[78-L] Blue label Monkey Ward/Varsity Royale catalogue

[David Lennick]

Robert M. Bratcher Jr. wrote:
>>> __________________________
>> If you're talking about vinyl, do you mean Royale LPs? Man, those were awful!
>> They were also ridiculously cheap, and my dad (raised in the 
>> Depression) knew a
>> wholesaler, so he bought a lot of the things. The ones that were relabelled
>> "Allegro Elite" were much quieter..bordering on styrene in the US, 
>> well pressed
>> for a time by Sparton in Canada. At the same time, their 45s were very quiet.
>>
>> dl
> 
> Yes I did mean Royale LP's Those & the few Varsity LP's I own have 
> quite a bit of surface noise in them like low quality or regrind 
> vinyl was used to press them. Of course I have no idea which plant 
> pressed any of them. Not that it really matters anyway...... 
> 
> _____________________________________

I'm sure different plants were used at different times. The first Varsity LP I 
ever owned (parts of the Nutcracker Suite) was actually on fairly quiet 
material with a rounded edge and large labels..most Varsity LPs had small 
labels, an edge you could decapitate somebody with, and who knows what for the 
compound. Royales had large labels and noisy surfaces.

As Mike Biel has noted, there are Varsity 78s that sound fabulous, from the 
late 40s..some on vinyl, some definitely pressed by Columbia although any that 
I've turned up have been polkas, so the point is moot. There are also Varsity 
78s pressed by Compo in Canada in the late 40s, some of them remastered from 
the original source lacquers made by Majestic, so it IS possible to hear decent 
sound from some of those Louis Prima recordings. And some of the best sounding 
Varsity reissues are on 45s, pressed on high quality red vinyl. Go figure.

dl