Recording career

Baur made hundreds of recordings for about a dozen different recording companies, including the three major labels, Victor, Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 and Brunswick

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

. His first recording, If the Rest of the World Don't Want You, was for Victor in 1923. Baur recorded for Victor as a featured soloist, as a member of the Shannon Quartet (known as The Revelers after 1925), as one the vocalists for Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra, and, on occasion, as the vocalist for Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

's orchestra, with many of his recordings being listed by Joel Whitburn as "charted." The Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) lists detailed information for Baur's Victor recordings.

Baur first recorded for Columbia in 1924, with many more Columbia recordings to follow, and for other labels, including Brunswick, Banner, Domino, Emerson, Gennett, Grey Gull, Puritan, Oriole, and Regal, often using pseudonyms.

Radio and other performances

Baur appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927.

Baur's most notable radio broadcasts were for the well-known Voice of Firestone (initially titled The Firestone Hour). He was one of the soloists on Firestone's first broadcast in December 1928 and remained with Firestone through May 1930, after which his contract was not renewed because he had asked for compensation, in addition to his generous weekly broadcast fee, to perform at a company function.

Baur was among the vocalists on The Ipana Troubadours in the mid-1920s, and the Palmolive Hour and the Seiberling Singers in the late 1920s.

Following his dismissal by Firestone, Baur's career was in decline. In 1931 he went to France to take voice lessons, and he gave a recital in 1933.