Victor long playing records

[Swing Band Heaven]

I thought there may be some interest in seeing what the Victor record catelog had to say when announcing to the american public long playing records, so I have scanned some pages. I admire their optimism that no record recorded after 1931 will ever need to be re-made as the limits of technical achievement in recording had now been reached.

S-B-H

[hillndalefan]

Phenomenal! Thank you for posting this. It shows that the information in "From Tinfoil to Stereo" wasn't entirely true, that Victor DID provide a way to play these discs without buying a top-of-the-line radio-phonograph. I've wondered about these discs for years, and would love to someday see a complete listing of them. I know that a few lasted in the catalogue until WW II, but mainly ones that were useful in funeral homes.

[Swing Band Heaven]

I have a good selection of Victor catelogs from the 1930s so I will have a look and see what they listed and scan them to post here.
S-B-H

[barnettrp21122]

I love this statement from the brochure:
“Continuous improvement in fidelity, sonority and surface-quality can even now be noted almost from month to month, and Victor records have reached such a point in development as to make it reasonable to assume that it will never be necessary to remake records dating from 1931 onward, because of any possible future progress in recording.”
Thanks for posting these scans!
Bob

[gregbogantz]

It's interesting that the catalog intimates that Victor would offer a 2-speed adapter for earlier record players. The Victor machines from this period use a planetary drive arrangement that works as it says - the input shaft turns at 78rpm, and the output can be switched from one speed to the other. Sounds like they had plans to market this thing as an attachment. But I've never seen one.

Years later, Zenith offered a mechanical speed reducer, together with a tiny cobra-style tonearm in the early 1950s that allowed 7 inch 45s or 33s to be played on a 78rpm Cobramatic record player with the radionic pickup. Still later, Zenith offered the same adapter with a crystal cartridge for those 78rpm players that used that type of pickup.

See attached pix. One picture shows the adapter itself, and the other shows it in operation on a Cobramatic record changer. The adapter has a hole at the back that fits over the spindle on the 78rpm changer. The front end of the adapter has rubber feet that sit on the metal deck and secure the adapter from shifting. The square gold metal plate seen on the small platter in the one picture is actually meant to fit on the platter of the changer and drive the idler wheel on the underside of the adapter. The nickel lever at the back of the adapter changes the speed from 33 to 45rpm. Note the twisted cable running from the small cobra arm to the head end of the large cobra arm. The radionic cartridge was a plug-in device. The adapter cable had a plug on the end of the cable that was the same shape as a radionic cartridge. To hook up the adapter, you unplugged the cartridge from the large tonearm and plugged in the cable from the adapter. Some more slick Murkan engineering from Zenith done when the Japanese were still recycling beer cans into tin toys. Those days are long gone . . .

[larryh]

Obviously the "long play" records weren't the wave of the future quite yet as victor had thought at the time. I have owned some of these disc that used to show up from time to time a book fairs and thrift shops around here. I didn't think the sound was all that poor but a good standard 78 surely sounded better. I think I recall "Selections from Hot Cha" or some thing to that effect that was quite good. The others aren't ringing any bell at the moment.

[Swing Band Heaven]

I have at last gotten around to scanning the complete list of long playing records from the 1931 record catelog. Not exactly an exciting list of disks to aquire for your new expensive long playing radiogram! I have also scanned a page from the same one regarding needles. I hadn't realised that you were supposed to play these LPs with special needles! Not that mine have seen anything other that a light weight pick up anyway!

I will dig out my other later 1930's catelogs and see how long these LPs were in the catelog for and what selections were availble.
S-B-H

[Wolfe]

Scanning down those selections makes it clear that at least some of them had to have been dubbed from 78's. I always thought at least the Victor (unlike Edison) long players were all dedicated recordings/masters.

[Swing Band Heaven]

Scanning down those selections makes it clear that at least some of them had to have been dubbed from 78's. I always thought at least the Victor (unlike Edison) long players were all dedicated recordings/masters.

So did I! But the Jack Hylton selection that appeared on an LP is a dub from the 12" disks. The only differnce is that both sides of the 12" appear on the one sided LP transcription. Sound quality is mediocre and dissapointing. Others though seem to be original recordings rather than dubs.

S-B-H

[Wolfe]

The Ponselle/Martinelli & Bori/Schipa disc I'm sure would be a dubbing.

Others, like the John McCormack Salon Orchestra disc, the Nat Shilkret Schubert Melodies, the Chaliapin Boris Godounow, the D'Oyly Opera Co. Pinafore, the La Scala Orchestra Cavalleria discs may well have been, too, maybe.