[78-L] November 9, 1921

[Michael Biel]

  On 8/24/2010 7:00 PM, Steven C. Barr wrote:
> Well, the one noticeable DISadvantage of the disc player vs. the
> cylinder machine was that the former could NOT (easily) record
> while the latter could.

So few took advantage of this when recording heads and shavers were 
standard equipment that this later became an option that even fewer knew 
about.
> Note that Victor offered a "home recording"
> system which took special (and comparatively expensive) discs;

Expensive compared to what?  The pre-grooved discs were about 3 for a 
dollar for the small ones and 50 cents or so for the 10-inch.


> the instantaneous-recording systems of the thirties fell afoul
> of the "Great Depression!" After WWII (IIRC) Wilcox-Gay sold
> "Recordios" with some success.

This started BEFORE the war, otherwise we wouldn't have all these home 
recordings of FDR's declaration of war speech.


>   Problem is that many, if not
> MOST of the resulting "off-air" recordings have long since
> been tossed...?!
>
> Steven C. Barr

Many if not most of ALL records have been tossed.

You might be interested in knowing that just last night History 
Detectives showed our own Elizabeth McLoud in Seth Winner's studio 
playing a RCA pre-grooved recording of a 1932 Coca-Cola hour broadcast.  
Sounded pretty good, especially since it was recorded at 33.  And she 
looked pretty good, too, especially since we didn't see Seth!!!

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


From: "Donna Halper"<dlh at donnahalper.com>

> At 03:37 AM 8/23/2010, Mike wrote:
>>    My reply was based on your use of the idea that the lack of a tape
>> recorder was the problem.  I should have also included that wire
>> recorders were already in use.
> I wasn't just referring to tape records.  And yes, I should have been
> clearer, for which I apologize.  (I often hesitate to post anything
> because what I mean doesn't seem to come out the way I want it to,
> and I end up feeling really stupid.)  My point was based on
> newspapers and letters from listeners during the early 1920s that
> lamented the ability to easily record what they heard on the air.  In
> 1922, some people were trying to use dictaphones to record programs,
> but this was not a simple task and did not give good quality, based
> on what was written about it.  All I meant was that such tactics for
> recording a program were not in general use. If I am still in error,
> please let me know.
>