Extended Playing time of Edison records

[Valecnik]

If I recall correctly both Edison's 4 min cylinders and the 10" diamond discs could play for up to 4 ¾ minutes while their disc competitors max playing time was much less. Yet I've only seen a couple pieces of advertising attempting to capitalize on this. I think I have one piece advertising "two tunes for the price of one" pointing out certain diamond discs with two versions of the same song on one side. I have a couple such diamond discs.

Anybody know more about this or have some advertising they could post?

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I have an ad somewhere from 1908 or 1909 touting the wax Amberol as the longest playing record on the market. The graphic was a big clock hand pointing at four minutes and thirty seconds. I'll do some digging....

Jim

[Valecnik]

Jim,

If you find it and are able to post it would be much appreciated!

[EdisonSquirrel]

If I recall correctly both Edison's 4 min cylinders and the 10" diamond discs could play for up to 4 ¾ minutes while their disc competitors max playing time was much less. Yet I've only seen a couple pieces of advertising attempting to capitalize on this. I think I have one piece advertising "two tunes for the price of one" pointing out certain diamond discs with two versions of the same song on one side. I have a couple such diamond discs.

Anybody know more about this or have some advertising they could post?

Bruce,

I believe that you are referring to the "fox-trot and song" records that Edison introduced in 1924. These records feature approximately 2-½ minutes of dance music followed by 1-½ minutes of a vocal rendition of the same song. The earliest releases contain a full stop between the two segments, while the later ones join the two segments of the song with a musical bridge.

Based on my observations, I don't think that this format lasted for more than a year. However, Edison did record a good number of songs in this format.

In my opinion, there is a marked contrast between the two segments, as the fox-trots are often hot, while the subsequent vocal renditions sound very old-fashioned, in contrast to the hip-sounding vocal refrains on dance records of that time.



Rocky

[Lenoirstreetguy]

This isn't the one I was talking about, but in the coninuing search I found this one which has great copy concerning the length of the Amberol record. I will keep looking for the " clock face ' ad. This is from the June 1909 Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Jim...and I STILL haven't got a new scanner to my shame.