The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Dis Hitler and Mussolini produce propaganda records for sale or distribution? I'm sure they did, but I haven't found much information on that. Any information will be greatly appreciated.
Harvey Kravitz

Mussolini, yes, at least one, a message to North America and Italians overseas on a 12" Victor from 1928, long before his alliance with Hitler.

There are certainly 78s of Mussolini and Hitler speeches, but I'm not aware of either of them making speeches specifically for WWII-era propaganda records.

I remember a few years ago at the CAPS show, Charlie Hummel had a very rare and very fancy book for Nazi party members. It was highly illustrated I believe, and it was not Mein Kampf. It was from the early 30s and it had several Hitler speech records in the back of the book. I just picked it up, not really knowing what it was until I opened it. I almost let the records fall out, not knowing they were even in there. Charlie warned me just in time, so I put it down as soon as I learned how rare it was! There is a video on the old television series Biography, on Mussolini, and it shows him giving a talk to Americans in English!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTXhez2mNmM

The linked video says it all: at least in the case of Mussolini (but I think for Hitler it was just the same), most propaganda was carried out via cine-news and radio broadcast. Most of the surviving recordings of Mussolini's voice come indeed from movie soundtracks, not records.

I suppose that records were considered an inconvenient medium for propaganda: records were costly (they still are!), and lengthy speeches annoy listeners, yesterday and today. So most propaganda messages were delivered to the audience via nice tunes sung by the most preminent artists of the times, thus not directly through Mussolini's voice.

But of course there were also (rare) exceptions:

Marco Gilardetti wrote:
I suppose that records were considered an inconvenient medium for propaganda: records were costly (they still are!), and lengthy speeches annoy listeners, yesterday and today. So most propaganda messages were delivered to the audience via nice tunes sung by the most preminent artists of the times, thus not directly through Mussolini's voice.

In Germany, Josef Goebbels knew that the best way to get a message through was by indirect means.

There are definitely some Hitler propaganda Picture Discs - extremely rare and over $1,000 each. For the most part Nazi propaganda was broadcast on radio programs broadcast from Hamburg. The most popular form of propaganda used in these broadcasts was current swing music with altered lyrics performed by Charlie and His Orchestra. The purpose was to demoralize listeners in Britain and surrounding countries along with the troops on the ground. Here are some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjbKagldhbA

By the way, records of Charlie and His Orchestra were pressed and are found occasionally, but at prohibitive prices on eBay.

V.I. Lenin also made propaganda records. I once had a Melodia LP record that was a compilation of his 78s. I don't speak Russian, but his oratory did not sound particularly impressive.

Here's the Victor Mussolini record. Here's one copy that somehow got to Toronto because I found it "in the wild".

Jim

Just googled around a little bit, trying to find a translated transcript of the Mussolini message, but no luck. Does anybody know where it can be found?

If you link me to the audio track, I can transcript and translate it for you.