
100 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, California

- When did George Lawrence and Hannah move to Santa Cruz?

He owns Holland's Auto Court until his death.

- When did he start the automobile business?

George Lawrence died on 8 June 1940 at the age of 63 in Santa Cruz, California.
His wife Hannah died on 21 April 1967 at the age of 84, also in Santa Cruz.

7 December 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

Hannah Elizabeth Holland
1923 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1928 331 Octavia Str., San Francisco
1940 100 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz
1967 310 San Juan Ave., Santa Cruz


Alfred Frederick Holland
1923 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1927 1248 Fall Str., San Francisco
1928 331 Octavia Str., San Francisco
1937 1026 Chestnut St., San Francisco
1940 San Francisco
1955 San Francisco
1963 San Jose


George Lawrence Holland Jr.
1923 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1927 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1940 Yokohama (JAPAN)
1963 Acapulca (MEXICO)
1967 Las Vegas


Alice Elizabeth Holland
1923 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1940 Santa Cruz
1948 2667 46th Ave., San Francisco
1963 Belvedere, Tiburon
1967 Tiburon
1998 Tiburon


Bertie F. Holland
1923 99 Chenango Str., Buffalo, NY
1928 308 Somerset Ave., San Francisco
1940 Santa Cruz
1963 San Diego
1967 Poway
1998 Aptos