The Mask and Wig Clubhouse is located at 310 Quince Street (Mtvelasquez99 | CC0 1.0).
100 years ago this month, Penn’s Mask and Wig Club was the first organization to release an electrical recording that used the then-brand-new Western Electric system.
The organization used the technology to record its production of "Joan Of Arkansas." On April 9, 1925, the record was issued on Camden’s Victor label, and at the time, it was a breakthrough in music and sound production.
Previously, acoustic recordings required vocalists to sing extremely loudly into a megaphone in order for their voices to be audible on the record. The Western Electric system allowed for electrical amplification that "enabled more dynamic range of recording frequencies, music could sound more natural," producer and audio restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The record was not the first to be recorded using the Western Electric system, but due to Mask and Wig "being in the right place at the right time," it was the first to be released.
Despite its title, Joan of Arkansas was not a Joan of Arc parody. The club's 37th annual production was a Wild West musical comedy featuring a heroine played by a male actor in drag, which was a Mask and Wig tradition until the group began welcoming members of all genders in 2022.
The record featured songs by Charles Gilpin and was released just three weeks after being recorded in Camden, New Jersey. Even though other electrical recordings were already in production, Joan of Arkansas was the first to hit the market because of the troupe’s proximity to Victor’s Camden studio and its popularity on the East Coast performance circuit.
Mask and Wig is the premier collegiate musical comedy group founded in 1889 by Penn graduate Clayton Fotterall McMichael. Mask and Wig performs two original, entirely student-written productions each year, combining comedy, music, and dancing and tours audiences nationwide.
The club features four sections: cast, business, crew, and band. Each section operates independently to support productions of the club’s shows that are performed at the Mask & Wig Clubhouse in Center City.
This year’s spring production, “Once Upon a Crime in Hollywood,” ran from the end of January until March 28 and marked the club’s 136th annual production. Just as in 1925, audiences were able to enjoy the songs live and then take a piece of the performance home with their electric recordings.
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