[78-L] Paramount studio records?

[David Lennick]

There was an actual Twentieth Century label around 1934, which I guess promoted 
songs from their films but which relied on Victor (and possibly other labels) 
for source material. I've seen a couple of these. But pretty much all the film 
studios used playbacks which were recordings of the numbers to be danced to or 
acted to, and these often were the complete recordings even though you'd hear 
fragments of it or the music with dialogue or sound effects over it in the 
finished product. They'd play them on the set when filming, and then the 
original source material would be played in the mixing stage. When you have a 
scene where a director yells "Playback!" that's what would be heard on the 
soundstage, played from a record player on the set. The discs were pressed by 
Victor, Columbia and Allied, and the ones used on the set were usually recorded 
at 80RPM (80 is easier to check for speed accuracy than 78). But copies for the 
stars to take home and learn were cut at 78. Occasionally they goofed and 
switched them and chaos ensued.

There are also discs that got circulated for promotional purposes or airplay 
(Universal and Paramount did this..so did Disney with "Make Mine Music", a nice 
set of songs that aren't from the soundtrack and were never commercially 
issued). As well, I have the scores for "She" and "The Informer" on laminated 
78s, the purpose of which I've never been able to discover.

dl

Taylor Bowie wrote:
> In case some of you have been hitting me with the delete button recently I'd 
> like to repost my questions about those Paramount studio records I mentioned 
> the other day...three sides by Bernie and one by Lombardo.
> 
> My theory/guess is that these were the actual original  recordings which 
> were then dubbed onto the movie soundtracks in order to get a better sound 
> that they would have recording the music on the sound stage.
> 
> Does anyone have any others like this from that era.  I have a number of 
> 20th Century Fox pressings from the later 30s and the early 40s but nothing 
> else that early (1934).
> 
> Also curious who might have been pressing such things in LA in '34.
> 
> Thanks from
> 
> Taylor
> 
> 
> ______________________