[78-L] Earliest DJ/reviewers copy 78

[Michael Biel]

As I have been spending the past week going thru record reviews in
American Record Guide, H Royer Smith The New Records, Down Beat,
Billboard, and several other journals, I know that the record companies
did supply PRINT reviewers with review copies.  I saw a note in a review
for the Mercury Theater Macbeth C-33 in the Dec 1940 The New Records
"The sample album we received was minus the booklet so we cannot give
the cast of the present performance."  These journals seem to be getting
advance copies making it possible to have a review in the same issue
where an ad for the record announces it as a new release.  My
dissertation has a note that credits Arnold Passman's book The Deejays
p80-81 that by mid 1940 Columbia and Decca were providing their records
to radio stations which forced Victor to do likewise.  Earlier pages
note that Benny Goodman had even paid Al Jarvis $500 in 1937 to promote
a live appearance and play his records.  The 1930s monthly articles
about jazz in American Record Guide always had info about prominent
broadcasts including Make Believe Ballroom.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
  


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Earliest DJ/reviewers copy 78
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat, January 16, 2010 5:51 pm
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

I've seen stickers like that on English pressings that probably go back
to the 
30s but not on US ones. (Thanks for covering the run-out, ARC!)

dl

Cary Ginell wrote:
> Just came across (and listed on oy-Vey) the earliest example of a DJ or reviewers' copy of a 78 I've seen. Although the earliest examples where the label color was actually changed and printing reflected that the record was "not for sale" came around 1946, this record predates that by a decade. Instead of printing special labels, stickers saying "Reviewers' Copy - Not For Sale" were pasted over the labels. This is a mid-30s black-and-gold Vocalion copy of two Louis Armstrong records from the '20s. Were these common? 
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120518896284&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
> 
> Cary Ginell
>