Let’s see just how far off the beaten tracks I can go in this column! If your 78 RPM collection casts its net wide enough you may have come across whistling or bird imitation records. Perhaps you thought they were demonstrations or strange one-off novelties. In fact, they were extremely popular for decades, pushed the bounds of acceptable behavior for women ahead of Suffrage, and even produced stars. Margaret McKee was one of those, a prolific whistler with a story that both confounds and is all American.
Born in 1898 she was first noticed in the press as a whistler in 1911 while attending Agnes Woodward’s School of Artistic Whistling in California. You read that right. Another graduate of the all female school, Marion Darlington, would produce whistles heard in major Disney animations from Snow White to Bambi. Throughout the 1910s McKee’s talent for whistling was used to draw crowds at Churches around Los Angeles. She moved to New York as a newlywed in 1920.
New York at the time was the heart of the recording industry and it is there she caught her big break. She appeared in variety shows and period papers report her being lowered from rafters in a feathered costume. During the ’20s she whistled in front of famous bands, including that of Paul Whiteman.
That is perhaps the most surprising thing about this album and something that I hope will compel Syncopated Times readers
