[78-L] What's an ERPI?

[David Lennick]

Okay, found it about 3/5 of the way down:

Western Electric formed a subsidiary the following January to handle Western's 
non-telephone interests. Electrical Research Products, Inc. (ERPI) developed 
and distributed studio recording equipment and sound systems to the major 
Hollywood studios. Recognition for Western Electric's contributions to the film 
industry soon followed. In 1931, ERPI won an award from the Academy of Motion 
Picture Arts and Sciences for technical achievement. ERPl's system of noiseless 
recording was cited as "outstanding scientific achievement of the past year." 
ERPI also made sound equipment for movie theaters, which it leased, rather than 
sold- just as the Bell System had leased out the telephone equipment Western 
produced. ERPI equipped 879 movie theaters in 1928, and 2,391 in 1929. By 1932, 
only 2 percent of open theaters in America were not wired for sound. Western 
Electric proved better at wiring the nations' theaters than at maintaining that 
customer base, however, and ERPI abandoned the motion picture theater business 
in 1937. The company continued to produce sound equipment for movie studios 
until 1956, when as part of the consent decree it abandoned most non-telephone 
enterprise. The company left a legacy in the motion picture industry, one 
reminder of which is the credit at the end of many films from Hollywood's 
Golden Age: "Sound by Western Electric."

There still seems to be a connection with World, since the style and numbering 
of matrices is similar. The designation "Lat" (Lateral) also appears on the 
discs, as it would on a lateral World Transcription. Not all the labels have 
the Western Electric credit, oddly enough (unless it's reduced to the point 
where I can't make it out).

dl

On 10/13/2011 6:00 PM, J. E. Knox wrote:
> Greetings from FixitLand!
>
> David Lennick wrote:
>
>> Do we know anything about a company that changes its name between
>> two issues,
>> from ERPI CLASSROOM FILMS INC. to (or from) ERPI PICTURE
>> CONSULTANTS? Based on
>> the matrix numbers and other info scratched in the dead wax, it
>> looks as if it
>> had a connection with World Program Service. The two issues are
>> recordings of
>> Robert Frost reading, recorded sometime in the 30s. Gertrude Stein
>> was also on
>> this label.
>
> http://www.porticus.org/bell/westernelectric_history.html
>
> Take care,
>
>
>
> Joe
> --
> "It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or
> more kittens."--Cynthia E. Varnardo
>
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