[78-L] Limited edition Miller

[Michael Biel]

There were FOUR multi-disc sets in the padded covers, not just two.  The 
first white one, LPT 6700, was at first titled "Limited Edition", and 
the gold one, LPT 6701, was "Limited Edition Volume Two".  While the 
gold one was still selling and the white one had been sold out, they 
re-released the white one with the title "Second Pressing" on the cover 
and the labels. Late copies of the gold set still say "Limited Edition 
Volume Two" on the cover, but do say "Second Pressing" on the labels.  I 
have never seen a 45 set of either volume noted as a second pressing, 
and have a copy of both EPOT-6700 and 01.  The third one was the Army 
Air-Force Band, LPT-6702 and had a picture of a Air Force hat on clouds 
on the cover.  They eventually ran out of the padded covers for the AAF 
set and put it out in a box numbered LPM 6700 with yellow label 
pressings.   Unfortunately they continued to make and sell these when 
they ran out of booklets, and I had to do photocopies of a borrowed set 
for my boxed LP set.  (I got that as a cut-out at Sam Goodys in the late 
60's with a saw-mark on the edge, for $6.99.)   But I do have it in the 
padded cover in the 45 version, EPOT-6702.  The fourth one "For the Very 
First Time" LPM 6100 was only a three-disc set, came out in 1959, and 
might not have been on 45s  It had a painting of Miller playing the 
trombone on the front cover which bled over to a painting of the band 
bus on the back.  It was the hardest one of any of them for me to get.  
I only got it about  5 years ago.  Although not a numbered "Limited 
Edition", I don't think they made any effort to make more of the padded 
covers or put it in a box after they ran out of the original run of the 
covers. 

Part of the reason all of these sold so well was that they were premiums 
for the RCA Victor Record Club.  Last weekend I bought a few copies of 
Look and Sat. Eve. Post, and in the Dec. 5, 1961 issue of Look they 
offer five LPs of your choice OR a "new release of the original edition" 
of the white Volume One.  $1.87 plus a small charge for handling and 
postage.  (I should note that at the birth of the Club they pushed as a 
premium the brown padded cover editions of the Toscanini Beethoven and 
then Brahms symphonies, and later continued to push the boxed set of the 
Beethoven after they ran out of the padded cover versions.)

In the 60s Victor continued to issue LPs drawn from the Miller 
broadcasts.  There was a three-disc "On The Air" series that was 
available as three separate LPs or the three of them in a slipcase.  
There also was a two volume pair of separate LPs of the Chesterfield 
broadcasts. There also was a  2-LP gatefold cover in black with silver 
printing "Glenn Miller Memorial."   In almost all of these LPs that 
include broadcasts, they tried to pick recordings with an absolute 
minimum of audience or crowd reaction.  That policy changed for the 
wonderful two-disc Volume One in the "A Legendary Performer" series, the 
one with the circular cut-out on the outer cover that lets the portrait 
on either the booklet or the inner-sleeve show thru.  You hear the bobby 
soxers making noise in many of the tracks, and this set included several 
presentations of awards, the announcement that he is enlisting, and the 
introduction of Harry James as the broadcast replacement.  It is the 
most evocative of the era of any of the Miller broadcast sets that 
Victor put out.  

Jeff Sultanof wrote:
> The way I understand the story, Miller had nearly all of his radio
> broadcasts transcribed by the Harry Smith Recording Company because he
> claimed he could not hear the band from the stand. These recordings were
> stockpiled in his office long after his death, and were finally sent to RCA;
> initially they were thought to be worthless. 

This seems straight out of the liner notes of "For the Very First Time".
> The first releases from these
> sources were two 10" LPs entitled "Glenn Miller Concert." The two 5 LP sets
> supposedly were both limited editions to be sold for $25.00 each, and RCA
> didn't expect big sales.

Actually, I think that they expected very big sales of these, especially 
considering the blockbuster nature of Columbia's Goodman Carnegie Hall 
concert sets, and the fact that the individual Miller LPs were also 
selling well.  
>  Of course the movie of his life probably helped big
> time, and the resulting huge sales caught them by surprise.

Both Decca and Victor milked the movie for all that it was worth with 
soundtrack and re-issue albums respectively.  If anything, those might 
have cut back on the sales of the expensive sets.
>  The first set
> was a mix of commercial recordings and live performances, the second is all
> live, highlighting many titles never commercially recorded by Miller.
> Sometime in the sixties, the second set was repressed on Dynacrap, using
> both old and new stampers. 

I haven't checked, but I seem to recall  hum in one set of lacquers used 
in the 60s.  But as for Dynacrap, these are the pressings you DO want.  
It is the black label pressings without the deep groove that are the 
ones to be avoided.  Dynaflex was a very high quality vinyl, and unless 
they are the very early ones that are very thin, are quieter than almost 
any other Victor pressing from the mid-60s on.  . 
> I was told that RCA had hundreds of extra albums
> in one of their warehouses, and making a new pressing seemed to be the best
> way to get rid of them - the labels read "Second Pressing." I'm sure that
> there are a few of these floating around; I bought mine at Korvette's for
> $12.98 and wore out every side.
>   

Since the gold volume does not say Second Pressing on the cover, it is 
more likely that this story is meant for this volume, not the white 
one.  As I mentioned, the record club was pushing the white volume in 
the 60s.
> RCA also transcribed a number of NBC broadcasts, and these are true
> airchecks, in that they were professionally recorded as reference and then
> filed away. 

It is more likely that the RCA recordings (if they were really done by 
RCA rather than NBC) are LINE CHECKS, not Air Checks.  The "I Sustain 
The Wings" series of the AAF band were NBC broadcasts and are line 
checks.  Harry Smith recorded the CBS broadcasts, and these are possibly 
also line checks because CBS did not really have their own recording 
service and allowed outside studios to have lines more readily than NBC 
did before the Justice Dept/FCC case forced them to in 1941.. 
> The Artie Shaw 5 LP set from the mid-fifties is made up of
> these. Much of the remainder of what RCA took off the air turned up on
> various Reader's Digest CD sets in the eighties and nineties.
>
> Jeff Sultanof
>
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Ron L'Herault <lherault at bu.edu> wrote:
>
>   
>> I'm going to be digitizing a bunch of stuff on tape that is Miller
>> broadcasts.  I'm sure they had a lot of studio stuff but the live stuff is
>> quite interesting.  You hear tunes they didn't commercially record I
>> imagine.
>>
>> Ron
>>     

Putting out tunes that were not commercial recorded was the purpose of 
the three-disc "For the Very First Time."
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: William A. Brent
>>
>>
>> for the longest time, I've had 2 multi disc Glenn Miller albums -
>> they seem to date from 1954. the first set is on EPs (45s) the second is on LPs.

As mentioned above, the first three sets came out on both LP and 45s. 
>>  most of the tracks seem to come from
>> radio broadcasts. Does any one know the history of these? was the mid
>> 50's a special time for
>> releasing radio broadcasts (Decca was doing this with Jolson) 

The Jolson broadcast LPs are from the late 50s and early 60s.  The first 
five 12-inchers from 1956 with the gold band at the edge, DL 9034-38,  
put out all of his Decca studio recordings, replacing and supplementing 
the eight 10-inch LPs.   With all of the studio recordings already out, 
that led to the next six being broadcast recordings, DL 9050 (1957), 
9063 (1958), 9070 & 9074 (1959), 9095 (1961), and 9099(1963). 

>> - then again, RCA did this in the 60's with Lanza.
>>     

Really?  I thought this only happened on a CD set a few years ago. 
>> But did RCA not have enough studio material in 1954 to release sets
>> of this size?
>>     

Considering that the Bluebird Complete Miller is something like 20 fully 
packed LPs, I would say that they did have enough studio material.  It 
is just that these broadcasts were an interesting alternative to the LPs 
that were already out.
>> did these sell well?
>>     
Yes!

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com