[78-L] Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in the old house

[Michael Biel]

On 12/27/2010 4:17 PM, Kevin P. Mostyn wrote:
> The ones that I have do not mention the White Network.

Do you have the discs?  That's where the network indication is noted.  
In general I have found that people who transfer OTR do a lousy job of 
transcribing the important label information -- and that includes some 
of the catalogers at LC over the years.  Elizabeth only said that "at 
least one" had a White Network indication, which does not mean that the 
LC transcriber bothered to note this on the transfers they did.  That's 
why I always prefer to look at the disc if possible.

> A few speculations on my part:
>
> 1. NBC and others transcribed many and perhaps most of their sponsored
> programs, to prove if needed that the commercials were indeed broadcast.

Read my dissertation.  I covered in detail all of your speculations over 
30 years ago.  The percentage of the programming which they recorded is 
not anywhere near as large as you would think, and certainly not for 
this purpose.  Since I have read all the paperwork involving the Radio 
Recording Division I can say that the network never did this for their 
own protection.  Many sponsors sent a representative to the studio to be 
there during the broadcasts and sometimes rehearsals.  Why do you think 
they had "Sponsors Booths" in all of their studios?  If an advertiser 
wanted recordings to check that their ads were aired, they had to pay 
for the recording to be made, either by NBC or an independent recording 
studio.  Some of them did. These recordings would be their property and 
would not be put into the NBC archive even if NBC did the recording.

> 2. Not all transcriptions were saved. Indeed, the saving appears to be
> random. Certain NBC produced programs are saved in great depth, such as "The
> Magic Key of RCA" and the NBC Symphony.

NBC did not allow recordings to be used on the network until January 
1949, therefore there was never any real reason for them to make the 
recordings for themselves.  Indeed, some of the union contracts did not 
really permit them to record.  It is possible that the reason they 
recorded all the Benny and Fred Allen programs might be to prove what 
they might have said, and their file recordings were used in the 
situations like Mae West on Bergen and McCarthy.  They recorded prestige 
stuff, a lot of the sustaining programs of political and noteworthy 
speakers.  They were heavy on war news and even had a separate card 
catalog for war related recordings.  I am not sure if Sonic is a good 
indicator of what was in the NBC archive and what came from other 
sources.  I'd go beck to the NBC card catalog to be sure.
> 3. Numerous discs were "borrowed" from the NBC Archive before the donation
> to the Museum of Broadcasting. I have heard rumors that not all were
> returned. This applies especially to MET Opera discs.
Hopefully the drawers with the cards for the lost, missing, and broken 
discs are still there.  That might answer other questions.  NBC used to 
allow discs to be checked out, just like a public library.  The 
signatures of the users are on the back of the cards.  So you can see 
who used the discs that ARE still there, as well as those that aren't.

> 4. Somewhere I have seen a reference of a gift to the MET from the LoC or
> NBC of certain broadcasts. I don't know if these were the discs or copies.
>
> --Kevin Mostyn

LC doesn't even like to loan discs to program owners, but will sell them 
the services of their in-house recording restoration laboratory.  There 
may have been exceptions, but I know some pretty important clients who 
only got transfers.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lizmcl at midcoast.com
>> Now that the Library of Congress Sonic catalog is back on line (it was
>> down last night for routine maintenance), I am able to see at least a
>> dozen full length recordings of MET Opera broadcasts from the 1930s,
>> in the NBC Collection, starting about 1936. Linechecks, not airchecks.
>> Made by NBC. I invite you to verify this for yourself.
> Interesting -- they seem to exist in isolated batches, with apparently no
> effort being made to preserve all of the broadcasts, in keeping with the Met
> contract stipulation that this wasn't to be done. However, at least one of
> the recordings listed indicates that it was made for use on the "White
> Network," which was NBC's International Division -- maybe that explains what
> these were intended for, and it may be that some sort of arrangement was
> negotiated to allow this, an arrangement which didn't turn up when Jackson
> was researching his discussion of the subject.
>
> A lot of random intermission features were preserved as well -- these were
> produced by NBC and wouldn't have been covered any contractural restriction
> in the Met contract.