[78-L] Advent of Electrical Recording

[Michael Biel]

Welcome to the 78-L, Geoffrey.  I'm a big fan of your Jazz By Mail, and
tried to get your Collectors Guide To Bootlegs and Reissues, but the
Jazz Record Center was out of stock (temporarily they said) when I went
there a couple of months ago.  As you probably don't know, the
introduction of electrical recording is one of my research specialties,
and back in 1977 I presented a landmark paper at ARSC that is still
being quoted "Electrical Recording Before Western Electric."  

In your posting, are you the "author" in possession of the
correspondence you quoted?  If so, we really have to get together!! 
This is great stuff.  For my current project of documenting the
pre-Steinweiss illustrated album covers I do need some additional
confirmation of what went on inside Columbia between 38 and 40, such as
who dreamed up the idea for album C-11 and who authorized the resumption
of the C series.

But while I am here on the topic of this thread, there were some
questions raised.  Yes Columbia and Victor continued to use their old
cutting lathes with the new WE cutting heads.  In some published
articles about WE there were some stupid comments made that WE built 78
RPM into their standard because otherwise Victor wouldn't have been
interested.  Speed is not specifically mentioned in the WE standards
because they didn't necessarily supply the turntables.  They mainly
continued using weight-driven turntables because slight variations in
voltage and frequency of the AC could affect conistnacy of speed but
have little effect on the operation of the amps and other parts of the
audio chain.  Do you notice any of your equipment malfunctioning when
there are changes in power?  Do you even notice changes in the power?  

WE recording did not occur overnight.  It has been discussed here that
there are a number of test recordings made over a period of almost two
years of NY Philharmonic broadcast excerpts.  The several takes of the
1922 soundtrack to a film about the Audion tube recorded by engineer
Stanley Watkins in LC and Bell Labs.  But they were not the first.  The
first released electrical recording was the Memorial Record recorded by
Guest and Merriman of portions of the ceremony of the burial of the
unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey on Armistace Day 1920.  It is
detailed in Ed Moogk's Roll Back the Years.  They also did electrical
recording experiments at American Columbia in 1922 and 23, and they
sound lousy!  There were experiments being done at Victor during that
same era by Albertis Hewitt, and Alan Sutton reports that one of his
1922 tests exists.  Victor even had a radio station to supply audio for
test recordings.  Benjamin Franklin Miessner claimed to have done
electrical recording experiments at Brunswick in Chicago in 1921 and 22
using a modified Baldwin headphone as a cutter head.  Charles Hoxie of
GE developed his Pallophotophone to record sound-on film in 1922 but
also developed the Pallotrope which recorded electrically on discs which
became the basis of the RCA system Brunswick used in 1925 for both their
light-ray recording and Panatrope electrical phonographs.  It also was
on loan to Hewitt at Victor in late 1922 and he might have based some of
his system on it.  And of course there is Orlando Marsh in Chicago, and
there is a good description and preliminary discography at Alan Sutton's
site.  It seems to note that Marsh was releasing electrical recordings
in 1923. Sponable and Case, as well as Lee deForest were doing good
electrical recording on film in 22-24.  So there was a lot of activity
during those years when WE recording "suddenly" hit in 1925.  

As for what happened to the acoustical recording equipment, there wasn't
much stuff to do anything with!  Since the lathes and turntables were
still being used, all there really was were the cutter-heads and horns. 
Edison's are still at the Site.  EMI has one head and a couple of horns.
 Most everything else was trashed or taken home, especially the Victor
heads which were hand-made by the Sooey Bros.  And Columbia continued to
use it for Harmony.  As to whether their financial troubles and license
fees were a reason to continue to use the acoustical recording equipment
for Harmony, I don't know.  It has also been conjectured that since the
majority of people were still using acoustical players that some still
preferred the less harsh acoustical recordings.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [78-L] Advent of Electrical Recording
From: Geoffrey Wheeler <dialjazz at verizon.net>
Date: Sat, January 23, 2010 1:20 pm
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com


On February 25, 1925, Western Electric Company sent Columbia Phonograph 
Inc. a contract regarding the conversion of Columbia Phonograph from 
acoustic to electrical recording. The original copy shows written in 
ink to the left of the last paragraph “Accepted May 14, 1925 H. C. Cox

Pres.” Most of the correspondence from Western Electric between 1925 
and 1933 in the author’s possession comes from G. E. Cullinan, General

Sales Manager, Western Electric Company Inc. General Supply Department, 
100 East 42nd Street, New York City. Between 1925 and 1933, the 
principal issues raised by Columbia Phonograph regard how to calculate 
royalties on either records pressed or records sold, discounting 
returns, and the submission of payments. Columbia was forever behind in 
its payments, which may explain why it was slow to covert Harmony from 
acoustic to electrical recording. In December 1933, Columbia Phonograph 
was forced into bankruptcy, owing monies to various creditors, 
including its parent company, Grigsby-Grunow. Columbia Phonograph was 
sold Monday, April 16, 1934 as a single lot in Chicago federal 
bankruptcy court to Sacro Enterprises Inc., a New York corporation 
formed Saturday, April 14, 1934. Purchase price was $70,500. Sacro 
acquired legal rights to all physical, intellectual, and financial 
property, including the trade name Columbia Phonograph but not the 
legal right to the corporate name and charter. Columbia Phonograph was, 
as they say, dead, dead, dead, and really dead as a corporation. Best 
evidence shows that most likely Sacro was created and funded by 
Consolidated Film Industries and managed by American Record 
Corporation. Sacro itself never paid taxes and never filed required 
forms with the IRS or the State of New York and was declared 
involuntarily bankrupt December 15, 1938. At no time did CFI, by then 
listed on the New York Stock Exchange, file that Sacro was a wholly 
owned corporation. This is, in part, why nobody at the time had ever 
heard of Sacro and there is nothing to document its existence other 
than its corporate filing. CBS itself does not seem to know these facts 
until 1977 when it was involved in a copyrights lawsuit before a 
European court. Once it had this information, CBS did not pursue or 
disclose it to shareholders, business partners, the FCC, banks, or any 
other governmental or institutional entity worldwide!
Geoffrey Wheeler




_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l