This is a 10-Inch, metal-core, Silvertone acetate recording disc. Like most discs it has some reference to being "slow burning," though being made of acetate lacquer must make that hard... the paper core discs especially. It's labeled in pencil "Alfred Erb 1/25/46 4th in Lent." The opposite side merely has a date 4/21/48. So this disc was used a couple years apart by the Erbs.
Alfred Erb - Lent March 25th, 1946
Lent covers a period of approximately six weeks before Easter starting on Ash Wednesday. But Easter is a moving target. Easter is just an approximation of the March equinox, so Ash Wednesday can be as early as February 4th and Easter as late as the end of April. Normally in the United States we round off holidays to make for more 3-day weekends, but these have yet to be tamed. Nonetheless, it's certainly out of season for me to post this today... Lent 2015 won't be until April 5th.
This is a 7-Inch, metal-core Silvertone brand home acetate recording. It's clearly been played a few times but the greater problem is that they also dropped the needle a few times leaving some scratches across the face of the grooves. So yes, this recording does skip a bit.
5 Minutes More Tom
**audio expired**
It's labeled "Tom 5 Minutes more." It's quite hard to read but the lyrics are thankfully very clear in the recording. This song was written in 1946 and first recorded by Frank Sinatra. Tex Beneke recorded it with the Glen Miller Orchestra the same year. This recording is a mashup of that Beneke version and a few acapella verses sung presumably by "Tom."
Tom, if that is his real name... did some kind of cut away of his audio source then sang directly into his disc cutter mic and sang the remaining verses. I have never heard anything like this before on any of the other discs I've ripped. The cutaway isn't exactly smooth. You can hear Tex start to sing.. and then only the powerful baritone of Tom. The B-side is Count Basie "Hi Tide". That song was recorded in 1945. Because those dates are so close, I'm going to assume this was recorded no later than 1947.
This is a 10-Inch Silvertone transcription disc. It spins at 78 rpm, has an outer edge start and has a metal core. It's very heavy gauge which makes sense with the date inscribed on each side 11-19-40. Both sides are labeled. One as "ELIZA GERSHWIN" the other as "I LOOK AT YOU." It might look at first like dubs of commercial releases but it's not. These are 74 year old radio broadcast recordings. Awesome.
The Gershwin side had nothing more interesting than a Christmas shopping spot. But the other side is a winner. At 1:22 an announcer cuts in to say that "You've been listening to the music of Clyde Lucas and the California Dons playing in the garden terrance of the Benjamin Franklin hotel in Philadelphia. This program came to you through the facilities of WCAU Philadelphia. Harry Mcalvain speaking, this is the Columbia broadcasting system." Then at 1:52 there is another radio recording. This one from WGAR-AM with another CBS program with the Paul Pendarvis Orchestra at the Browns' room at the Hotel Cleveland.
There is a lot of history here. In the 1930s Clyde Lucas and the California Dons were playing at Chicago area hotels like the Morrison Hotel and the Terrace Garden. They were as schmaltzy as they came. IN the 1940s they evolved into more of a swing band. They were playing the Biltmore in Providence, RI but broke up sometime before 1950. Paul Pendarvis actually cut 12 sides for Columbia records in the 1930s. None of them include this song "I Look At You." It may well be the only extant recording of the tune. After quitting the whole bandleader thing, in 1946 Pendarvis became the music director at KLAC-AM. The great circle of radio has claimed another.
This is a Silvertone 10-inch acetate recording. It spins at 78 rpm and has a metal core. Unlike many others it is labeled "There I Go" - No I Lay Me Down to Dream, Installation Speech by E.C. Greetings C7C 12-19-40" Honestly not all of that makes sense except the date.
Richard Carlson - There I Go
"There I Go" is a saxophone solo by Richard Carlson. "Now I Lay me Down to Dream" is a short Barrelhouse piano piece by "Dick". Probably the same guy. The song may be a take off of the tune by a same of the same title by Ted Fiorito that came out in 1940. E.C. is probably Mrs. Carlson but her name is absent. The recording sounds surprisingly good considering it's 74 years old.
This metal-core Silvertone acetate is 6.5 inches in diameter. Quite obviously one side is all but totally unplayable. In some unique circumstance a curved edge, probably another disc has pushed back the lacquer. This would only be possible if it was heat-softened. This portion of the disc is destroyed. Rust and delamination destroy the outermost portion and in tandem there is not a single playable rotation of this side. Thankfully records have two sides.
Paper Doll
The other side while imperfect is at least playable. The first half was strangely overdubbed. A second and perhaps third recording was made over top of the existing one leaving unintelligible bits and pieces of each. they included two different solo acapella vocals and a small child talking. But the second half is totally coherent solo vocal. I'll admit that I edited out several dozen pops to clear up the audio. It's clear enough now you can tell there's a second man in the room interjecting noise and whistles.
The song "Paper Doll" has was a single for both Frank Sinatra and the Mills Brothers but it was written way back in 1915 by Johnny S. Black. I'd guess this version was inspired by Sinatra which would date it to after 1943.
This is a 6.5 inch, metal-core Silvertone brand transcription disc. One side is labeled "Iowa Gang 7-25-43." The label on the other side has been torn off. the recording is of my favorite sub-sub genre.. drunk singing people. This one is a total classic. It's introduced with the words "Two songs will be dedicated to George and Pete who are home threshing."
Iowa Gang
Women in the background giggle and cat call them men before they break into a ardent version of "Wagon Wheels". You might know the Eddy Arnold version or the Sons of the Pioneers version, or even the Mary Robbins version. The men peter out and the ladies sing "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet" in better harmony though they're further from the mic and a bit harder to hear. This is probably a recording of some college kids, a good find.
This one is hardly a mystery. This disc was made by a home recorder not flipping channels but flipping records. He or she can clearly be heard at about the 2:15 mark flipping their 78 rpm record quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid having a short gap between songs. That kind of gap would never have occurred on a radio station. It's labeled in pencil with just three words "All Over Now."
All Over Now
The first song is "All Over Now" I recognize the lyrics from the Nat King Cole version but this is done by some great girl group but I'm afraid I don't recognize them. These lyrics are trite and have been recycled a lot over the last half-century so it's nearly un-googleable. The second track is a bit noisier but I can't figure out who that is either. If I could figure out the song I'd have a date but lacking that.. this one remains unknown.
This Silvertone brand acetate is labeled "The Gang at Burts 9 - 12 - 47." The disc has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. The date is known. The contents are somewhat inexplicable.
The Whistler
On the first side the disc is nearly destroyed. Heavy tracking weight and maltreatment has left grooves that cut through to the substrate leaving islands of audio data. That audio data is noisy and mostly filled with snippets of acapella singing, group sing along, and noisy rooms lost in conversation. That is actually somewhat normal. But the B-side is genuinely odd. It's two songs and a man has recording himself whistling over them. I've edited together a bit from column A and B for the audio above.
This is a 6.5" Silvertone acetate. It has an outer edge start and is actually labeled. The text in pencil reads 'THEL - ANNA TO EACH HIS OCT 2-4-46." There's a small oil stain on the label but nothing that obscures the text. Thelma is credited on the reverse side and I assume THEL is her as well. they sing a decent harmony, and at the end is a small clip of what I assume it was recorded over.. something about Roosevelt. The first few seconds are rough but the audio is decent.
To Each His Own
The conflicting date is inexplicable, but the music is easily identified and corroborates the 1946 year. The song is "To Each His Own" which in 1946 had three different versions hit number one on the Billboard charts. Eddy Howard, The Ink Spots, the Modernaires, and Freddy Martin all released versions that year. Sam Cooke did a cover in the 1960s and that one comes down to us as a classic. Thelma and Anna aren't quite as smooth as Sam Cooke, but the perforated surface of the acetate certainly doesn't help.
This is a paper-core Silvertone transcription disc. It has an outer-edge start, and spins at 78 rpm. It's labeled and dated, something I almost never seen. It reads "Tom Gibbons, SEP 27 1944 Chicago Ill." The date is actually stamped on which is odd, something that indicates the engineer may have been making discs with some regularity. This made sense when I played back the disc. It's an audio letter sent from a WWII soldier to his family in Texas. It's no surprise then that the center hole is worn oval from play.
Tom Gibbons in Chicago
"Hello Mom I'm sending this to you, I'm sending it from the Chicago serviceman's Center." Tom mentions his brother Jim and the apparently very nice facilities at the serviceman's center. There were actually a few Serviceman's Centers in Chicago in the 1940s. He mentions his was near Michigan avenue. I think this is the one formerly located at 131 South Wabash Ave. which opened in May of 1942. The address is now occupied by a jewelry store.
This is a Silvertone 8.5" acetate recording. It spins at 78 rpm and is a bit beat up. I managed to remove the bits of stuck on label and then coax some decent audio out of it. the recording is of a solo piano performance. I don't recognize the tune, but the playing is competent far beyond the student level, certainly at the level of a performing musician or at least a very experienced hack. The disc is entirely unlabeled and undated. Phonozoic dates their steel ore Silvertone discs to the early 1905s, I have no basis on which to contradict that number.
Silvertone Unknown
The damage to this speaks volumes about it's poor storage. Do not stack acetate discs in a pile. The metal core discs especially are heavy enough that the bottom discs are under pressure and both sleeves and acetate surfaces can stick together. The pressure also exacerbates delamination. This is a no-no. Store your discs like your records—vertically!
This is a 6.5-inch Silvertone transcription disc with three clearly defined tracks that spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start. It has a metal core and common brand label but no identifying markings. The first track is of some country-sounding accordion ballad. But the bed noise is too high to discern anything, it's comparable to the song on the A side which has similar bed noise issues.
Unknown 1959 recording
The 2nd and third tracks were similar to each other, but totally unlike the first cut. These had enough laughter that at first I thought it had a live studio audience. Then I realized what it was. I had done it again. I had found a recording of drunk people at a party.
Most of the dialog is unintelligible, there are a couple jokes about shortness, and bashful girls but toward the end someone jokes about a train and clearly says the year "1959." I'm going to presume that is near the recording date.
This is a Silvertone transcription disc. I found it in a batch of Wilcox-Gay discs but it has a decidedly higher fidelity and amplitude leading me to believe that it has a different origin. One side is labeled "Military" the other side (as you can see) not at all. Each side has two tracks, All recorded from the outer edge and all at 78 rpm. One oddity... toward the end of the disc the needle squeaked on the disc surface. I'm not entirely sure why but it sounded like rubbing a balloon on Styrofoam, a wholly unpleasant sound. I have filtered it out here to spare you the pain. Silvertone was the Sears brand home recorder common between 1945 and 1965.
The material is all unaccompanied piano. I ripped the unlabeled side here. The "Military" side was all Sousa style marches, not at all interesting. The unlabeled side was more lively. The first track is unknown to me but quite good. The second track starting 1:55 into the recording, I do recognize. It's a rag time rendition of "Aint She Sweet." Unfortunately that song has such a long pedigree that I cant use it to infer an age to this disc. The rag time approach to it is probably more like it's original 1927 version than anything contemporary to this recording.
I selected this side because it's more representative of home entertainment before radio. People used to play for their own families. At the end of the disc you can hear a small group of people, undoubtedly spouses, sons and daughters. The pianist a soft spoken woman says 'That's all there is, ain't no more" and a man says "Yeah there is, there's two more choruses." Somebody always has to be a critic.
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