[78-L] Alex Steinweiss article

[Michael Biel]

Leah just came up with her copy of Victor P-20 Robeson's Ballad for
Americans, and it has photos of the recording session and extensive
notes on both the inside front and inside back cover, in addition to the
red, white, and blue cover with Robeson's photo.  Again, we need the
release date of Columbia C-11.  Did it post-date April/May 1940 when the
Ballad was issued?  That ad in the NY Daily News May 14, 1940 is a good
indicator of time, but did it predate C-11?

As I mentioned in another post, one of the contentions of the Steinwiss
fans is that HE changed the way records could be displayed in stores. 
The covers of the Decca albums had distinctive typography that could be
read at a distance even when they didn't have pictures -- and many of
them did.  

Other sleeves to send to her or to post would be the multicolored
sleeves Columbia did in the late 20s at the time of the potato head
label.  But they seem to be rare.  I only have one or two.  The ink runs
if they get wet.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article
From: Cary Ginell <soundthink at live.com>
Date: Mon, December 28, 2009 8:30 pm
To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>


Liesl told me to limit my letter to 100 words or it would be edited for
me. I'd rather do the editing myself than have them do it. I think I
made my point and cited some verified sources. The rest you can do on
the Times' website, where one can be freer with word counts. I sent
Liesl scans of 1920s 78 sleeves on Perfect and Brunswick, which show
illustrations of recording artists, selected listings from their
catalogs, and some creative artwork of the times. The main thrust of the
article was that Steinweiss invented the modern album cover. The other
misstatements - concerning record sleeves and what an album is - are
just sidebars. If I only had 100 words, I wanted to refute the main
premise of the story - that Steinweiss somehow invented the album cover
industry. This is not a big deal for the Times. I'll be lucky if my
letter gets in at all. It's a murmur of protest, but at least it's
something. 

Cary Ginell

> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:05:24 -0700
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Alex Steinweiss article
> 
> Is Cary developing a web page with the illustrations that the reporter
> wants to link to?
> 
> The other aspect of the article concerned the plain brown paper sleeves.
> We should include some sleeves, possibly starting with some Columbia
> sleeves, the early pre-1910 sleeves with the muse in flowing veils, then
> perhaps some of the multi color ones in the late 20s. THOSE will freak
> them out. Then a few Victor and Brunswick sleeves with the artist
> pictures and bios. In my posting I mentioned that Edison cylinders and
> disc sleeves had detailed notes for the specific records, and we should
> illustrate a few of these. 
> 
> I think that Cary edited his letter a little too much, leaving out the
> description of what an album and a sleeve is. It also still gives
> Steinweiss too much credit, especially in the first sentence. His
> revolutionary action was just to add his artistic sense to the covers,
> not that his were the first covers -- that is not clear enough.
> 
> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
> 
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