[78-L] 78 sleeves--was:Inner sleeves

[Michael Biel]

Steven C. Barr wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "DAVID BURNHAM" <burnhamd at rogers.com>
>   
>> Like many of us, I was around and aware of record developments when the LP 
>> was introduced. I think what we're dealing with here is not the 
>> introduction of the inner sleeve but the outer sleeve. Most 78s were sold 
>> in a generic paper sleeve, (although some had an envelope with the record 
>> information on it, especially kid's records) and the first LPs were sold 
>> in envelopes which were slightly more sturdy with the record's contents 
>> described. In the mid-fifties the cardboard outer sleeve came into common 
>> use.
>>
>>     
> This starts a whole NEW train of thought...at least for me!
>
> 78's first came in label-specific sleeves (AFAIK!) c.1910. Columbia seems
> to have started this (which is in a way unfortunate, because early Columbia
> sleeves use a heavier paper stock that seems to self-destruct...?!). Victor
> quickly followed suit...

You skipped over a pair of important precedents to both of these: the 
Melba and Tomango sleeves.  These were heavy board with a celluloid 
window on the label hole, and a picture of the singer on the inside back 
of the sleeve that is revealed when the record is removed.  These are 
illustrated in the Victor label book.
> and Edison used sleeves which were specific to the
> disc they contained!

This also goes back further.  The first series of Diamond Disc releases 
were in a BOX!  And these had record specific descriptions on the 
front.  They are quite rare and I feel lucky to have one.
>  Oddly enough, I don't recall offhand having seen
> label-specific sleeves for the various "patent evader labels" of 1903-09...
> nor for the several vertical-cut labels pre-1919!
>
>   

I've seen stockroom photos in the very early years and it seems that the 
records were shipped to the dealers without sleeves.  It could be the 
dealers who put them in the sleeves at sale.   Many of the European 
countries have a tradition of very heavy dealer sleeves and this might 
be why this started over there -- I wish it had happened over here 
because those heavy European sleeves are great. 
> During the next era (1919-1929), there were several hundred "indie"
> 78 labels...only a few of which bothered to print label-specific sleeves!
> However, where label-specific sleeves did appear (most notably
> Emerson) they often list other issues of that period, and can thus be
> used to compile label listings.
>
>   

Gennett, Regal, Brunswick, Vocalion, Perfect are others.  Brunswick had 
those personality sleeves but I don't think that they were used for the 
specific singer's records.  Same for the Victor sleeve with Whiteman 
easily recognizable on the front, but Columbia did have a beautiful 
multi-color sleeve for the potatohead records.  And also at that same 
time there was that great orange Al Jolson Brunswick sleeve.  It must 
not have been used much because the Jolson Brunswick records are MUCH 
more common than that sleeve. 
> In the thirties, the number of 78 labels decreased substantially...but
> most of the "survivors" used label-specific sleeves. Label numbers
> increased from c.1938 onward...but many of the "indie" labels of
> the forties and fifties didn't bother having sleeves printed...!
>
> Sometime probably around 1950, something new appeared...
> "picture sleeves" for specific records! It is difficult to date these
> exactly, since some picture-sleeved records (i.e. "Rudolph...")
>   

That is a kid's record, and that is a whole 'nuther story.  The original 
red label issue was in a generic sleeve, but the yellow label kid series 
record had that sleeve. 
> were first issued around 1941, but were sold in numbers over
> ensuing postwar years! 
Not sure what you are referring to in 1941. Postwar, one researcher 
thinks that the sleeve for Phil Harris' "The Thing" might have been the 
first pop series picture sleeve, but that might also have been a kid 
series reissue.  At about the same time there is a series sleeve for The 
Great Caruso, used on the songs and arias from the movie as recorded by 
Mario Lanza OR Caruso, both 10 and 7-inch.  And Vogue had planned to 
have a special sleeve for their picture records but that never came to 
be.  The early promotions pictured how these records in those sleeves 
could  be displayed in the stores, but they apparently used plain 
unprinted glassine sleeves. 
> However, these became common for
> the 45's during the fifties...and some of these were duplicated
> in larger form for the related 78 issues. Note that Bell, who
> issued a line of 7" 78's, had specific sleeves for each issued
> record...!
>
>   

Now we are in the late 1950s, so this is not unusual at all.

> This leaves a few unanswered (at least by me?!) questions...!
>
> (1) When were the VERY first label-branded 78 sleeves issued,
> and by whom?
>
>   
I think you are right about  Columbia, and the earliest ones I've seen 
are greenish rather than bluish.

> (2) Were any record-specific sleeves used before the post-WWII
> period? I know there was a coloured Columbia sleeve issued in
> the late twenties, which is often assumed (rightly? wrongly?) to have
> been specific to the "picture-label" Columbia 78's issued in that era?!
>
>   

Other than the Whiteman's potato head, were the Ted Lewis labels the 
only ones from that era.  That silver Lewis label is one of the ugliest 
labels of the era.  Was it supposed to be shiny???  It always looks 
dirty and faded.  I think there is a Seeger Ellis label, but that came 
in the 30s, didn't it? 
> (3) Are any label-specific sleeves known for labels of fabled rarity
> (Black Patti, usw.)? What other sleeves would attract colletor
> interest regardless of their (if any) contents?
>
> ...stevenc 
>   
Well, there's Black Swan and Paramount sleeves!   And those nifty Race 
Series Vocalion sleeves.

Now, how about record store carry bags!!!!  I love those.

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com