Great video of early record production

[Phono-Phan]

Not sure if this was posted here before. Great video.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A ... LnNlO_O7xA

[vintagetenor]

Thanks!

Funny how they spelled Igor Stravinsky's name wrong! They called him Strawinski.

[Curt A]

The reason it was spelled strawinsky is that the w is pronounced as a "v". BMW is pronounced BMV in Europe.

[vintagetenor]

I knew that, but that being the case, the spelling of his name should not change. We don't spell Richard Wagner's name as Vagner so that English speakers could pronounce it correctly.

In addition, they used an "i" at the end instead of a "y".

[gramophone-georg]

I knew that, but that being the case, the spelling of his name should not change. We don't spell Richard Wagner's name as Vagner so that English speakers could pronounce it correctly.

In addition, they used an "i" at the end instead of a "y".

I have seen Tchaikovsky spelled with a "W" on some Victor sets also. To a German speaker, spelling Wagner with a V would make it "Fahgner", just as we say "Folksvahgen" for Volkswagen and "Fow- Vay" for VW.

As to the "I" vs "Y" or "II" vs IY or "YY" it depends sort of where the Russian speaker or Cyrillic transliterer was from, or his/ her training. You are likely old enough to remember Beijing being Peking or Mao Zedong being Mao Tse- Tung. Things change and become more standardized all the time. The Moslems of the 1960s are today's Muslims. Potato, potahto... or "potatoe" if you prefer.

Remember: in those days, Herr Google (pronounced GO-gla*) was not around.
*OK, that was a wisecrack. But if there was a German that did not know what Google was, that's likely what you'd hear.

[Inigo]

I've also seen these spellings, as well as for Stokowski/Stokovsky etc in French record labels

[vintagetenor]

Thanks, Georg. I'm familiar with the phenomenon of how spelling changes over time. Over the years, I've read a lot of decades-old material (as many of us here have) that indicate this. Actually, I learned of this phenomenon quite early on when I deliberately misspelled "Romania" as "Rumania" on a spelling test in the 4th grade. Although it spelled "Romania" in our spelling book, it was spelled "Rumania" in our outdated geography book that school year. My teacher marked it as incorrect.

But, I was under the impression that the spelling of the name of such a high profile individual as is Igor Stravinsky would have been standardized by 1928. Apparently not so, so I stand corrected.

By the way, having shown her the geography book, old Mrs. Mogovero was not moved to change my test grade. She told me I was wrong and to go back to my seat. I'm sure glad I no longer remember this incident.

[recordmaker]

The film shows so much of the Columbia process used. Note the laminate pressing with the three parts being place in the press with a label top and bottom and the two "spots" paper coated with shellac and fine mineral filler and the filler biscuit, all being about 20% more time consuming than the solid stock method.
The cooling cones in the wax blank making session are huge and allow for slow dust free cooling of the wax blank so much to so I totally missed the spelling mistake.

[Governor Flyball]

This film is of the Columbia works in the UK. Columbia US went into receivership in 1922 and I recall Lewis Sterling, Managing Director of Columbia UK arranged for Columbia UK to acquire the ailing Columbia US to gain access to the Western Electric Process of electrical recording in early 1925. Sterling steered Columbia thru turbulent times until the HMV Columbia merger in the UK in 1931. Columbia Records drifted aimlessly through the depression until Wiliam Paley of CBS bought Columbia Records in 1938.

Sterling also was the genesis of CBS: (below courtesy of Eyes of a Generation https://eyesofageneration.com/wp-conten ... 1965-1.pdf)

In early 1927 Arthur Judson, the impresario of the Philadelphia and New York Philharmonic orchestras, approached the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which at the time was America’s only radio network, with an idea to promote classical music by airing orchestra performances. NBC declined. Undaunted, Judson founded his own broadcasting company, which he named United Independent Broadcasters, Inc. (UIB).

Lacking a strong capital base, UIB struggled to stay afloat. However, in the summer of 1927, Judson found a rich partner in the owner of Columbia Phonograph Company, Louis B. Sterling. Columbia Phonograph bought UIB's operating rights for $163,000. The new company was named the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System. Columbia Phonographic took over on September 18, 1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra with network affiliate WOR in Newark, New Jersey, feeding fifteen other UIB network stations. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, and by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out. In early 1928, Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. Soon after, the Levy brothers had involved their relative, 26-year old William S. Paley, the son of a well-to-do Philadelphia cigar maker. With the record company out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. Paley had come to believe in the power of radio advertising since his family's La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio the year before.

Although the network was growing, it did not own a radio station of its own…yet. In December of 1928, CBS bought A.H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company in New York City with the call letters WABC (no relation to the current WABC), which would become the network's flagship station.

In 1944, when NBC was forced to sell off one of it's networks, it sold NBC Blue which became the ABC Network. In 1945 in New York City, the flagship radio stations were NBC's WEAF 660kHz, ABC's WJZ 770kHz and CBS's WABC 880kHz. CBS obviously wanted to do a swap of call letters and so today (2023) WEAF is now sports station WFAN 660, ABC is WABC 770 and CBS is WCBS 880.