[78-L] How well did they do it

[Michael Biel]

Royal Pemberton wrote:
> . . . for as long as I can remember having any awareness of records and
> the different speeds (back to before I was 3 years old) I always
> preferred the 78s.  If I had a choice, although I expect I'd wish for
> the faster speed disc to have the break-resistant plastic the slower
> ones were pressed on.
>
>   

Of course a lot of childrens 78s were pressed on that break resistant 
plastic starting in the post-war years.

Doug Pomeroy wrote:

 > > Personally, I have a problem with all acoustic recordings, even tho 
I can appreciate Oliver's Snake Rag on a purely musical level.

Acoustical recordings have a charm to them, which is one of the reasons 
some people like Eldridge R. Johnson resisted the (more natural) sound 
of electrical recording because "it didn't sound like a phonograph"!  
When I was a kid I loved the sound of the acoustical Columbia recording 
of the William Tell Overture that was issued on two 12-inch blue label 
discs.  When I was in third grade they were broken during a school show 
and tell, and I was heartbroken when the record store told me they would 
be impossible to replace but listen to a more modern recording.  Never 
liked then the same way.  Looked for many years before I found another 
set. and it is interesting that I don't care much for the acoustical 
Victor of this which was issued on two 10-inchers.  I and many Old Time 
Radio people have likewise been entranced by the odd tambre of the 
Finale recording used in The Lone Ranger, a recording made in Mexico 
City in 1938 by RCA especially for the program.  For decades collectors 
searched through every commercial recording of it to find this exact 
recording before the truth was found out about this special recording. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com