Darrell, yes, the New Phonogram announced in October 1910 Specials D 1 through D 24 in orange boxes. They were not sold separately and not listed in the general catalog or supplements. When an Edison owner got a friend to purchase a new Edison phonograph, the person who recommended the friend would receive six of the 24 Amberols for free. Owners were given an orange "Edison Phonograph Owner's Certificate" dated July 1, 1910, which today is extremely rare (a copy of the certificate was reprinted in In the Groove several years ago but I don't have the citation). This could be repeated until the owner had all 24, which meant you had to get four friends to buy phonographs if you wanted all 24 -- quite a challenge if you're not very sociable, or if most of your friends owned Victors! But people having few contacts wouldn't be the only reason why they sold so poorly. In January 1911, the New Phonogram announced a "special list" of 500 two-minute cylinders that were going to be discontinued the following year. Owners who got their friends to buy an Edison phonograph could either select NINE two-minute cylinders from the list, or six Amberols from the list of the 24 "D" series. This no doubt cut into the distribution of the "D" series, and none were reissued on Blue Amberols.
-Ryan _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.org
