[78-L] Durium Hit of the Week 'Hoard'

Sat Jul 25 10:52:53 PDT 2009

The Hit of the week sleeves starte, as I told you, in the summer of 1931
when the catalogue number got a month-letter and wek number. The first ones
are to be found here: http://durium.opweb.nl/how11.htm and next sites.

Keep swinging

Hans  

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] Namens Hans en Corrie Koert
Verzonden: zaterdag 25 juli 2009 19:50
Aan: '78-L Mail List'
Onderwerp: Re: [78-L] Durium Hit of the Week 'Hoard'

Dear Michael,

All Hit of the week sleeves you are talking about are to be found at my free
online Durium Discography: http://durium.opweb.nl >>> select Hit of the
week. ( http://durium.opweb.nl/how.htm)     As you like I can answer most of
your questions.
The Hit of the week sleeves, you mentioned, were only released between the
summer 0f 1931 and the summer of 1932, when Durium became the Durium
Products Incorporated. The first series of Durium Records didn't had sleeves
- they were sold in displays, to be standing in the news stand. You can find
one here:  http://durium.opweb.nl/images/duriumhow/display.jpg

The Hit of the week Library, as it was called, was a possibility to update
your Hit of the week collection, if you had missed copies. Each week, as you
should know, a new Hit of the week was released at the news stands. It is
said that the news dealer only received a very limited number of copies (
watch the display - no more then a dozen, maybe.) He could bring the unsold
copies back. Later, at the end of 1931, when sales were low, they kept a hit
of the week for two-weeks "in stock".
If you wanted to  up date your collection you could obtain them as 10 for 1
dollar by sending a part of the envelope ( = cover) with your address ( and
the money I guess) to the dealer. Mind that 350,000 copies a week were made
and sold "for one week" - so they had a great stock of unsold hit of the
weeks. They even sent ships full of these records to Europe to sell here,
some months later then in the States. I found one picture of a news paper
stand in ............. Sweden selling Veckans skiva ( = which is the Hit of
the week): http://hitoftheweek.blogspot.com/2007/01/duriumskivan.html

You can find more info at my http://durium.opweb.nl online discographies and
the http:/hitoftheweek.blogspot.com 

Keep swinging

Durium

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] Namens Michael Biel
Verzonden: zaterdag 25 juli 2009 19:19
Aan: 78-L Mail List
Onderwerp: Re: [78-L] Durium Hit of the Week 'Hoard'

When the Hit of the Week catalog was published as a full issue of Record
Research I don't think they mentioned the sleeves, and I know they didn't
picture any.  I didn't know they had sleeves until a couple of years ago,
and had no idea that they seemingly did a sleeve for each one.  At
Northwestern in a donated jazz collection shelved in an alcove in the
Radio-TV Dept office, there was a practically complete HOW collection in
perfect condition that were stored in storage albums, two per pocket.  Not
knowing that the whole collection would be pilfered or discarded within a
year or two after I left, I didn't take that bunch, partially because my own
HOW collection was almost complete even at that time, although some in
lesser condition.  But even in that great collection there was no hint that
there had been sleeves.  

Looking at these fantastic scans I have a question that might already have
been answered in the past.  If they print a listing of song titles in the
"HOW Library" was this just bragging or was it possible to get copies?  If
so, how?  They do say "ON SALE AT ALL NEWSSTANDS" but newsstands don't  keep
back issues of magazines and newspapers, so why would you think they might
keep past HOWs?  They also print Durium's address, but no instructions.
Anybody know how people could "catch up"
on the hits they missed?

Also, has anybody ever seen a photograph of a street scene with a newsstand
that is selling or displaying HOWs???  I usually drool over the magazines I
see in such photographs, so I look at them carefully. 
But I've never seen one that includes HOWs.  

These records always curl because they are coated on only one side. 
I've always wondered if they were flat when they were new.

Thanks for those scans, and keep them up, please!  This is a MAJOR addition
to the history of HOW.  And quickly get the records out of the sleeves and
get the sleeves into plastic sleeves.  As Taylor has said, the records
aren't particularly rare or expensive, but the sleeves are.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

   -------- Original Message -------
 From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> Jim Hadfield had a batch of sleeves..only time I've ever seen them in 
> the (so  to speak) flesh. Very thin paper. dl

 bruce78rpm at comcast.net wrote:
> > What a fantastic HOW find!! with all those picture discs and the 
> > very fragile HOW sleeves, I would venture to say that only a small % 
> > of collectors ever stumble across the sleeves. I have only found two 
> > in all my years of collecting.

From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com> 
>>> I haven't found that any of these particular HOWs are rare but I'd 
>>> say it's very unusual to find so many in such good condition 
>>> sleeves...very cool!  Thanks for posting the pix.

From: <78records at cdbpdx.com> 
>>>> Just bought a collection of about 600 78s and found a small 'hoard' 
>>>> of 40 or so Durium 'Hit of the Week' records.
>>>> 14 have sleeves, I've never seen those before, and 7 of those with 
>>>> artists pictures on the back, blew me away.
>>>> View them at:  http://78records.cdbpdx.com/HOTW/ Most are in pretty 
>>>> good condition, a couple have significant creases and all are 
>>>> 'warped', though the surfaces on them remain quite glossy and 
>>>> uncracked. My collection previously had a half dozen or so really 
>>>> crackled examples, this group
>>>> is way more than I'd hoped to find.   Yee Haa!   CDB 

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