John Wanamaker Sealed Record

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Here's my second question of the day. Here's a record envelope from Wanamaker in Philadelphia.It dates from the late teens, I would say from the Red Seal issues being touted on the back. How it got to Toronto is an interesting question, but I wonder if you folks know what the Sealed Record sticker indicates? Does this mean they're assuring you that the record has never been played?
I know there were grumblings in the 78 era about records which had been demonstrated just one too many times being sold to customers who felt a pristine copy would have been nicer.

Jim

[Neophone]

Jim,


Yes that's exactly right-it was a guarantee that the record inside had never been played and could not be returned. There is another part to the sticker-I've had it scanned, and I had been planning to post it at some point-so here it is....

Regards,
John

[EdisonSquirrel]

I work in the Wanamaker Building, which used to be the John Wanamaker department store. The first three floors of the building are now Macy's, while the remainder of the floors have been converted to offices. Wanamkers was a great store and I miss it.



Rocky

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Suspicions confirmed! I knew one of you guys would know. Didn't Wanamaker's have a pipe organ in the store in the early 1900's and do daily programmes or am I dreaming that?

Jim

[Henry]

Not a dream, Jim. The organ is still there, has been almost fully restored, is well maintained, and is played daily by its full-time organist. Radio station WRTI-FM carries the Sunday concerts, IIRC. I understand that it was brought to Phila. from the St. Louis World's Fair (1904). It's claimed to be one of the world's largest pipe organs, if not THE largest.

BTW, Wanamaker's started in Philadelphia, as did Gimbels, as did Horn & Hardart (the Automat). These were NOT originally New York enterprises, in case anyone was wondering. "Wanamaker" is a fairly common Pennsylvania Dutch (German) surname. There's a tiny community of that name in Lehigh County, where I live.

[EdisonSquirrel]

Jim,

Here's a link that contains the daily schedule for the organ as well as the organ's history and specs:

http://www.wanamakerorgan.com/events.php



Rocky

[Brad]

Jim,


Yes that's exactly right-it was a guarantee that the record inside had never been played and could not be returned. There is another part to the sticker-I've had it scanned, and I had been planning to post it at some point-so here it is....

Regards,
John

Wouldn't it have been easier to just advertise: "Satisfaction guaranteed or no money back!"

[EdisonSquirrel]

Wouldn't it have been easier to just advertise: "Satisfaction guaranteed or no money back!"

Brad,

I guess phonograph records were the exception to the store's refund policy. Ironically, it was John Wanamaker who revolutionized the industry by instituting the practice of a money-back guarantee to customers who were not satisfied with their purchase.



Rocky