[78-L] inner sleeves on LPs

[Michael Biel]

David Lennick wrote:
> I mentioned box sets from RCA, but I forgot that their customs 
> pressings of album sets (for Montilla, among others) did in fact use 
> albums with 78-style pockets.  dl
> __
Both Columbia and Decca used those dowel-backed sleeves in their boxes 
for both 78s and Lps.  RCA Victor boxes for 45s initially used printed 
slips with a clipped upper corner, and I think that Capitol also did 
this for 7-inch and possibly even for 10-inch 78s in the early 50s. 
These slips usually had catalog info.  RCA Victor LP boxes used stiff 
paper sleeves that were printed half-blue with a large RCA Victor logo 
and the square with 33 in it on below the label hole.  When they started 
to issue DeLuxe LP sets with padded covers, these had white pockets 
bound in with a metal comb. These were each shipped from the factory in 
individual cardboard boxes.  Many of these came with glassine sleeves 
holding the records, but they were not inserted into the pockets.  If 
the dealer removed the album from the box they would have to put the 
records in the pockets, and the glassine sleeves would fit into the 
pockets.  I think I have one of these with the blue and white paper 
sleeves and these also fit into the pockets. 

Decca did not start using inner-sleeves until after they had stopped 
producing 10-inchers.  Initially they were plastic sleeves with curved 
bottoms and extra length to stick outside the jacket.  Some were clear 
with a logo and some were white with pictures of catalog items.  They 
went to paper around 1960.  Decca used their normal sleeves in the 45 
boxed sets.  Capitol used their normal sleeves on all three sizes of 
their boxed sets.  Columbia used a green and white sleeve with a label 
hole on their 45 boxed sets.  Paper inner-sleeves started on 12-inchers 
in 54 but by then most of their new 10-inchers were the low priced House 
Party series with no inner-sleeves.  When Columbia started stereo LPs 
they used a round-bottom plastic inner-sleeve with the Columbia stereo 
logo printed in orange.  They heat sealed these with a perforated 
tear-off that would make the sleeve slightly too small if you used it 
instead of cutting at the heat sealed edge.  They continued to use paper 
on mono records, and resumed them on stereo records around 1960. 

The earliest sealed record I remember was the MGM soundtrack of The 
Wizard of Oz.  It had a loose polyethelene outer sleeve with an oval 
yellow and black sticker.  The record itself had a glassine 
inner-sleeve.  I got it the week it was released which was the week the 
movie was first shown on TV on the Ford Star Theatre. 

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com