French doll maker Emile Jumeau saw Edison's talking doll at the 1889 Paris Exposition. Inspired (and no doubt thinking there was room for improvement) he asked Henri Lioret to develop a phonograph that would fit inside his popular Bébé Jumeau doll. Lioret was a highly skilled Paris clockmaker with a number of patents for watches and clocks (Anton 2006, 16).

Lioret invented a clockwork phonograph mechanism that could be placed in a doll. The cylinders were celluloid—a first for phonograph cylinders. They generated louder, higher quality sound than the brown wax cylinders used in Edison's doll. They were also reinforced with brass on the interior, making them more robust. They held about 30 seconds of sound.

The Bébé Jumeau doll was a success and Lioret quickly went on to create a standalone, clockwork phonograph on the same principles: Le Merveilleux. The Merveilleux played the same cylinders as Bébé Jumeau. Lioret also made larger machines that would play a range of cylinder sizes from 30 seconds to 4 minutes. The No. 2 cylinder was played at 120 rpm and held about 1 minute of sound.

The Rowdy-Dowdy Boys was a music hall drinking song published in 1892 (Baxter 2024).