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

David Lennick dlennick at sympatico.ca
Thu Apr 30 10:12:22 PDT 2009


McNamee is the announcer on all the Chevrolet sponsored programs (Rubinoff, 
Musical Moments) World produced from around 1935-38.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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 
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