[78-L] Alex Steinweiss article

[Michael Biel]

As for Taylor's doubts, I held Miles' copy of the Brunswick Show Boat
album in my hands, so I know it exists.  Likewise the gold colored
Blackbirds of 1928 album which was the source of the Columbia LP
reissue.  He did modify the lettering font to match the lettering from
the original 1928 sheet music covers.


> Toscanini's recording of Beethoven's Symphony #5 (Victor M 640)
> had a full color picture of Toscanini from Day 1, possibly on
> both front and back covers. Recorded February-March 1939, not
> sure of release date.

I would not be sure about Victor classical sets because I have a lot
with both plain and illustrated covers.  I think that this cover is the
one with a bust of Beethoven in a two-tone blue picture frame, not a
picture of Toscanini.  

Steinweiss claims that his first album cover is C-11, Music by Richard
Rodgers, the one showing a marquee.  A particularly dull start, eh?  Can
we have a precise release date?  Some sites say 1938 but this is a
Columbia red label set.  That couldn't have come out until the middle of
1940, right?  So, we need to show things from early 40 and earlier.  My
suggestion is to get out your catalogs to show when albums were issued. 
For example, in the Nov 1939 Victor catalog they have the Snow White
soundtracks listed as being "in container J8".  Mike Murray illustrates
it in his Disney book, and I took a digital photo of one at the recent
Wayne show.  I'll look for it tonight.  Can someone find the release
date of Robison's Ballad for Americans  P-20.   This is what Wikiplotz
says "Time mentioned the album on the May 6, 1940 issue. On May 14,
1940, a full page ad for the records appeared in the New York Daily
News."  I suppose I could go into Manhattan and get a scan of that ad. 
I have a color photo of the cover from the 1942 Victor catalog but Leah
has a copy of the album around here somewhere.  I also have Templeton's
album P-19 but not here, but there is a B&W photo in the Victor 1942
catalog.   

As for Decca, their catalogs have a numerical listing of all of their
albums.  I swear I left an extra copy of the 1940 catalog here in Leah's
apartment, but all I find is my extra 1942 catalog where the list is at
300.  I was thinking that the 1940 catalog was at 200, but it might have
been 100 (which is Gulliver's Travels) considering that A-134 is the
Crosby Ballad for Americans which Wiki says was recorded on July 6, 1940
which would have been after Robeson's Victor was released.  So, let's
say that any Decca album under 100 is 1939 or earlier.  Some of you
might have:
A-10  Music of Hawaii (MAL???)
A-31  Geo Gershwin Music -- Whiteman
A-32  Bob Crosby Showcase
A-33  Boys From Syracuse  Vallee & Langford
Deanna Durbin Souvenir Album 1 A-35, 2 A-75 
Victor Herbert Melodies 1 A-38, 2 A-72, 3 A-73, 4 A-82
A-40 Songs of Hawaii  Ray Kinney  (MAL??)
A-43  Hoagy C
A-45 Songs of the South
A-46 Songs of the North
A-57 Concerto in F  Whiteman & Bargy
A-65 Cowboy Songs  Ranch Boys
A-69 Cowboy Songs  Bing
A-70 Irving Berlin Vol 1 Whiteman
A-71 Irving Berlin Vol 2  "
A-74 Wizard of Oz
A-76 Judy G Souv album 
A-87 Fran Langford Souv Alb
Gershwin Popular Songs 1 A-96, 2 A-97

I have a couple of these but not here in Brooklyn.  There are many other
albums -- there are no gaps in the catalog numericals!  I just listed a
few which I see most often.  Surely one of you has the 1940 Decca
catalog.  It has yellow and light brown circles.  I could send scans of
the numerical in the 1942 catalog.  
The kids albums were in a separate listing, and I am not sure where it
was at the point of the 1940 catalog (which was issued at the end of
1939 -- safely before Steinweiss.)  They are at k-38 in the 42 catalog
at the end of 1941.  Leah just dug up Decca A-15 Stephen Foster
Melodies, and it is not quite what we are looking for.  Most of the
cover looks like fancy flowered wallpaper with a wide 3-inch cloth
binding on the left side with fancy silver lettering identifying the
album.  The Vol 1 Victor Herbert A-38 has a silver cover all over with
blue lettering on the whole front.  But I think the Durbin's all have
photos.   


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

  

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article
From: fnarf at comcast.net
Date: Mon, December 28, 2009 5:23 pm
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

Oh, that's good. A credible secondary source discussing the material is
BETTER than a primary source.

The book is Miles Kreuger, Show Boat: The Story of a Classic American
Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. Its library record
says it's illustrated; I can't reserve books from that library so I
can't tell if that includes a picture of the Brunswick artwork.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Rodger Holtin" <rjh334578 at yahoo.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 1:58:34 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article

Back about 1979 or so, Miles Krueger wrote a book about "Show Boat"
(correct title escapes me - published by Oxford University Press or
somebody like that)  and he discussed the original 1932 Brunswick album
with its original artwork and compared it to the Columbia re-issue with
Steinweiss artwork.  While this is not primary source material, it is a
credible, published reference, probably still available somewhere, and
reinforces the concept we are trying to re-establish.

Rodger



For Best Results use Victor Needles.



.

--- On Mon, 12/28/09, fnarf at comcast.net <fnarf at comcast.net> wrote:

From: fnarf at comcast.net <fnarf at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Monday, December 28, 2009, 2:20 PM

This is important! While the ramblings of a delightful bunch of old
coots is very enjoyable, it's not evidence. People saying "Steinweiss
wasn't first" aren't any more reliable than people saying "Steinweiss
was first" without some solid documentary proof. Without it, journalists
and authors are right to ignore us.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 11:52:04 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article


Liesl Bradner has asked me for permission to print my comments as a
letter-to-the-editor, to be published in next Sunday's L.A. Times
Calendar edition.

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