[78-L] Research assistance from this knowledgeable group

[David Lennick]

Something called The Paley Center doesn't have this? What's wrong with this 
picture?

dl

On 10/1/2012 2:46 PM, David Weiner wrote:
> 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
>
>
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