[78-L] From Frosty to Toscanini

[DAVID BURNHAM]

dl wrote:

And come on..have you ever seen a skinny snowman?

dl

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To quote the punch line of many Jewish jokes, (e.g. "Waiter would you please taste this soup?") - "Aha!"

We never had 78s until we had 33s and 45s.  We only have flightless birds because most birds can fly. Nobody ever talks about flightless kangaroos.  If all snowmen are the same shape, then none of them are fat.

But if anyone has the info, I would still like to know how we wound up with at least two different takes of Frosty from June 12, 1950.  The 78 version that I have is superior to the CD version, which dl said also appeared on a Harmony LP.  Was there a reason they resorted to an earlier take, (like a damaged or lost master)?  Perhaps this recording isn't significant enough for them to retain this information but it would be interesting to know.  

Collectors have all sorts of stories about why the first disc of Toscanini's Beethoven 7th was replaced sometime during the run.  Irving Kolodin, who wrote the notes for the Victrola issue of this recording states that Toscanini insisted that there be two turntables set up so he wouldn't have to stop unless there was an error, so what finally appeared on records was the result of a single performance.  But then sometime down the road a new and completely different version of side one appeared.  I've heard that the first master got ruined and it had to be replaced with an earlier previously rejected take; and I've heard that A.T. later changed his mind and didn't like the first take and came back to re-record it at a later date.  It was only the first side which was affected, the other two sides of the first movement seem to remain the same

db