[78-L] Non-Transcription OTR on 78 (was Decca Specialty Series (DAU-x))

[David Lennick]

Michael Biel wrote:
> From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>> There was a series issued in 1947 called "Top Ten", which for
>> some reason only had 7 issues. Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny,
>> Edgar Bergan & Charlie McCarthy, Fibber McGee and Molly,
>> Duffy's Tavern, Eddie Cantor and Burns & Allen.
> 
> I just found out a couple of weeks ago why this is so.  The TEN included
> EACH of the partners!  Burns and Allen were two.  Amos 'n' Andy were
> two. Fibber McGee and Molly were two.  THAT adds up to TEN!!!!!!!! 
> Someone found this in one of the articles announcing the series.  (But
> why are they not counting Charlie?)

Sharlie vas not dere!  Did any of those sets ever make it to LP, other than 
Duffy's Tavern (Jay or Audio Rarities, I forget) and Benny (Murray Hill set)?

> 
> I think "Lonesome Train" was a recording studio re-creation, and some
> might consider it in the same category as Paul Robison's "Ballad For
> Americans" on Victor because both were cantatas.  

Yep..it didn't really belong in that list, but the thread had originally 
started with "Sorry Wrong Number" which was also a studio re-creation (and 
heavily cut at that).  Lonesome Train and Ballad For Americans were also 
un-Amurrican Commie propaganda to some minds.

> Four Bob Hope military
> base broadcast monologues were issued by Capitol in "I Never Left Home"
> which is a slightly incorrect title for the album but was the name of
> his current book.  Lynn Fontaine's reading of "The White Cliffs" on
> Victor is a re-creation of her NBC broadcast, which I have on an
> original lacquer.  I'm not sure if "The Murder of Lidice" was broadcast
> by Rathbone like in the Columbia set, but I think it was a recording
> session even if it had been broadcast by him.  Most of the other
> Columbia and Decca drama sets were designed specifically for records,
> and all of them are well worth finding.  I especially recommend "The
> Snow Goose" (can't remember the star right now) and "Tale of Two Cities"
> with Ronald Coleman, both on Decca.

Thomas Mitchell did The Snow Goose. I have that on Australian Decca 78s. Beware 
the Decca LP reissues of many of those sets, especially if they contained 4 
discs or ran longer than 24 minutes..they were edited to fit onto one LP side. 
Snow Goose survived intact I think, Coleman's Christmas Carol was cut in a few 
places, but Laughton's "Moby Dick" was a two-sided ten-inch Decca so that might 
have been uncut.

Decca recorded a lot of spoken word in the 40s..some of it was never issued 
(some Sandburg, some Orson Welles, the Falstaff Openshaw set) and some didn't 
come out till the LP era (Jane Cowl, Laurette Taylor, Florence Whatzername in 
Shanghai Gesture).

dl