Recording Blanks For All Purposes

You may want to zoom in for this. This is a panel from an Allied Electronics catalog detailing all the acetate blanks they have for sale. Most of them are Audiodisc and Presto brands. The cheapest were paper-core discs at only 20 center per disc. The most expensive were their 17.5-inch "Master Discs" at a whopping $3.40 each. I've never seen one. The generic available was Knight, a brand I've also never seen.

Transcription Mystery Disc #182

This is a paper-core Presto home recording acetate. It spins at 78 rpm and has a center start. That always throws me. It also came into my possession filthy, cracked and looking rough. It's labeled in pencil "dave Pippeiu" or it might say "Laurie Peppere" It's cursive. We will never know. But the date is clear "June 22, '47"  I gave this 66 year old disc a gentle scrub and washed the sand out of the grooves and gave it a go. Then I recoiled in horror and scrubbed it again and then tried again. Then a noise filter, some pop editing and then another noise gate... and then it was ok-ish.

Dave en espanol!


The second scrub did wonders. My guess is that it's Dave and not Laurie, the voice sounds like a young man with a soprano voice reading something in Spanish. I catch the first few words clearly "Yo tome la ____ todos los _____. He goes on haltingly in a language he's clearly still learning.

Transcription Mystery Disc #179

This is a 12-Inch Presto metal core transcription disc. It has an outer edge start, not that any of the actual outermost edge still remains. It's in sorry shape, having lost all of one side and most of the other to de-lamination. Above is an image of that worse of the two sides. They are labeled, The A-side is "La Traviata Act III" which is labeled "Parigi, O Cara."  The B-side above is Act I "Un di, Felice Eterea."  It bears no dates. The opera dated to the 1850s which is no help.

 La Traviata
 
The damage was quite severe, In addition to the obvious de-lamination,it also had some greasy white palmitic acid build up. Senior audio geeks will swear by a dilute vinegar solution to take that off. I usually just start with soap and water. Water is generally a no-no, but this disc was obviously pretty far gone. Some of the groove walls had collapsed requiring some edits to the above audio. Some are very noticeable, others not.

At the end of the recording you can clearly hear the male singer say "Okay!" It is from that single word that I know this was a live recording, and neither a radio dub nor a copy of a commercial release. I can only assume somewhere out there was a disc for Act II but maybe it was in worse shape than this one.

Transcription Mystery Disc #132

This is a Presto acetate recording disc. Phonozoic calls this make a Presto Type 2. They date that make to 1941. Mine is unlabeled and un-narrated and probably un-datable. It is 8-inches in diameter, spins at 78 rpm and has an outer-edge start and an aluminum core. It's paper sleeve is brown and also totally unlabeled. Damn.

Mystery Organist 


There was something else vexing though. There's a funny thing about church organ music. It's pitch sounds equally right at 45 rpm and 78 rpm. Typically I can intuit the speed of a record by it's pitch, not so in this case. Lacking any further information, even a song title I can say no more.

Transcription Mystery Disc #125

This is a 78 rpm, 12-inch acetate with an outer edge start. The blank clearly reads "Presto" and includes some notes in red grease pencil. The paper sleeve is marked in two places once as "WORLD DAY OF PRAYER" in red grease pencil and then in black ball point pen below that with the name Betty Bagger, but on the disc she is listed as Betty Hodges. It may be a married name, or just different people. The audio is quite clear. The I did no editing and just applied a light low pass filter to take the harsh highs out of the narrators voice.

World Day of Prayer 1948 - Side 1


The inner sleeve is made of four round sheets of paper, two are heavy like oaktag, and two inner sheets that are like the paper towels from the washroom. One of those oaktag sheets is further marked in 2" tall letters 2277 and the initials POK. It's written quickly and sloppily in thick pencil. I have never seen packaging like this before, and there are two of them making up a 4-sided program about 15 minutes long.

The narrator, Betty mentions several details which might help aid in dating the work. She mentions the names Mrs. James Snydner (Japanese war bride),  a Dr. Schmoekel, the Lancaster Ministerial Association, Lancaster County Council of Church Women, St. Paul's Church and "their hospitals" indicating some affiliation. World Day of Prayer is a Christian women's event traditionally held on the last Friday in March.  It has been celebrated since 1887, but changed name to Women’s World Day of Prayer in 1927. This preference for the older name would tend to somewhat back date the age of the disc.

The earliest Presto discs were advertised in 1934, and they continued to be made until the late 1950s when that division was sold to Soundcraft. That narrows the window only a tad. Phonozoic doesn't date this type of blank at all.  More here.  Looking at the themes of past prayer day events I suspect this is from 1948. That year's  theme was "The Prayer Universal" and that idea is referred to a few times in the program. I know that's not solid, it's just a hunch.  I have posted the first segment above, and will make the rest of the audio available upon request.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 55

Very little mystery with this disc. It is one-sided, aluminum core and outer edge start. It spins t 78 rpm as it is labeled. It's also labeled with the year, the month, the song and the pianist. The recording begins with an introduction by the pianist which fills in the rest of the details.
The recording was made February 9th 1949 at Monarskis' Studio. Conveniently this matches the year Phonozoic attaches to this type of Presto blank. The pianist is Cherie Courtois, who sounds all of 8 years old in the introduction. I had to apply a harsh noise filter to bring up her very faint spoken introduction. The Bach serenade of uncertain name is much more listenable.

Try as I might, I cant find a specific piece by that title in a comprehensive list of his works. Regardless since we know her approximate age and the date of the recording we also know that Miss Courtois is probably among us today and much improved at piano.

The blind twins of WWVA

Radio stations strive for something unique to hook listeners with. WWVA had a wildly popular blind singing duo named the Newcomer twins, both could play piano and violin..

In the year 1925 in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, Maxine and Eileen Newcomer were born. They sadly lost their vision gradually by the age of four. But they were bright, and talented and despite their blindness, they did well in school. They learned to sing in harmony and in 1941, they got a contract with the radio station WWVA.

Today WWVA is just another news outlet. But back then the Wheeling, West Virginia based radio station was a force to be reckoned with. Their 50,000-watt signal could be heard clearly throughout the East Coast. Their Jamboree was known coast to coast as well as the Grand Ol' Opry as the place to go for country musicians. The Newcomer Twins appeared on WWVA during the 1940's, and appeared on the station's live Jamboree many times. At the height of their fame, the Newcomer Twins received thousands of letters from fans throughout Appalachia. They were considered one of WWVA's biggest stars.

When the Newcomer Twins died in the 1980s in their belongings were found hundreds of homemade acetate records. These were live recordings of them on WWVA. since these are masters of live performances, each of these acetates are one-of-a-kind recordings by Bing Crosby and Gene Autry and Spike Jones and the Andrews Sisters; and acetate recordings of WWVA regulars like Len Clawson and Don McNeill and Elmer Squeezix. 

There were news reports of the World War II Japanese surrender; and of the wedding of England's Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. And every record was carefully labeled on the jacket as to its contents and the performer and the date of recording. and the kicker? It's all printed in Braille. The LPs are currently in the hands of the Country Music hall of fame in Nashville.

The girls had purchased a Presto disc cutter, and had been quietly making records for decades. More WWVA history here and here.