[78-L] Subject: Re: MAJOR RECORDS

[Michael Biel]

  On 8/16/2010 3:25 PM, Margaret G. Still wrote:
> Steven, thanks for filling me in on how Gennett fits in with all this. The
> NY Times obit only mentioned that Valentino was a sales rep for Gennett in
> the 1930's "before he started his own sound effects company."
>
> Best,
> Margaret G. Still

Actually I was the one who mentioned Valentino's connection with 
Gennett.  Steve's description was a little wrong becuse it is not true 
that Major took over where Gennett stopped because both companies were 
in business simultaneously for a while.  In the 1951 book "Sound 
Effects"  by Robert Turnbull (which was the textbook used in the 
advanced radio production class I took  in 1965), there are addresses 
for Gennett and Starr Piano as distributors of Gennett and Speedy-Q 
Sound Effects Record respectively.  They share a Richmond Indiana 
address and a LA address at 1344 So. Flower St, and there is a NYC 
Gennett address at 67 W44th.  The other three sound effects labels shown 
with their addresses are Major, Masque, and Standard.  When I was in 
college we had records from all of these companies except Gennett.  I 
think that Speedy-Q is what took over for the Gennett labeled effects 
records

>  Yes, Mike, they ARE awful, and strangely consistent. I am still wondering
>  how they were created or how they were snatched, because they lack any of
>  the "dirtiness" of live sounds. Wouldn't these clean sounds be much more
>  expensive to create than "snatched" sound effects? Their cleanness also
>  makes them less convincing as sound effects because they lack vibrancy.
>  Presumably, consistency was more the point than dramatic thrust.


When  these are used for radio drama, we prefer that the effects be 
recorded dry with no ambiance of their own which would probably be 
different from the ambiance of the drama itself.  Ambiance can always be 
ADDED, but can not be removed.  The same would be true of theatrical use 
because the theater itself has an ambiance.

Major often promoted that there effects were "recorded from life".  It 
has really been a while since I sat down and listened to some -- I 
probably have over a hundred of the different makes -- so I can't be 
sure in my description, but I think that they are mainly studio recorded 
and sometimes manually created like a sound effects person created 
effects.  For example, their fire probably is crinkled cellophane, not a 
real fire.  My complaint about the Diary of Anne Frank discs is not how 
the recordings sounded but the appropriateness and correctness of their 
choices of what to use for the script's sound cues.  They pulled effects 
out of their library and put them in the order the script called for 
them on these four 12-inch LP sides.  Instead of getting a real 
recording of the REAL Westerturen bells -- a LARGE clock tower with 
several dozen bells -- they used a stinking little mantle clock.  And a 
little tinkling hurdy gurdy that a little Italian guy with a monkey 
would have, instead of the HUGE barrel organs that are on the Amsterdam 
streets.  They are like what is on the Audio Fidelity Belgian Band Organ 
LPs.  Whoever pulled those effects together had never been to Amsterdam, 
and probably never even been to Europe.  They also had harbor sounds 
which I saw in their regular recordings as the NYC harbor.  There is a 
unique sound of the Amsterdam canal boats which is what is needed for 
the canal out in front of the house, not ocean going vessels.

Mike Biel mbie3l at mbiel.com
> Steven C. Barr wrote:
> Gennett staggered on after going broke in the depression; their last
> attempt was "sound effect" recordings. Major essentially took over
> where Gennett stopped; keep in mind that "mono" radio was still.
> then, a standard mode! There was a demand for these recordings
> (I wonder if this STILL exists?!) for radio-program use...!
>