The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have some Edison records with red stars on both sides of a record and ones with only one red star. Why do some Edison records have two red stars and others have only one red star? For example, I have DD 50956-R with Lovey Dove - Fox Trot by the Broadway Dance Orch, which has a red star. On the flip side is Atta Baby by Jones and Hare with no red star. Did having both sides stamped mean that the buyer should be extra sure he wanted it, and one red star mean that at least one song was good, or at least recommended?

My understanding is that the Edison company would issue recordings of what they thought had limited appeal. The stars were put on the label to alert the retailer of the special order nature of those with the stars so that the inventory would be controlled. Why one side would have a red star and not the other baffles me.

Hmmm...interesting question...not sure what message the company was trying to convey to the buyer by having only one side starred. There seem to be quite a few of those one-star records in the late 50000 series and the early 51000 series, and almost always the R side. But starting at about 51123, it appears that the one-star version went away in favor of stamping both sides. I've heard one reason (if not THE reason) for that was dealers trying to game the system. Supposedly, any stock with a red star could not be returned to the factory for credit. So, some dealers tried to return the one-star records with the star side down in an effort to earn a credit. Having stars on both sides frustrated that effort.

That probably makes the most sense to me, since on a one-star record you can't return just the un-starred side. They started to use the red star in 1921 almost always on the R side. By 1923, they starred both sides of the records to avoid mis-understandings.

Red Stars were also used on some foreign series records. Here is one that I have, a balalaika record. I thought a red star was very fitting for a Russian record, although I doubt Edison meant anything political by it.

Wow that looks like a very interesting record! The only foreign DD I have is a Spanish one in the 60,000 series I think. It's got to be rare. Not many Russians buying records in America in the 20's, unless they also sold them over there.

There were a lot of Russian immigrants to this country after the Russian revolution.