[78-L] Columbia 1950s demo

[Michael Biel]

The 360 Columbia Phonographs were mono machines which had multiple
speakers facing left, right, and rearwards.

This slogan completely messed with the late Peter Copeland of the
British Library.  He completely screwed up several books by claiming
that a 7-inch Stereo Columbia record series which really was issued in
1959 had been the Columbia 7-inch 33 of 1950, therefore could not have
really been stereo.  He used this as was proof that the word "stereo"
had been used for records that were not two-channel stereo.  The problem
is, the record really WAS stereo, and the one he illustrated in his book
was a selection by Andre Previn from the musical Gypsy which was written
in the latter 1950s.  I tried to tell him that he had his facts all
screwed up, but he still used this theory (without the illustration) in
his manuscript about sound recording which the British Library has
published on-line.  

If he had said that Columbia's "360 Sound" was not stereo, he would have
been correct, BUT Columbia had never claimed it was!  When he came
across that 7-inch Columbia Stereo record he thought it was the same as
"360 Sound" because there had been 7-inch Columbia microgroove discs in
the mono era.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Columbia 1950s demo
From: Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, June 06, 2010 11:26 am
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

Columbia marketed some phonographs in the late 1950s/early 1960s with
names
like the Masterwork 360. AFAIK at least one model was a rebranded Pye
product.

41662 as a Columbia catalogue number for a single would have dated to
approximately late 1960 or some time into 1961, so well after 78s were
discontinued in the US and Canada. It is an LP, and that is what the
matrix
number of 10" microgroove (mono) LP records was, LP, so the matrix
number
properly is LP 41662 which would place it circa 1957. (The X, as in XLP
for
comparable 12" LPs, was a throwback to the Brunswick method of adding
the X
to the matrix prefix to denote 12" items.)

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Han Enderman <jcenderman at solcon.nl>
wrote:

> Ebay # 370272615438 shows a Columbia "360" demonstration record, with 5
> tracks from LPs, listed as 10" 78.
> Numbered 41662, it is a very high nr for the 1950s 78rpm series.
> Last Canadian Co known to me is 41476.
>
> What is "360" (early surround?) ?
> Why a 78 to demonstrate LP issues? Or is this a 10" demo LP as suggested by
> the LP logo?
> But I have never seen 10" Columbia LPs without prefix, and thus, what
> numerical series is this?
>
> So what is this?
>
> Han Enderman
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>
_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l