[78-L] blue amberols

[Donna Halper]

This month, I am teaching a group of adorable and very precocious 
immigrant kids (Chinese and Vietnamese mostly, ranging in age from 8 
to 12), tutoring them in English and helping them learn about 
American history/pop culture, etc. I brought in some artifacts of 
early media, like a newspaper from 1865, a children's magazine from 
1889, and a couple of cylinders... they were especially curious about 
the blue amberol I showed them  -- why was it blue, how did it get to 
be blue, did the color affect the sound quality in any way, etc.  I 
do recall an ad campaign from Vocalion Records in the early 20s about 
how "Red records are better!"  But I am not an expert on cylinders-- 
like, why the color blue was chosen or how the color was achieved... 
We may have discussed this a while back, but I don't recall. Any 
explanations would be appreciated!