[78-L] acoustic vanity

[Steven C. Barr]

From: <neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com>
> Recently I happened to catch an ep of COLD CASE, a crime drama about 
> some detectives who solve old murder cases. This one is called "Torn", 
> #91, from April 8 of 2007. I don't care for this series, but this case 
> happened in 1919-20 (which is why it even caught my attention, I was 
> hoping there might be a phonograph sighting) and involved the murder of 
> a suffragette. There were a few scenes with records and machines, and as 
> one might expect, the historical accuracy was somewhat lax. The first 
> scene in question (remember, 1919) used Al Jolson singing "You Made Me 
> Love You" with a big band accompaniment as background.  In another scene 
> we see a close up of an Edison Disc, Sophie Tucker "Some of These Days" 
> on 4M-691 (???) and quickly a character plays it on an early external 
> horn machine, steel needle out of focus in the distance. I'm no expert 
> on Edison labels, but surely this was a prop person's creation. Did 
> Edison have a double strobe on his label ever? It looks like a double 
> strobe anyway. I think it was 12".
> 
> But the real question is about something that happens at the end of the 
> show. A detective has found a record and comments that it had been made 
> by the deceased person's mother. What we see looks like shellac with a 
> printed label - "Market Street Recording Studio" in big letters. Was 
> there such a studio? Would there have been a sound studio in 1920? Or a 
> place to make a personal recording? There's even an address in Philly 
> but most of it is not visible. Date of recording is August 18, 1920 
> (date of 19th amendment ratification). Sounds and looks like vinyl to me 
> when the fellow puts it on the same phonograph to play it, and I don't 
> think it is turning at 78 rpm. Certainly it's a prop. As far as the 
> story goes, it would have required plating and pressing to produce a 
> shellac record, and the time and expense for one disc would be way out 
> of line, even if someone provided this service in 1920.
> 
> So here's the question - in 1920, would it have been possible to make a 
> vanity record or a home recording on disc? I know it could be done on a 
> cylinder, I've heard those played at an ARSC Conference. Was there a way 
> to make a single home-recorded disc for family use? And if so what 
> material would this be? Certainly not shellac.
> 
Yes...it WAS possible to make "vanity records" in 1920...or even before!
Columbia, for example, will happily make you "Personal/Private
records" if you paid for them. They even had a special matrix-number
series for such discs! These were usually pressed in limited quantities...
but NOT (AFAIK) one at a time (that would have been possible...
but VERY expensive...!)

"Home-made" recordings first appeared in the early twenties. The
ones I have seen were soft metal; you placed them on your phonograph
and then sang/played as loudly as possible. They were "pre-grooved."

Steven C. Barr