[78-L] Spike Jones orphan

[Michael Biel]

On 12/22/2010 11:24 PM, Steven C. Barr wrote:
> From: "Malcolm Rockwell"<malcolm at 78data.com>
>> It's RCA Victor 45-5165, "Hawaiian War Chant" b/w "Chloe." It does not
>> show up in the Hawaiian discog because I thought (obviously by mistake
>> because I now have a 78rpm label scan of it) that the 45- prefix was for
>> 45rpm records.
>> Still learning,
>>
> No...Victor had NO idea they would invent and promote a 45rpm record
> back when they created a 45-#### number sequence (I don't know if
> this was also true for 46-* ?!). As a result, 45's were numbered in a
> 47-* when they appeared...!
>
> Steven C. Barr

It all depends on what you mean by "Victor".  The development engineers 
had been working on the 45 in secret since before the war.  I have 
copies of ledgers going back to 1942.  So the company in general did not 
know of the 45 until it was in production in late 1948 for introduction 
in January and Feb 1949, but parts of the company knew about it in at 
least 1942.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com