Films of the acoustic recording process

[Wolfe]

"Because" from The Great Caruso (1951). Anachronistic because Caruso actually recorded the song in December 1912 and Gloria Caruso wasn't born until 7 years later, but oh well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03LoO5GR04Y

The band wouldn't have been placed like that either, loosely arrayed with the harp in the back and all that.

Probably would have resembled the Chaplin clip above.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

In the " so near and yet so far" department is The Voice of the Violin done by Edison in 1915. The plot involves a pair of lovers who are reunited by the fact that Marjorie recognizes the sound of the estranged boyfriend's violin playing via the New Edison in the New York Edison Shop. She and Papa rush to West Orange and all ends happily ...I guess...since the film is lacking to final reel. Great shots of the Edison factory and just as the subtitle says " There's Mr Edison now.." it ends! It's on Youtube. I'll get the URL when I get home.

Here's the link...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mZtzBBBV88[/youtube]

Jim.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

[quote="Harold Aherne"]More films of acoustic recording:

The March of Time (1937), showing a re-creation of the ODJB's first Victor session (1:50):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHZIsfJ-m8U

I do believe the recording engineer is in fact one of the Sooy brothers! So we have an acoustic engineer on the screen. The cutter is the last acoustic cutter used by both Victor and HMV.

Jim

[estott]

Very interesting, though in the studio I believe they had a barrier between the musicians and the lathe - probably was omitted for the benefit of the camera.

[Henry]

The recreation is inaccurate in at least one musical aspect: a drum set was not used in the earliest ODJB recordings (Jan. 1917), presumably because it overpowered the recording equipment. Instead, what you usually hear on these early jazz acoustic recordings is wood block.

[Lucius1958]

The rest of "The Voice of the Violin" can be found here:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?p ... ammem_GFZN::

(Did I notice a B-375 in the above clip?)

[epigramophone]

The Galli-Curci clip, which also shows her pressing a record, is included in a VHS tape "The History of Recording". I believe the filming took place during her visit to the HMV factory in 1924.

I obtained my copy, and several other interesting titles, from the Bel Canto Society,Inc.(http://www.belcantosociety.org)

I can find no listing for either "Galli-Curci" or "The History of Recording" on the Bel Canto site. Perhaps the history video is O/P? The omission of Galli-Curci strikes me as rather curious, since she ranks among the very greatest. What am I missing here?

It must be at least ten years ago that I purchased this title, so it may very well have been deleted. It might be worth your while to contact Belcanto just in case there are any copies still in stock.

When I last looked, many of their titles were still only available in the UK PAL format as VHS tapes. The DVD's were mostly in NTSC and therefore unplayable on most UK equipment.

According to a technically minded friend, there is in theory no reason why all DVD's cannot be made in just one format to play on all machines, which would make life much easier for the end user.

[operabass78s]

The Galli-Curci clip was on Youtube some time ago, but I can no longer find it. There is an extant clip of Francis Plante making recordings at his home for Columbia in the early electric days.

[FloridaClay]

Really enjoyed these clips!

Clay

[Lenoirstreetguy]

The rest of "The Voice of the Violin" can be found here:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?p ... ammem_GFZN::

(Did I notice a B-375 in the above clip?)

No it's not sadly It still ends at the moment Edison bounces out the lab door. From what I've read there is another reel that supposedly showing Edison in the recording studio, although that seems almost too good to be true But I think you're right about about the B-375.
Jim