[78-L] Clamp them records down,durium chevrolet

[Michael Biel]

Elizabeth McLeod wrote:
> on 4/30/09 11:52 AM Michael Biel wrote:
>
>   
>> I saw a mention of it in the advertising trade press or maybe Time 
>> magazine.  Over a million copies of it were mailed out which is why it 
>> is relatively common compared to most other small Duriums.  Most of them 
>> have their mailing labels pasted on the reverse side.  This is the best 
>> transfer I've ever heard of it.  Listening to it this way instead of on 
>> a worn copy, I hear a possibility that the announcer might be Bob Brown 
>> who also did the Perfect Circle Piston Rings record with Charlie 
>> Straight Orch on a promotional Gennett.  If Elizabeth is reading this, 
>> what do you think?  There is a breathless McNamee quality to the reading 
>> but a couple of affectations in pronunciation that McNamee never really 
>> did, but Bob did. 
>>
>>     
> It's Alois Havrilla, without question. He was the announcer on the 
> Chevrolet program at the time this record was made, and it would have 
> made sense to use him for it. Havrilla had a very Macnamee-like delivery, 
> but with more polished tones. I have a bunch of 1937 NBC discs announced 
> by Havrilla, and the voice is identical to this one.
>
> Elizabeth

Good point!  But there is one question.  I was just showing Leah the 
pair of World  test pressings of the Chevy program I have from the 
mid-30s with the identical program on a Western Electric Wide Range 
Vertical recording and Lateral recording.  Since I knew where they were 
I just quickly took them out to make sure my memory was not mistaken, 
and it turns out that Graham McNamee is the announcer on this program.  
It is program number 368, matrices BB 14613-A2 lateral, -B1 vertical. 

Did you ever see McNamee and Havrilla in the same room at the same 
time?  Any idea of the date of my World program?  They are translucent 
vinyl pressings, not the opaque clay-colored floppy acetate pressings. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com