Ada Jones & Billy Murray “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine” Edison standard cylinder-10505- 1911

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First published in 1910, the composition was originally recorded by Blanche Ring and was, for a time, her signature song. Ada Jones and Billy Murray recorded a duet in November 1910, which was released the following year. There have been many subsequent recordings of the pop standard.

Written in the early days of aviation, it tells of a young man courting his girlfriend by "flying machine" and expresses the technological optimism of the era: "Whoa, dear! Don't hit the moon! No, dear . . . Not yet, but soon! (It would take until 1969 for man to reach the moon)" It allegedly was based upon Josephine Sarah Magner (April 22, 1883 – July 15, 1966), who was perhaps the first woman parachutist in America with her initial jump in 1905. She was married to early aviation pioneer Leslie Burt Haddock (April 10, 1878 – July 4, 1919), made hundreds of jumps, and assisted Haddock in the building of the first U.S. Army dirigible (Signal Corps Dirigible Number 1) designed by her uncle Thomas Scott Baldwin.

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