Many have responded to our requests for input of their reflections of Sam -- recollections of him as a collector, as a singer, and as the man himself. It's taken a few years (many) to assemble these recollections, but it's been fun and inspiring. Because of the very nature of it being on the Internet, this is expected to be an ever-changing offering. Keep in mind we invite your feedback. Those of you who remember Sam and/or are familiar with his work or even those who have not been contacted before, send us an e-mail with your comments. I've been agonizing for months as to how to begin this saga of Sam and decided it's probably easier to excerpt from the sleeve of an early Cook Laboratories LP album, Songs 1020," Songs of All Times" introduction by Harold Maine: "...and then I met Sam Eskin. Once again the continent that had frozen into long distance circuits, postal routes and remote areas off the main thoroughfares, became as intimate as a village main street. Sam had news of mutual friends from coast to coast, from border to border. That Sam traveled in a silver trailer made no difference. He had the old touch, the touch of the troubadour and minstrel, the mark of the eternal vagrant who believes in the good gold of friendship and song." That silver trailer pulled into Woodstock, New York, in the mid-1940s and parked in nearby Bearsville at the home of John and Fritzi Striebel. (John was the artist-creator of the Dixie Dugan comic strip.) An informal gathering was initiated and friends and family crowded onto the front porch as Sam sang for the kids. My daughter, then toddler Amy Goodenough (aka Crow Johnson) and her cousins, Sandy and Ronnie Locke, David and Stephen Striebel, and a bunch of other kids sat enthralled listening or trying to sing along. I think that was my first hearing of Woody Guthrie songs, "This Land", "So Long" and others that were crowd pleasers, such as "Rye Whiskey" and "My Children Are Laughing Behind My Back" (That latter is one of thirteen selections on the Cook album mentioned above.) Sam didn't limit his wandering to land, but went to sea as a merchant marine. Folkways Records, 1951 Album FA2019 "Loggers' Songs and Sea Shanties" (now a part of the Smithsonian Institution's Folk Music Collection) holds you with such songs as "River Driver's Song", with that roaring chorus of "Roll, you tigers, roll/ roll you heroes, roll/ roll all day, no sugar in your tay/ while working for waite boys' rollway." New York State Historical Association: The Sam Eskin Papers The Eskin Collection consists of 434 reel-to-reel tapes, approximately 800 books and 400 disc recordings, and three boxes of miscellaneous papers, all of which belonged to Sam Eskin (1898-1974) a folk song collector and musician. Eskin presented the folk music tapes, books and recordings to the folklore department of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in 1970. In 1974, after Eskin's death, his son, Stanley Eskin, presented his father's papers to the folklore program (on behalf of his brother, Otho, and himself). Although some of these materials relate to music from other countries, most pertain to folk music of the United States and England. (This is in contrast to the tape collection, which includes folk music from many areas of the world.) Included in the collection of papers, which encompasses some 2000 documents, are various song transcriptions, field notes, newspaper and magazine clippings, unpublished collections of songs, correspondence, photographs, notebooks, and miscellaneous printed materials. In 1976-7, Simon Bronner, then a CGP student (and later Distinguished Professor of Folklore and American Studies at Penn State Harrisburg) organized and created listings of the reel-to-reel tapes that were in the Eskin collection. In addition, Bronner made index cards for at least a portion of the tape collection, but these have since been lost. In 1979, when the folklore department was discontinued, all of the Eskin materials came to the NYSHA library. Simon J. Bronner, Ph.D.: What did I learn about Sam Eskin from organizing his tapes and papers? I discovered a man devoted to unveiling the rich artisty of everyday people. I heard a man enraptured by song and all it could reveal about humanity. I saw a remarkable record of exploration, of going beyond books to learn from the voices of cowboys, children, farmers, and miners. NYSHA: Sam Eskin was born in Washington, D.C., on July 5, 1898, the son of Jewish immigrants -- Morris and Rachel -- from Kiev, Russia. At the age of seventeen, he left Baltimore, MD, where he had grown up, to travel west, where he worked at everything from cattle ranching in Wyoming to sheepherding, railroading, and logging before winding up in a salmon fishery in Alaska. As Sam later noted, it was the music he heard while working at these jobs which inspired his interest in singing and collecting folk music. Although he did not realize at the time that the songs he heard were called folksongs, he was intrigued by them and so began writing them down and incorporating the published works of collectors like Cecil Sharpe, and the field of folksong collecting became a more serious pursuit. Sometime during the thirties, Sam left the fishery, joined the merchant marine, and spent the next few years sailing to many of the major ports of Europe, Asia, and Central America. On these voyages, he was exposed for the first time to a wide variety of musics, from unusual chants in Singapore to the songs of black workers in the towns of the Gulf Coast. Eventually, he gave up his seafaring for a job at the United Parcel Service in San Francisco, where he stayed for around fifteen years working his way up from the position of typist to that of an executive. CG: I've been reminded by Stanley Eskin that although Sam's legal birthdate is listed as July 5, 1898, the family legend is that he was born on July 4th, but the event was not recorded until the next day. Additionally, the dates Sam went to sea had to be before 1931 since he went to work for UPS in 1931. Family legend is that he left Baltimore before he was seventeen and unsuccessfully tried to join the Marines when he was seventeen. U.P.S. Profiles: July 19, 1941 Sam Eskin Tackles Tough Problems ...Sam Eskin, United Parcel Service's chief systems man, has built his reputation, which is considerable, on his ability to suggest ways of doing a job better than it is being one. He can, and often has gone into a store or a delivery operation, sized up the layout, and come out with three or four ideas for making the job a better one. CG: That reminds me of a gadget that Sam showed me. Like many performing musicians he had a problem of keeping his song list readily available, but not obvious to his audience. So, he took apart a large wrist watch, fashioned a paper scroll within it on which he wrote his program for the evening. By twisting the stem he could read the complete set before him in the face of his watch! U.P.S. Profiles: July 19, 1941 A stranger is likely first to be impressed with Sam's quick intelligence and then by his truly large background of experience. Sam today is the product of an energetic and restless boyhood spent "seeing the world" and the necessary years to become a mature, well integrated person...Sam's first contact with United Parcel Service came when he was still "seeing the world." It was 1925, Sam was out of a job in San Francisco and he saw in a newspaper a "Help Wanted" ad for a clerical job. United Parcel Service had placed the ad. The San Francisco plant was being opened and some office help was needed. James E. Casey, our president, hired Sam. Sam stayed on the job eight months and then was on his way again. His immediate destination was Mexico and he had a camera with him. He made a collection of pictures that compares very well with the best modern photography. The pictures were mainly of Mexicans themselves and how they live -- because Sam likes people, is interested in what they do. Six years later, in 1931, and after he had made a trip to France, England, and Italy, Sam came back to work for United. The New York plant had been open one month and Sam was given the job of organizing the C.O.D. department. This got him into systems work...He completed a trip up and down the whole Pacific Coast, studying systems and suggesting improvements. He travelled in a station wagon and...he picked up some "interesting items" in folk music here and there. His hobby has led to some interesting experiences. Once, for example he was talking to a store executive about a delivery problem and it turned out that the executive was an old sailing-ship man. They exchanged some authentic sea chanteys. Up and over the office singing was heard: "Oh, say, was you ever/In Rio Grande/We love Rio/the River goes down to the sand." Jean Ritchie: ...Sam Eskin was a good friend. The main thing we have of him is his participation in a film done at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut with Frank, Jeff & Gerrett Warner, E. E. Huntington, etc. My husband did the camera work. We have had it transferred to video. Sam sings "Greenland Whale Fishery" and two or three verses of a lumbering song, "Cani-day-I-O" and joins on choruses with other singers. [The video "Sea Lyrics and Legends" was recorded in 1965, is available for a reasonable price from George Pickow Assoc., 7A Locust Ave., Port Washington, NY 11030.] CG: I'm reminded that we've not presented much about Sam's earlier years. I received the following letter from Bill Brooks in New Jersey (postmarked 1992) some time after we'd talked on the phone; he said he'd known Sam, a close friend of his father's "from 'way back" at the time when Sam was into folk music, into folk dancing and, with a friend named Earl, sang, played and also danced. Bill told me that Sam was very rhythmic -- had his own style, energetic with much wiggling -- an original Elvis predecessor. Bill tried to get in touch with others who knew him from the Arden, Delaware, art colony days. Sam was intrigued by the single tax economic system at that time, too. Bill's letter to me: Bill Brooks: Dear Missus, Well I have asked about Sam in Arden, Delaware, but have not come up with much. He was known to a certain group who have now passed on. In the twenties and thirties, Arden had a tradition of campfires and houseparties where the main activity was singing. It was quite informal and everybody joined in and the locals performed their specialty numbers. H. was one of these and performed bawdy songs in a husky alto. Of course, my Dad and Sam were very much in the vanguard. But when I asked H. about Sam, she was not very forthcoming. CG: This is not an unfamiliar situation to me in my seeking information. Sam had a talent of relating to different women in a very distinct way. He didn't kiss and tell and his women friends don't either. He did make every person he was with feel special, and, maybe one of his greatest talents was helping that person develop his or her own creativity. B.B. : Yes,
she (H.) remembered Sam. He used
to pal around with my Dad when he was in town, and camped in a tent
down by the Arden Creek. Well, some old-timers, when you ask them about
the old days will work up some enthusiasm and run on a bit, but H. is
not like that. In fact, she was quite indifferent. From a third party,
I elicited the info that at one point H. had become impatient with Sams
(sic) feckless ways, and had "kicked him out". At least that was the
impression. It is hard to resuscitate the dim past! I understand that
H. is due in the hospital...so maybe she is distracted. ...Sorry to
disappoint you with so little. I, too, had expected more! Best Regards,
Bill Brooks.
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