Record recyling 1944: Dinah wants 'em.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

We've talked about the World War II record scrap drives before. Today I bought a pile of 40's supplements and here are the back pages of the Canadian Victor January and March 1944 lists. They were paying the customers to bring in all those obsolete old records lurking in the bottom of the Victrola at home.
One has has to wonder what was sacrificed to the war effort.

[estott]

(*provided it is not laminated)

Bad news for a Columbia customer.

[2Bdecided]

5 cents in 1944 is supposedly between 50 cents and $3.43 in today's money.

If we're talking about a stack of worn out and cracked 10" 78s, I'd be quite happy to accept the lower value, never mind the higher one!

As for 8 cents ($0.84 to $5.49 in today's money) for 12" discs, I wonder how many 78rpm classical album sets would remain intact if you could get that for them today?

It's probably a very good job that shellac, as a raw material, is no longer in such demand (or such short supply!).


If you haven't seen it before (or even if you have ) here's the UK film promoting record salvage during WWII...
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/recor ... /query/war

Cheers,
David.

[epigramophone]

In the September 1942 issue of "The Gramophone", Compton Mackenzie wrote in the hope that:

"......if any really scarce and interesting records should be unearthed during this salvage drive, that their owners will have the common sense which so many book owners seem to lack, and not hand them over for destruction."

Unfortunately, the only check made was on the suitability of the records for recycling. Content and value were not considered.

[52089]

5 cents in 1944 is supposedly between 50 cents and $3.43 in today's money.

The higher number is pretty accurate. My mother often speaks of her first job in 1940 as a secretary in NY City. She had to turn over almost all of her pay to her mother, but she was allowed 25 cents per day for expenses as follows: 10 cents round trip subway fare, 15 cents for lunch (sandwich, coffee, and pie). Today that would be $5 for the round trip subway fare, $6 for the sandwich, $2 for the coffee, and $4 for the pie, or $17 total for what she paid 25 cents for, that would make a 1944 nickel worth $3.40. Of course today you'd also be paying another $3 for taxes and tip!

On a side note, she also talks about going to clubs where they would charge 50 cents for a soft drink. Given that her salary was $15 a week, that's a couple of hours' pay!

[2Bdecided]

Thank you for that price example.

It's a sad thought that the majority of 78s were worth more as scrap in 1944 than they are as collectables in 2013. Still, it's ok if you're buying!

Cheers,
David.

[operabass78s]

Bad news for a Columbia customer.

Given my focus leans toward operatic and classical things, I'd say Columbia's recording techniques were bad news for the Columbia customer (speaking in the acoustic era)

[Uncle Vanya]

Bad news for a Columbia customer.

Given my focus leans toward operatic and classical things, I'd say Columbia's recording techniques were bad news for the Columbia customer (speaking in the acoustic era)

Not their recording techniques, I'm afraid. I have "New Process" pressings of quite a number of early Columbia items, including the lovely Mardones "Toreador", and quite a number of special re-pressings from the Consolodated Film Industries era (mostly on Blue Wax) including a couple of Grand Opera Series items (Dio Possente by Campanari and "Home, Sweet Home" by Suzanne Adams) and quite a number of popular numbers dating as early as 1901 pressed on New Process style Harmony/Velvet Tone/Diva issues. After hearing these I can say that there was nothing much wrong with the Columbia recording process. Even the one Nordica record that I have on New Process shellac (the Polonaise form Mignion) sounds just wonderful.

I have had copies of the Columbia banner series records which were quite nice, decently quiet surfaces and good definition, which were utterly destroyed after rather brief exposure to damp. There appears to be something about these pressings wwhich causes them to utterly go to peices if exposed to any sort of moisture, and over ninety years such exposure is nearly universal.

[operabass78s]

Whatever Columbia used in their shellac in the teens was dreadful. I feel though that they should have experimented more with their techniques and sonic capabilities in the teens. Victor did this quite often and it is quite obvious during certain periods that they were trying out different equipment, instrumental arrangements, etc. They had their "bad shellac" phase in the early 20s. I have some Red Seals from 1922 that are painful to listen to due to whatever shellac compound was used. Female voices audibly caused particular issues for Columbia and I sense that the recording engineers feared any notes above a mezzo-forte and placed the disenchanted vocalist on the very fringe of the studio. On the contrary, I have some great sides by Mardones, Arimondi, Campanari that have a wonderful full sound, if not mediocre accompaniment. I think another issue that plays into some of the sides is the lackluster music direction. Not to say there aren't good recordings in the catalog, but conducting without any rubato whatsoever, especially when dealing with 19th century works lends itself to a very dull, calculated sound. I never felt that Nordica or Fremstad for that matter, were recorded within half of their full potential. Of course, musical staff may have been to blame for some of this. If there had been more Wagner and less recordings of "Old Folks at Home" we may have a different perception.

[gregbogantz]

This is only a bit off-topic for this thread, but it does deal with using regrind in making records. Has anybody else noticed that the Capitol 78rpm records of the early 1950s with the black label and silver lettering sound like crap? I've got several of these that look nearly mint and clean, but they sound like they were pressed from regrind. Very clicky and noisy. The purple label Capitols from this same period sound substantially quieter. Unfortunately, Capitol apparently used this regrind on many of their jazz titles. I know that when I first went to RCA Records in the early 1970s I found that we were using regrind vinyl on most of the rock and country titles. The Red Seals and other genres were pressed on virgin vinyl. That was kept up until the late 1970s when customer complaints forced us to stop using regrind completely.