Moby and Herman: Part Two - Cutting In
09/11/23 • 30 min
Our research into Moby's ancestry begins in earnest and leads to a Melville ancestor.
Notes:
- LA Times article about the LA Library Foundation event from September 2013
- Moby discussing Moby-Dick from a video made for LA Library Foundation
- Read Moby-Dick if you dare
- Moby discussing family from a video made for LA Library Foundation
- Moby talking about his grandmother from Porcelain (2016)
- Page from New Jersey marriage Index recording marriage of Alice B. Albridge and John M. Gardner
- Page from Massachusetts marriage index recording 1935 marriage of Alice Beverly Albridge
- Marriage record of Alice Beverly Albridge to John William Hall in April 1935
- Obituary of John William Hall, San Bernardino County Sun, June 4, 1980
- Photos of Melville “Hap” Hall (used with permission)
- Family tree of John William Hall (1912–1980)
- Family tree of Herman Melville’s siblings and immediate descendants
- Family tree of Clara Ellery Melville (1833-1909)
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, closing theme Breakmaster Cylinder.
Our research into Moby's ancestry begins in earnest and leads to a Melville ancestor.
Notes:
- LA Times article about the LA Library Foundation event from September 2013
- Moby discussing Moby-Dick from a video made for LA Library Foundation
- Read Moby-Dick if you dare
- Moby discussing family from a video made for LA Library Foundation
- Moby talking about his grandmother from Porcelain (2016)
- Page from New Jersey marriage Index recording marriage of Alice B. Albridge and John M. Gardner
- Page from Massachusetts marriage index recording 1935 marriage of Alice Beverly Albridge
- Marriage record of Alice Beverly Albridge to John William Hall in April 1935
- Obituary of John William Hall, San Bernardino County Sun, June 4, 1980
- Photos of Melville “Hap” Hall (used with permission)
- Family tree of John William Hall (1912–1980)
- Family tree of Herman Melville’s siblings and immediate descendants
- Family tree of Clara Ellery Melville (1833-1909)
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, closing theme Breakmaster Cylinder.
Previous Episode
Moby and Herman: Part One - Loomings
My friend Adam brings a question to me: is Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall) really related to Moby-Dick author Herman Melville. Notes:
- A screenshot of Moby’s Wikipedia page, taken May 2023
- Excerpt from the Afterword of Moby’s 2016 memoir, Porcelain (2016)
- Tweet from Moby ( @thelittleidiot): “On this day in 1851...”
- Tweet from Moby ( @thelittleidiot): “Happy Birthday Uncle Herman...”
- Background on Moby’s career was compiled from several sources including:
- Moby’s memoirs Porcelain (2016) and Then It Fell Apart (2019);
- Grayson Haver Currin, “ All That Moby Needs to Be Good,” NPR, May 22, 2020
- Rob Gordon Bralver documentary, Moby Doc (2021)
- Clip from “Rave Dancing the Night Away,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 13, 1992
- Clip from “Moby Bright Spot in a Colorless World,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1993
- Clip from “Moby: Remixed, repulsed, reborn,” Hartford Courant, March 12, 1995
- Video of Moby’s segment with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards
- Clips of Moby discussing his childhood from Moby Doc (2021)
- Obituary of James Frederick Hall, Bridgewater Courier News, September 26, 1967
- Clip of Moby discussing childhood in San Francisco, taking LSD from Porcelain (2016)
- Clip of Moby talking about his nickname from an interview with Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin
- Melville’s family tree of direct descendents, taken from Hershel Parker’s Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 2 (1851-1891)
- “Metaphors? I hate metaphors...” clip from Parks and Recreation episode “ Fluoride” (Season 6, Episode 8)
- “Though I wrote the Gospels in this century...” quote from Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, June [1?], 1851
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, closing theme Breakmaster Cylinder.
Next Episode
Moby and Herman: Part Three - The Chase
We bring our investigation to a close, tracing Moby's tree back to Scotland and talk through all of Herman Melville's own family's ancestral hopes.
- Gregor Ehrlich
- Background on Herman Melville’s genealogy and Thomas and Allan Melvill’s attempt to prove their relation to General Robert Melvill comes several sources, including:
- “Data on the Melvill Family,” the research put together by Allan Melvill, courtesy of the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
- Herman Melville's Malcom Letter, (Hennig Cohen and Donald Yannella, 1992)
- “ Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Melville,” (ed. Cuyler Reynolds, 1911)
- Jean F. Melvill, “Melvill Genealogy,” Melville Society Extracts Number 95, December 1993
- Merton Sealts Jr., “The Melvill Heritage,” Harvard Library Bulletin XXXIV (4), Fall 1986
- Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1), 1996
- John Bryant’s biography of Herman Melville is Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life (2021)
- Melville lineage back to 13th century from Sir Robert Douglas’ The Baronage of Scotland (1798)
- Letters between Allan and Thomas Melvill about their ancestry and heritage are collected in “Data on the Melvill Family” (Berkshire Athenaeum)
- Descendants of David Melvill of Boston, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island, Helen S. Ullmann, 2021
- David Melville’s (1776-1793) pewter porringer and plate are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
- Wikipedia page for David Melville (1773-1856), inventor of the first gas street lighting. For more information see Daniel W. Mattausch, “David Melville And The First American Gas Light Patents,” Rushlight Journal, December 1998
- Herman Melville, Redburn (1849)
- For more about Herman Melville’s choice of names for his children, and particularly Malcolm, see Herman Melville's Malcolm Letter: Man's Final Love, by Hennig Cohen and Donald Yanella (1993)
- Moby discussing Moby-Dick from a video made for LA Library Foundation
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Breakmaster Cylinder. Special thanks to John Bryant, Hap Hall, Elizabeth Doss and Gregor Ehrlich.
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