The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was cleaning out and checking my RCA portables when I found this tucked way down in the record holder,..It probably came from the thirties. I wish the prices were this today. Tom B

In case you've never seen one, Hit of the Week records were 10 inch single-sided discs sold at newsstands for 15 cents. They were made of cardboard coated with a sort of plastic/celluloid compound called Durium that was strong enough to hold up to steel needles. There are many titles available. Here's an example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8OtUV4DVCE[/youtube]

I will have to go back thru my records and see if I have any. Cardboard though. Are they tough ??? Thanks Tom B

tomb wrote:I will have to go back thru my records and see if I have any. Cardboard though. Are they tough ??? Thanks Tom B

Pretty tough, but often warped with age.

Bill

tomb wrote:I will have to go back thru my records and see if I have any. Cardboard though. Are they tough ??? Thanks Tom B

They tend to curl at the edges like a frisbee, but play well on gramophones if you place a record stabilizer on it. I have one of those heavy cylinders that you sit on top of the label to stabilize LPs, and it flattens the cardboard enough to allow a smooth play - the less warped ones can be played even with a modern turntable.

Despite their intended ephemeral commercial life, I found that these discs survived very well to age, and usually they were well recorded, the groove material is resistant to wear and the background noise is low, like a swish. Some of those 10 inchers play up to more than 4 minutes, allowing the combination of two songs on the single side. Technically, these HOW were well above the average quality available at the time.

Most of the music are foxtrots, Phil Spitalny and Rudy Vallee being frequent artists, but I stumbled on one Duke Ellington record some time ago.

They were commercialized also in England and in Italy under the name Durium.

That is interesting, you never know what you will find. I was looking at the pencil in your photo, looks like a bank in Litchfield, IL, I have drove through there many times, it was not far from where my sister used to live. Maybe this phonograph was originally owned by someone that lived in that area. I think the nicest thing I ever found was a pack of tungstone needles down in a VV-Vi.

Victrolacollector wrote:That is interesting, you never know what you will find. I was looking at the pencil in your photo, looks like a bank in Litchfield, IL, I have drove through there many times, it was not far from where my sister used to live. Maybe this phonograph was originally owned by someone that lived in that area. I think the nicest thing I ever found was a pack of tungstone needles down in a VV-Vi.

My brother and his wife live in Litchfield, Ill. She worked at the bank and that is where I got the pencil. It is a nice small town to live in. I was checking a bunch of my records and could not find a cardboard one.. I still have a couple more boxes to go thru. When I first got into collecting I received a bunch of records that had sleeves. I screwed up and stuffed them into albums or tossed them. I made a novice mistake about tossing stuff. Tom B.