Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

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NeedleSpeak
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Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by NeedleSpeak »

Hello Gents,

I am fairly new to this forum but already I've made a new friend or two and have been given advice on how to tend to my "new" victrola.

Now I need the attention from the 78 guys.

I'll start with my first question, not an easy one but I'm curious...was Germany pressing 78s in Germany during WWII, did the Germans press any 78s during WWI? Or was it an American practice only?

I've seen 78s to suggest that an American Marching band may have covered an Imperial German March, but that's about it.

Also, I'm new to collecting, so imagine my confusion finding a Johnny Mathis 78! What this taught me was that the 78 had a longer run than In thought. I figured by the 40s they were on the verge of extinction but apparently they are produced long after that.

I've recently dug through about 600 78s in an antique shop, it took all day but they were 20 cents each. I grabbed many interesting records and passed on many. I was seeking popular hits of the 20s and 30s, Helen Kane, Cab Callowayl maybe in 600 78s there would be an Eddie Cantor, but despite looking through all 600, I didn't find any of those artist's. My theory is perhaps the pile had been picked many times. I did take away some neat marches and one sided 78s that arm to date between 1904 and 06.

Lastly, I noticed that there was not much of a corilstion between movies and 78s. For instance, there is a movie starring Helen Kane, "Dangerous Nan Mcgrew" in which she performs a number of the same name. Despite how catchy it is, I've seen no evidence she recorded a 78 with that title. So were movies and 78s separate worlds?

Thank you in advance all who to take time to read, answer and educate.

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gramophone-georg
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by gramophone-georg »

Yes, the Germans pressed records during both wars. Shellac discs don't survive bombing raids all that well, though, so they are tough to find.

German and Austrian marches were popular pre WW1 and a lot of US marching bands played and recorded them.. Koenig Karl and Hoch Hapsburg, to name a couple. There were even a series of WW1 Columbia labels with images on them that were sold for the relief of the German and Austrian Red Cross before we got in in 1917. There's an example on the lower left here:

Image

Then there were the "Opera Disc" records that you can read up on here:

http://gregoryology.com/vtmc/operadisc/

During WW2, Hitler kept home front morale high by allowing the people to not have to sacrifice too much for the war effort, thus records continued to be pressed, but these all had to be OK'd by the Propaganda Ministry. British and American jazz and swing were pretty much forced underground by the Nazis during the war, and examples exist of German pressed records bearing innocuous classical labels that were actually pressings of smuggled in American jazz.
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VanEpsFan1914
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by VanEpsFan1914 »

1. 78s were pressed all over the place back then, in fact, there was even the label Deutsch Grammophon, still around today.

2. Governmental propaganda records? Try "Charlie and His Orchestra"--IF you can find any. Allied POW's smashed most of them. The hottest jazz to ever come out of the Third Reich. Might cost you an arm and a leg though.

3. Tie ins with the movies? Definitely! Back then, the movies often introduced songs, and they would be covered on records by sometimes the original artist, other times a different singer. Broadway play soundtracks are quite common and I have some records c. 1930 mentioning "From Columbia's New Talkie" on the label. Pretty cool!

4. Popular hits of the 1920s and 30s... the hot jazz stuff isn't as common as you think it is. Not everyone decided "Look, it's modern now! Time to party like it's 1929!" Hard to do when it's 1928. Look for old labels and eventually it will show up. 1910s records are a lot of fun too, and pretty easy to get. For the hot records I suggest digging in old phonographs. Buy a few derelicts, fix 'em up, sell them, and keep the records. Or keep all of it and have to find room.

Wish I could have picked through 600 records! That sounded like fun. Good luck and good listening!

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gramophone-georg
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by gramophone-georg »

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:1. 78s were pressed all over the place back then, in fact, there was even the label Deutsch Grammophon, still around today.

2. Governmental propaganda records? Try "Charlie and His Orchestra"--IF you can find any. Allied POW's smashed most of them. The hottest jazz to ever come out of the Third Reich. Might cost you an arm and a leg though.

3. Tie ins with the movies? Definitely! Back then, the movies often introduced songs, and they would be covered on records by sometimes the original artist, other times a different singer. Broadway play soundtracks are quite common and I have some records c. 1930 mentioning "From Columbia's New Talkie" on the label. Pretty cool!

4. Popular hits of the 1920s and 30s... the hot jazz stuff isn't as common as you think it is. Not everyone decided "Look, it's modern now! Time to party like it's 1929!" Hard to do when it's 1928. Look for old labels and eventually it will show up. 1910s records are a lot of fun too, and pretty easy to get. For the hot records I suggest digging in old phonographs. Buy a few derelicts, fix 'em up, sell them, and keep the records. Or keep all of it and have to find room.

Wish I could have picked through 600 records! That sounded like fun. Good luck and good listening!
#2 was not for home consumption, though. They were for propaganda purposes only, directed at the Allies, esp. POWs... which is why they got smashed by the POWs.
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JerryVan
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by JerryVan »

There was a huge correlation between movies, broadway shows & recordings. To begin with, Victor's line of "Gems" recordings, such as "Gems From Stephen Foster", "Gems From Mary", "Gems From The Night Boat", etc., which were medlies of music from these productions. Hundreds of other Victor recordings from the 20's & 30's indicate the title, along with a subscript, "From the motion picture..."
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epigramophone
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by epigramophone »

If I ever find a Nazi themed record I already have a suitable cover for it :
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Phono48
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by Phono48 »

Oh, that's creepy!

Barry

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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by estott »

Phono48 wrote:Oh, that's creepy!

Barry
but they were very careful- the band has no visible insignia and there is only one swastika, and that is subtle. I'm guessing that this is from the 30's when the party was still trying to present a good image abroad.


Of course the discs everyone wants are by the comedian Harmonists- I have one by a group that copied them quite closely

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Wolfe
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by Wolfe »

Helen Kane recorded that title : https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... Nan_McGrew

78 rpm discs were produced in North America until about 1961. Even later in some other countries, like India.

78recordpicker
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Re: Did the Nazi's produce 78s and other obscure questions.

Post by 78recordpicker »

Welcome!
To add to the fun, although I've never found or even seen one, there are Beatles 78 from India! Very pricey. Some sources say 78s were produced for windups until the 1970s in Malaysia and Indonesia also, but...not sure if a music scholar has verified this.

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