[78-L] Camden church recording studio

[J. E. Knox]

Greetings from RojoLand!

Doug Pomeroy wrote:

> The three Sooy brothers worked for Victor for many years, and Harry wrote about his experiences (http://www.davidsarnoff.org/sooyh.html [Online Texts]
> "Memoir of my Career at Victor Talking Machine Company  1898-1925"  by Harry O. Sooy)
> 
> But there is little about the Church Building.  This is the only mention of it I could find:
> October 31st, 1925: The Illinois College Band, consisting of 150 pieces accompanied the Foot Ball Team to Philadelphia to play Pennsylvania College and was induced to make two selections for the Victor Company while they were East. The Band was to have made these records before the game but they got in back of a train wreck which made them late and they did not get over to make the records until after the Illinois College (Red Grange being the star) gave Penn a complete lacing. (p. 128)    However, they arrived 5:30 p.m. and finished 7:30 p.m.
> Therecords were made in the Church Building. There were 100 men in theband and 50 men did the singing, making 150 men in all. The recordsproved successful and were put out on a “Special” during November.

Go back a bit farther, to 1918: (Part 3 of the four-part memoir documents)

"To take care of the necessity for quarters containing rooms large enough in which to do Symphony Orchestra recording, etc., the Victor Company purchased the Trinity Church Building, 114 North Fifth Street, Camden, this being the best available place. The building was put in order, and on February 27th [1918] I reported it was ready for operation, after which we made records of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Victor Herbert’s Orchestra, the La Scala Orchestra of Italy and other organizations."

Take care,


—
J. E. Knox "The Victor Freak"
—
"If cats are 'pets' and people are 'masters' why am I the one standing here with a Pooper Scooper?"—Karl Knox (1960–2005)