[78-L] Research assistance from this knowledgeable group

[David Weiner]

Anyone have any research suggestions for my friend Jane Klain?

Dave Weiner

On 10/1/12 2:39 PM, "Klain, Jane" <JKlain at paleycenter.org> wrote:

>Dear Friends,
>
>There are so many of you on this list who are historians and experts
>about the history of recordings and records.  So I turn to you....
>
>A researcher/friend, whom I've worked with on numerous TV projects, is
>currently just starting research on what promises to be an exciting
>documentary series.  Here is what she is specifically looking for at this
>early date, but I'm sure that she will want to contact experts on the
>list as the project goes along:
>
>"As I mentioned, NYC-based film & television production company Show of
>Force is making a multi-part (possible 8-hour) documentary series for PBS
>on recorded music. We're at the earliest stage of research and
>development for the series and, as I mentioned, have decided to first
>create a 7-10 minute in-house" sample" reel -- just to share with
>colleagues at PBS and other potential broadcast/production partners the
>approach to the series/story.
>
>You said you'd kindly send this query out to colleagues in the "cast
>recordings" group, to see if they have any radio/audio (I dare not dream
>of video-newsreel-film?) related to the launch of the LP by Columbia
>Records in 1948.
>
>There was reportedly a Columbia Records LP launch event for the press on
>June 20, 1948 at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NYC. After that, Columbia
>presented the brand new LP in Atlantic City for industry people. (We have
>audio from an RCA preview record sent around to excite people about their
>new 45 rpm record. So, we'd love to have a similar audio promo for the
>new LP!)
>
>FYI:
>Here's a quick account of the Waldorf event I found quickly online:
>RE: THE LAUNCH of the LP in 1948
>Edward Wallerstein:"...June 20, 1948, the first public demonstration was
>held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. By this time. Bachman and the rest of
>the team had managed to lengthen the LP to about twenty-two minutes. As I
>stepped up to the podium to address the fifty-odd representatives of the
>press, on one side of me was a stack of conventional 78-rpm records
>measuring about eight feet in height and another stack about fifteen
>inches high of the same recordings on LP. After a short speech I played
>one of the 78 rpm records for its full length of about four minutes, when
>it broke, as usual, right in the middle of a movement. Then I took the
>corresponding LP and played it on the little Philco attachment right past
>that break. The reception was terrific. The critics were struck that only
>by the length of the record, but by the quietness of its surfaces and its
>greatly increased fidelity. They were convinced that a new era had come
>to the record business..."
>
>Here's a quick account of the Atlantic City event:
>"...At our annual sales convention a little later in Atlantic City, Paul
>Southard, our sales manager, had a rather clever idea: He designed his
>speech so that it ran exactly the length of The Nutcracker Suite, which
>was on one side of an LP. When Paul began to speak the stylus was placed
>on the record, which continued playing very softly in the background.
>When the speech ended and Paul removed the stylus, the distributors went
>wild. And the reception in the stores was overwhelming..."
>
>
>NEWS ABOUT COLUMBIA LP RECORDS press release (from Tom Tierney/Sony Music
>Archives Library) dated June 21, 1948 reads in part:
>"Long Playing Microgroove Disc Demonstrated by Columbia Records -
>Revolutionary New Home Phonograph Record Plays 45 Minutes -- Entire
>Symphony on One 12-inch Disc...A revolutionary non-breakable Microgroove
>phonograph record which plays 45 minutes on one 12 inch double-faced
>record with full fidelity and absence of distortion hitherto unknown in
>this field was demonstrated to the press here this weekend by Columbia
>Records Inc....At the press demonstration Edward Wallerstein, Chairman of
>Columbia Records disclosed that a wide and representative library of
>selections from his company's catalog is immediately available on LP
>Microgroove records...classical and popular numbers..."
>
>The editors here would love any ca 1948 launch audio/radio announcements
>or promos on the birth of the Columbia Records LP.  Please let us know if
>anything occurs to you re this. We are looking for a celebratory tone.
>Thank you."
>
>Does anyone have the audio/radio material she's looking for?
>
>Thanks for any assistance,
>
>Jane
>
>Jane Klain 
>Manager, Research Services
>The Paley Center for Media
>25 West 52nd Street
>New York, NY 10019
>(212) 621-6631 (p)
>(212) 621-6646 (f)
>jklain at paleycenter.org
>http://www.paleycenter.org