Canada’s popular concert baritone Frank Oldfield (1882-1956). Here, Frank endorses throat-easy Buckingham Cigarettes for keeping his voice in good condition. (Toronto Daily Star, April 9/29, p. 7)

Listen to Frank Oldfield Be British Pathé 29203 Recorded ca 1918 Sussex by the Sea Pathé 29203 Recorded ca 1918 The Farmer's Pride Pathé 29205 Recorded ca 1918 On the Road to Mandalay HMV 216273 Recorded March 1921 I Passed By Your Window Brunswick 2523 Recorded September 1923 Original 78 rpm recordings Collection of Paul Dodington

Riffling through boxes and shuffling through stacks of 78s, we usually pass over the 10-inch black label HMV 216000s of Frank Oldfield, as another garden-variety church-basement Canadian baritone. But that is a faulty assumption about the man and his voice.

Though not nearly as prolific a recorder as Henry Burr or as famous as Edward Johnson, he was a very popular singer in Canada in his day, and he was known internationally as well. The Toronto Star’s finicky reviewer, Augustus Bridle, thought highly of him, writing, "Mr. Frank Oldfield always irritates me when he sings. I always feel as though he should be deported - somewhere so that he might realize what a tremendous and almost unclaimed heritage he has in that voice of his. Oldfield could be, if he would, the McCormack of baritones. He has breadth of style, a magnificent range, and his bass-notes are superb. His songs were all popular, but he needs to do more big work. There are few baritones so richly endowed by nature" (TDS, Jan 9/24, p. 15).

Bridle never stopped ragging on Oldfield for his shortcomings in ambition and for not developing his instrument so that he could stand with the greatest singers.

Paul Dodington is a direct CAPS connection to Frank Oldfield, since his father James often sang with that gent. Paul is enthusiastic about and has been most helpful with this project. He told us that Oldfield was British-born, so we traced him back there.

The 1891 census shows Frank at the age of 8, the youngest of 6 children, born in Ulverston, Lancashire, St. Mary Parish, around 1882-83 to Agnes (born 1844 in Broughton in Furness, Lancashire) and Joseph Oldfield (born 1840 in Coniston, in Boulton, Bares and Terrisholme civil parish). In the 1901 census, Frank was 18, living with his parents and was an apprentice cordwainer (bootmaker), possibly to his father, and the family lived at 62 Westminster Road, Morecambe, Lancs. Joseph’s sister-in-law, Jane Oldfield (born 1849), and her four daughters lived with the family. Further research showed that Frank’s birth was registered April-May-June 1882 (Ancestry.com BMD, Vol. 8e, 813, p. 397, Ulverston, Cumbria, Lancashire).

Frank Oldfield in a Grand Concert under the auspices of the Toronto Letter carriers (TDS, Feb, 2/18, p.22)

We could not determine where and with whom he might have studied singing in England, but possibly he began as a boy chorister in his parish church and moved up the ranks to soloist. In the 1891 census, the third oldest sibling, Margaret Jane (born 1873), was listed as a "teacher of music", so Frank might have studied with her. He did sing in public in England - we found him singing as soloist in a musical and dramatic recital in benefit of the Morecambe and Heysham 1st Scouts at St. John the Divine Church, Sandylands, Heysham on February 12 and 13, 1909. Oldfield made a great impression, as the audience demanded encores of three of his four songs (MVHC, Feb. 17/09). Even then, his voice had the strength and finish of a professional.

At the end of Eaton’s Jubilee Year, Oldfield was featured as Jack Canuck, singing Canadian songs with a band, on the 3rd floor of Eaton’s Main Store. (TDS, Dec. 29/19, p.20)

Frank Oldfield landed at Quebec City, out of Liverpool aboard the S.S. Virginian, bound for Toronto on June 2, 1911. On the ship’s manifest, he was in the British Settlers section, profession "bootmaker", and intending to be a vocalist in Canada. He identified himself as both Salvation Army and Wesleyan (Ancestry.com IER). His first documented appearance in concert in Toronto was in a parish hall with three other vocalists and two elocutionists, under the auspices of the Epiphany Men’s Association of Parkdale (TDS, May 8/14, p. 5). Then we found him as bass soloist with the Victoria College Glee Club, about to leave on a 25-concert tour of the British Isles aboard the Royal George, June 1, 1914 (MC, May 1914, p. 19). The Club sailed back on July 15 (MC, July, 1914, p. 76), but Oldfield left for Quebec on the Royal Edward on September 26 (Ancestry.com CPL). The next year, he sang two patriotic songs with a student chorus at a Stephen Leacock lecture at the Royal Alexandra Theatre for the British Aid Society in support of Belgian relief. Sir William Mulock presided (TDS, March 26/15, p. 20).

In early 1917, he was a soloist in Albert Ham’s cantata "The Solitudes of the Passion" at St. James Cathedral (MC, May 1917, p. 16). Months later, at a Toronto Armouries concert in honour of Col. Roosevelt, he sang along with James L. Dodington and the band of the 48th Highlanders (G, Nov, 24/17, p. 5; ibid., Nov. 26, p. 11), under the chairmanship of Sir Thomas White, M.P. The sheet music to "Sussex by the Sea" (ACMPA) has a blurb reading "Sung with tremendous success by Frank Oldfield at the Roosevelt Victory Loan Meeting at Toronto Armouries before an enthusiastic audience of 20,000 people" (PD).

Introducing Oldfield’s first record for Canadian HMV, issued for Easter, 1921. This is the most elaborate advert that we found for Frank by Berliner Gram-O-Phone. (G, March 12/21, p. 14)

Then he appeared at a Grand Concert, with the 48th Band and the Hambourg Trio at Massey Hall under the auspices of Toronto Letter Carriers (TDS, Feb. 2/18, p. 22) and by year’s end was involved in war work, in aid of the Catholic Army Huts Campaign at Massey Hall (TDS, Oct. 1/18, p. 6; G, Oct. 1/18, p. 3) and in a mammoth Massey Hall "Night of Triumph", celebrating the success of the Victory Loan, with the 48th Highlanders Pipers and the Band of the 100th Regiment (G, Nov. 18/18, pp. 2 and 8). Following appearances at the King Edward Hotel for the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Club (G, Dec. 6/18, p. 8) and again at Massey Hall for the Proposed Crusade of the British Seamen "to take the law into their own hands, boycott Germans on every sea to make the Huns pay for dastardly crimes" (TDS, Dec. 10/18, p. 4), he sang with the Toronto Oratorio Society (TPL program, Massey Hall, Jan. 9/19). With Albert Ham’s National Chorus in company with violinist Efrem Zimbalist and Samuel Chotzinoff (TPL program, Massey Hall, Jan. 23/19), Oldfield contributed four songs extolling the services of the Royal Navy. Then he was soloist in Stainer’s "Crucifixion" under Dr. Ham at St. James Cathedral (G, April 17/19, p. 9) and at one of 15 Methodist banquets, this in Eaton Memorial Church in honour of the veterans and the fallen (TDS, May 2/19, p. 27). Later in 1919 he sang as Jack Tar in an English concert in the Jubilee Park (with artificial waterfall, trees, swings, a lagoon with canoes and refreshment-serving waitresses in 1869 garb) inside Eaton’s Main Store, along with Ruthven Macdonald as John Bull and Vera McLean as a rustic maiden (G, July 15/19, p. 18), and then in a Jubilee Park "Irish Day" (G, July 22/19, p. 18). He sang in the Sonora booth at the C.N.E. (G, Aug. 23/19, p. 7), in the Murray-Kay Department Store assisting the Regent String Orchestra (TDS, Sept. 3/19, p. 7), with "The Famous Regent Orchestra" between showings of "Hoodlum" with Mary Pickford at the Regent Theatre (TDS, Sept. 13/19, p. 14), at a joint meeting of the Empire and Kiwanis Clubs at Massey Hall (G, Oct. 18/19, p. 12; TDS, Oct. 17/19, p. 25) and at the closing of the Eaton Jubilee Year, impersonating Jack Canuck in four in-store concerts (TDS, Dec. 29/19, p. 20). On April 19, 1920, he performed before a very large audience, along with violinist Frank Blachford and baritone Arthur Blight, at the Empire Club’s "Ladies’ Night" (ECC).

From early 1922, Ada Davis Oldfield was given billing in Frank’s artist cards in the newspapers. (G, Jan. 14/22, p. 2)

His brief recording career, beginning just at the end of the Great War, comprised sessions for American Pathé, for Herbert Berliner’s HMV in Montreal and for American Brunswick. We have no dates for the eight 29000-series Pathé 11.5-inch sides, but they were probably recorded in New York around 1917-18. (Pathé 29000 website by Tyrone Settlemier, 2007). Six of the eight Pathé 12-inch 800-series sides, accompanied by harmonium rather than orchestra, were announced for release in October 1919 (RG; CMTJ, Vol. 20 #4, p. 68, Oct. 1919). There is one border-crossing document, dated June 24, 1919 at Buffalo, in which Frank Oldfield, vocalist, age 37, was crossing for the first time, on his way to New York City to stay at the Hotel Belmont for three days. This could have been for the Pathé 800-series date. The U.S. immigration card (Ancestry.com IER) gives the only physical description that we have of Frank Oldfield: 5 feet 11 ½ inches tall, of medium complexion, with brown hair and brown eyes. In addition, he told them that he was born in Uldnstow (sic.), England, around 1883 and had immigrated to Montreal aboard the Megantic, June 2, 1911. Not altogether the unvarnished truth.

The nine-odd released 10-inch HMV 216000s were recorded in several sessions in Montreal between January 1920 and March 1921 (JL and *). Six 10-inch Brunswick sides were recorded between September 10 and 13, 1923 (Brunswick Records, a Discography of Recordings, Vol. 1, by Ross Laird, Brunswick, Balke-Collender Co., N.Y. 2001), with an orchestra of 15 men and Arthur Jones, harpist of the New York Symphony. Only two of those sides were issued.

Oldfield in a Willard’s "Sweet Marie" radio concert on CFCA, The Toronto Star Station (TDS, March 2/25, p. 14)

Frank Oldfield was long-time soloist at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church at Bathurst and Barton Streets, Toronto. (TDS, June 14/24, p. 4)

In the first half of 1920, he ran newspaper notices that one could book Frank Oldfield direct, Concert Baritone, 11 Bloor East (11 - 13 Bloor Street East was R. Frank Wilks Co., musical instruments and Pathé dealer) (G, Apr. 10 & 17, May 15 & 29 and June 26/19, all p. 2). On July 2, he married another musician, Ada May Davis, spinster, age 33 (born April 25, 1885), of 24 Isabella Street, Schomberg, York County (parents Walter Davis and Elizabeth Clark) (marriage certificate, on-line). They were married by Methodist Minister E.F. Church and boarded the C.P. liner S.S. Minnedosa at Montreal, bound for Liverpool. In the ship manifest (Ancestry.com CPL), he is listed as a vocalist, born about 1882, Anglican, living at 128 Yorkville Avenue and was going to stay at Bay View, Hest Bank, Lancs., near Morecambe. This was actually the Oldfields’ honeymoon and Frank also went to visit his father (PD). In another CAPS connection, Ann McCulloch (Mrs. John) Rutherford’s grandmother enjoyed concerts by Oldfield aboard the Corsican in early September 1920. She wrote that Oldfield was returning from his honeymoon and that he sang her prizewinning new words to "O Canada" ** (MEM).

The newspaper advertisements began again even before the couple returned (G, July 17, Aug. 21, Sept. 4, 11 & 18/20, mostly p. 2) on September 20 aboard the S.S. Corsican out of Liverpool to Quebec. Frank is listed on page 7 of the manifest (Ancestry.com CPL) as a "returning Canadian", here since 1914. His advert a few months later said that he had just returned from England and a successful tour of Western Ontario (G, Jan. 8/21, p.2). From early in 1922, Ada Davis Oldfield was included in Frank’s adverts for "Baritone - Victor Artist - Concerts - Recitals - Sundays" as "Soprano Soloist and Accompanist" (G, Jan. 14/22, p. 2).

There followed a free concert at Simpson’s 6th floor, where Frank likely sang a duet with one of his HMV records (TDS, Apr. 3/22, p. 10), a New Year’s Night/municipal election results radio concert on CFCA with the Star Orchestra (TDS, Dec. 30/22, p. 9), a concert at Foresters’ Hall with Vera McLean and Broadus Farmer, where Augustus Bridle expressed his irritation (TDS Jan. 9/24, p 15), at a church union meeting at the Pantages Theatre (TDS, Apr. 26/24, p. 23) and as soloist at St. Paul’s Presbyterian (TDS, June 14/24, p. 4).

We found him sailing for Europe at least nine more times between 1924 and 1939 (TDS, Dec. 18/26, p. 22; TDS, July 14/27, p. 24; TDS, June 27/28, p. 26; Ancestry.com CPL), six times with Ada, mostly headed for "The Green" or "Bay View", Hest Bank, but no mention was made of concerts there. Our correspondent in Hest Bank discovered that Frank’s oldest sibling, Annie Oldfield, was living at "The Green" in 1934. Since this was a very small village with no resorts or concert venues (MF), it’s likely that Frank and Ada were just visiting family.

Bay View Terrace, Hest Bank, near Morecambe, Lancaster, England, as it appeared ca 1930 and remains largely unchanged today. In the foreground is the bridge over the Lancaster Canal, built in 1795. - courtesy Mavis Foster, Chairman of the Slyne-with-Hest Local Historical Society

Oldfield had many radio gigs, on CFCA with election results (TDS, Dec. 30/22, p. 9), on CFCA with Vera McLean and the Willard (Sweet Marie) Melody Makers (TDS, Mar. 2/25, p. 14) and on the official opening of CFRB, the world’s first batteryless station, in company with Toronto’s foremost artists (TDS, Feb. 18/27, p. 8). He also appeared on CKNC, the Eveready Battery Station, with Charles Bodley and his Dance Orchestra (TDS, June 9/27, p. 18) and with the Imperial Oil Entertainers and Fred Cully’s Marvelube Orchestra on CFRB (TDS, Apr. 26/27, p. 31). We also found him included in a new Dominion-wide series, "Canada on Parade (to) honour the Dominion by emphasizing its history, its greatness and its future" and to promote the Forward Canada and Return to Prosperity movements. Sponsored by General Motors, over a chain of 31 stations including CKGW and CKCL in Toronto, this weekly pageant offered a kaleidoscopic view of Canada, featuring orchestras, singers, original plays, writers and statesmen. Frank sang his old stand-bys, "Sussex by the Sea", "Ye Mariners of England", "Shipmates o’ Mine" and "Trade Winds" with Dr. Macmillan conducting the G.M. Orchestra. Rupert Lucas of CKNC announced (TDS, Mar. 30/31, p. 22; ibid. Apr. 7, p. 22; ibid. Apr.11, p.2).

Frank sang with Fred Cully’s Marvelube Orchestra on the two month-old CFRB. (TDS, April 26/27, p. 31)

Oldfield often sang in concert with tenor James L. Dodington: at the Roosevelt concert in 1917, at Eglinton Presbyterian on May 30/20 (JDS), in Alfred Gaul’s "Holy City" at Olivet Congregational, April 6/21 (JDS), at Belleville Rotary, March 26/28 (JDS) and at Toronto Rotary on April 3/28 (RV). Until ~1923-24, Frank and Ada were living at 40 Chicora Avenue (MCD).

In late 1928, "Frank is busy with church and radio concerts practically every evening", singing at a Board of Trade Dinner to the Premier, at a Masonic convention in Buffalo, at a Duo-Art piano recital in Hamilton, at a United Church concert in St. Catharines and at the General Motors Annual Concert in Oshawa (RV, Dec. 4/28, Vol. 1 #537). The next year, "Canada’s Popular Concert Baritone" publicly endorsed Buckingham Cigarettes (TDS, Apr. 9/29, p. 7), had his photo on the sheet music for "I Want to Drive a Durant" (GHKM) and advertised a personally conducted tour of Europe, using his new home address of 51 Dewson Street (TDS, Mar. 23/29, p. 19). This ad appeared every few weeks until June 29, but no tour dates were given and there is no published indication that a tour ever happened. The shipping records do show, however, that Oldfield left Montreal for Liverpool, without Ada, aboard the Laurentic, July 13, 1929. He also acted as booking agent, seeking concert dates for tenor Albert Downing (G, May 18/29, p. 2), with whom he had broadcast over WTAM, Cleveland (TDS, June 19/26, p.8).

Frank Oldfield often sang on the radio. Here he is with Charles Bodley’s Dance Orchestra on CKNC, the Canadian National Carbon Company station in Hillcrest Park on Davenport Road. (TDS, June 9/27, p. 18)

For perhaps the first time, he was a soloist in an opera, in the Eaton Choral Society opera-in-concert version of Act I of Wagner’s Lohengrin, along with the famous American tenor Paul Althouse (TDS, Mar. 13/29, p. 16).

Oldfield was soloist at Parkdale United Church for many years (TDS, Dec. 20/30, p. 27) and appeared with their choir on the Philco Sacred Choral Hour on CFRB (TDS, May 30/31, p. 22).

The programs file at Toronto Reference Library has many Oldfield concerts in the 1930s, including two Messiahs with Dr. Herbert A. Fricker and the Mendelssohn Choir in 1932-33, Bach’s b minor Mass with the same forces twice in 1934, and in an all-British program under Reginald Stewart at a U. of T. Arena (summer) Prom Concert (Sept. 6/34), for which Frank was dressed all in white. He was also in Toronto programs in Gracie Fields’ tour under the Navy League, one dated September 9, 1940.

In reviewing the Star Santa Claus "Strong on Sympathy" broadcast on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, Bridle wrote: "Frank Oldfield came on after (Greg) Clark’s brief monologue, with "On the Road to Mandalay". Oldfield sang this with such glorious vibrant gusto of bass-baritone that nobody cares whether the story of Mandalay was just fine Kipling hokum or not" (TDS, Dec. 19/35, p. 3).

Words and music by George H.K. Mitford, and introduced at the Durant Dealer Organization Convention by Frank Oldfield (inset) and Chas. Bodley's Dance Orchestra. Published by George H.K. Mitford Advertising, Ltd., Toronto, 1929

We also found him singing "The Quintuplets’ Lullaby" for Dr. Dafoe’s Crippled Children’s Foundation Fund (TDS, Feb. 9/35, p. 13), singing for King and the Liberal premiers at Maple Leaf Gardens for a 50-station radio hook-up (TDS, Oct. 5/35, p. 3) and at another Gardens broadcast in a memorial for King George V (TDS, Jan. 27/36, p.1).

Frank was asked to respond to a critical comment by vocalist and critic J. Campbell McInnes about singers being cocky, vain and not studious. While Reinald Werrenrath had agreed and preferred the company of ball players and brokers, Oldfield said, "I don’t care what’s said about singers. The people that get in my hair are the ’hams’ who think they know everything. The people who make a good living at it know too much to think that they know much. They also know you have to keep working hard to stay good" (TDS, May 11/37, p. 19). He surely understood the necessity of working to keep up technique and the sound.

Bridle consistently observed, "Frank Oldfield completed the list of splendid vocalists with his bravado "King of the Road" by Harrington, a vigorous reminder that this incomparable bass-baritone is still king on his own road - when he cares to be" (TDS, Feb. 25/38, p. 30), "Frank Oldfield’s impressive bass-baritone of tremendous resonance" (TDS, Dec. 3/32, p. 4) and "..was at his very best in ‘Arm, Arm Ye Brave’ in which he took some effective liberties with the reading..." (TDS, Mar. 5/30, p. 8).

As much as Bridle tried to encourage Oldfield to "do more big work", he seemed content to stick with oratorio and English sea songs, either unwilling or unable to widen his repertoire as Peter Dawson did so effectively. What sounds to us in his recordings like a bit of trouble with his high notes is, according to Paul Dodington, a classic English vocal technique of "covering" on the high notes, going part-way into a head-tone so as not to blast. It’s a technique that Paul’s father also used and it’s an indication of a great deal of vocal training in the English tradition.

After the late 1930s, we found Frank Oldfield in very few broadcasts, but he sang often for the war effort, for his Rotary brethren and in various churches. We have no evidence aside from Oldfield’s programs, but perhaps his religious faith disinclined him to seek wider fame on the "profane" operatic and concert stages.

Frank Oldfield often sang on radio station CFRB, including the inauguration in 1927. Here, in 1931, he’s featured in a sacred concert for Philco. (TDS, May 30/31, p. 22)

This may have been Oldfield’s only operatic appearance, in an opera-in-concert in Massey Hall. (TDS, Mar. 13/29. p. 16)

Paul Dodington recalls, "I met him only once, back about 1952, when my Dad stopped the car and exclaimed ‘My God, there’s my old friend Frank!’, when the latter was walking on Mount Pleasant Road near the cemetery. We got out of the car and had a 10-minute chat with him, and I was very sorry to hear that his house had recently been broken into, and the collection of recordings he had made for Pathé, Berliner Gram-O-Phone (Montreal) and Brunswick had been stolen. This upset him greatly. I had already been collecting records and phonographs for a few years, and vowed to honour the man by trying to amass a complete set of all his records. I’m in my 70th year now, and I’m not there yet!" (PD). Paul has 25 of Oldfield’s recorded sides out of the 26 issued***, though "Roll Back the Years" lists only 23 and has no biographical information.

Frank Oldfield was pre-deceased by his wife, around 1946, though Frank kept performing right to the end. His last appearance was at a Rotary Club memorial meeting a few days before he was taken ill, and he died less than a week later on December 19, 1956 (G, Dec. 20/56, p. 9). The obituary said that "his specialty was oratorio and he possessed a voice favourably compared with professionals in New York opera. He sang Bach and Handel and was particularly noted for his bass-baritone role in The Messiah".

SOURCES:
ACMPA	Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers’ Association
Ancestry.com: Library Edition on-line
	BMD - Birth, Marriage and Death Registry, U.K. CPL - Canadian Passenger Lists IER - Immigration and Emigration Records
CMTJ	Canadian Music and Trades Journal
ECC	Empire Club of Canada Addresses, 1921, pp. 180-216
G	The Globe, Toronto
GHKM	George H.K. Mitford Advertising, Ltd., Toronto, 1929
JDS	James Dodington’s scrapbook, courtesy Paul, John and Ross Dodington
JL	personal communication from Jack Litchfield, CAPS
MC	Musical Canada, Toronto
MCD	Might’s City of Toronto Directory
MEM	"Exploring Britain by Car", by Mercy E. McCulloch (Mrs. Mercy Emma Powell McCulloch), Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1946, p. 191 - personal communication, Ann McCulloch (Mrs. John) Rutherford
MF	personal communication from Mavis Foster, Chairman of the Slyne-with-Hest Local Historical Society
MVHC	Morecambe Visitor and Heysham Chronicle
PD	personal communication from Paul Dodington, CAPS
"Roll Back the Years, History of Canadian Recorded Sound" by Edward B. Moogk, National Library of Canada, 1975
RG	personal communication from Richard Green, Music Division, Library and Archives Canada
RV	Rotary Voice magazine, from the scrapbook of James Dodington, courtesy Paul, John and Ross Dodington
TDS	The Toronto Daily Star, Toronto
*	HMV 216129, "The Palms" and "The Lost Chord", was released for Easter season, 1921, at one dollar for the double-sided 10" disc (Evening Telegram, Friday, April 1, 1921, p. 13)
**	Pathé 29202, Frank Oldfield sings the words to "O Canada" by Dr. T.B. Richardson, c. 1906
***	Paul Dodington has not yet found HMV 216294: "Shipmates o’ Mine" and "Three for Jack"
Thanks to Paul Dodington, John Dodington, Ross Dodington, Bill Pratt, Jack Litchfield, Mavis Foster, Lee Ramsay (Theatre Collection, TPL), Ann and John Rutherford, Richard Green (LAC) and Brian Oakley (City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society).