sounds like you've got stuff from the 30s RCA 33rpm run. not sure of the exact dates, but the demo record (complete with the grand Victor theme song) turns up pretty regularly, and the changers survive as well, of course. it was an early-30s thing and the records sound pretty good. killed by radio and the Depression.
Doug Houston can most certainly expound on this far longer and better than I so i'll wait for him to weigh in. On Apr 26, 2006, at 2:16 AM, Robert Wright wrote: > Many of you know my area of interest is technical oddities -- odd > sized > discs, puzzle records, failed experiments with format, > inside-out/vertical/universal cut, and especially early attempts at > long > play discs. > > I have a question I intend to ask Kurt Nauck, but I wanted to ask > you folks > first. I'm repeatedly amazed by the depth and range of the > knowledge of > this list's members. > > I bought an RCA Victor demo record on eBay based on the description > in its > rather elaborate sleeve. It's red/orange flexible cardboard with > gold print > on the front, "RCA VICTOR DEMONSTRATION ALBUM" in bold, fat letters > -- very > 1930's art deco, typical of much RCA Victor design of that era. > Inside is a > blurb printed on a page of record sleeve material, "The Music You > Want - > When You Want It". It's loaded with typical stuff about how only > Victor > records give you the full degree of pleasure, years of experience, > skilled > craftsmen, yadda yadda, with the obligatory plug for the new line > of RCA > Victor instruments, the rhetoric aimed boldly at consumers (YOUR > new Victor > phonograph, YOUR home, YOUR new records, etc.). > > This sheet mentions the differences between Chromium needles (green > shank), > Tungstone needles, regular needles, and 'red shank home recording > needle' as > well as 'orange shank long playing needle'. This dates it around > the time > of RCA's takeover of Victor in 1929 and the hard push for sales > they made in > the years after with home recording, 33rpm program transcriptions, and > picture discs. > > Here's where it gets bizarre. It mentions the brand new Automatic > Record > Changing Device and its ability to play up to 10 records > automatically, but > making it clear that only 10" discs could be used "(either long > playing or > standard)". I've never seen a changer that only changed 10" > discs. In the > earlier paragraph about various types of needles, it mentions standard > records being played with the "speed shift lever at position 1." > > Under the blurb page is a record sleeve, hole-less, with another > blurb. > This is the stranger of the two. "This is a NEW KIND of Record!" > calls from > the top of the page. Then: "Here is a disc that will play several > times as > long as any record of similar size you have ever heard! Twenty > minutes of > delightful entertainment have been recorded in its super-fine > grooves, and > instead of the usual few minutes of a single selection, the two > sides of > this disc will give you a complete musical sketch, with songs and > pleasant > talk by Frank Crumit; two inimitable numbers by the famous Revelers > with > Frank Black; a piano duet by Victor Arden and Phil Ohman; a brilliant > orchestral selection by Nathaniel Shilkret and the Victor > Orchestra, and > finally, a suite of four famous compositions by Wagner, Dvorak, > Rimsky-Korsakow and Tchaikowsky. It is the new RCA Victor Long > Playing > Record. Imagine this wealth of entertainment within the confines of a > single 10-inch disc!" > > Yeah, no kidding! Even the 12" Program Transcriptions were only 12-15 > minutes per side (the ones I own, anyway - if they're even that > long). And > PT's were certainly not microgroove! Heartbreakingly, the record that > should've come in this folder had been replaced by a crummy old > Victor Radio > Tone Demonstration record, a scroll label VE Orthophonic with > Milton Cross > announcing. It does sound positively fabulous, but it's not the > record I > was trying to buy. There were, however, a number of shards of what > was left > of the original demo disc way down in the sleeve, and in addition > to clearly > being shellac, they were plainly microgrooves, without question -- > not quite > as fine as an Edison DD, but certainly as fine as Columbia's 1949 > microgrooves. > > All these years we've understood the 33 microgroove disc to be > Columbia's > doing. Folks, please help me if you can: exactly what failed RCA > experiment do I have evidence of here? > > > Thanks in advance, > Robert > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > [email protected] > > Phono-L Archive > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org/archive/ > > Support Phono-L > http://www.cafepress.com/oldcrank -- Peter [email protected]
