"Keronchong Pearls"
Mata Hari Records TTS 586
Fatimah Miss Annie Landouw
Melayang Siang Miss Annie Landouw
Cicuruk Miss Annie Landouw
Lady Miss Annie landouw
Air Laut Miss Annie Landouw
Stambul O Tuhan Miss Annie Landouw
Jakarta Miss Annie Landouw
Masuk Keluar Kampung Miss Annie Landouw
Spesial Miss Annie Landouw
Stambul Satu Miss Annie Landouw
Moritsku Miss Annie Landouw
Selamat Tinggal Miss Annie Landouw
I think it is a record produced in Holland.
"Keronchong" ( Kroncong ) is spelled in the pre-1972 Singapore / Malaysian way.
Maybe because the Dutch recording companies were Singapore based.
It is possible the were still afraid to re-establish in Indonesia, because in the preceding era Sukarno nationalized all Dutch companies.
The cover of the record shows figures in Balinese dress, which does not connect with the content, just in order to make it look exotic. On the back of the cover is a small and crude, but more correct drawing of a kroncong group.
There is a price tag on it 10 Guilders approx. 4,50 Euro and it reads "Radio Bolland"
an old firm ( Stationsstraat, The Hague ), in the fifties and sixties a hotspot for all who would buy Indonesian records.
Those kroncong singers had a hard life, because the taste of the audience was changing to other genres of music, due to to the introduction of radios and gramophones. People became modern an no more attached to all things from the "Tempo Dulu"
( The old days ). I am talking about the period between 1910 and 1940,
So the kroncong bands were roaming from town to town to get some money here and there.
Most people did not have a high opinion of kroncong bands, the same as with
todays street artists, jugglers etc.
The singers were mostly tragical girls, who, if they had to choose between a life as a singer or a steady office-job, they would chose the latter. They were of mixed race or sometimes pure European and did their performance in the areas were there was place for making a stage, mostly at the edge of town, where impoverished Europeans lived, or in the mixed Dutch Indonesian neighbourhoods.
2 songs are beginning with the word "Stambul" its from the Stambul theatre, which was en vogue at the end of the 19nth century.
Its plays are a mix of all tales from the east and west "Ali Baba" etc. The were visited by people from all races.
The audience liked the colourful costumes and the stage setup. Sometimes in a scene which was laid at sea, the waves were made of cardboard and moved in a see saw left to right manner, by assistants, invisible by the audience.