AW: [Jukebox-list] RE: Seeburg's "promise"

[David Breneman]

--- Stamann <stamann at jukebox-world.de> wrote:

> "there were no new 78rpm records pressed by
> the record companies".

Well, that's not *quite* true.  One of several musicians'
union strikes was under way, demanding better royalties
from the sale of recorded music.  Record companies
could release vocal records provided they didn't have
instrumental accompanyments.  There were several such
strikes in the late 30s through the early 50s, but the
1948 strike was the last big one.  Some historians
contend that television really took off in the US
in 1948 because production music libraries became
available again, so local stations didn't need to
hire orchestras if they wanted music for their
productions.

> RCA, who didn't want Columbia to win this record market -
> introduced in 1949
> the first 45 RPM record - also with it's own record player. 

This is the persistent myth.  The 45 had been under
development since the mid 1930s, and was intented from
the start to be a replacement for the 78.  RCA Victor
had tried to introduce a long playing 33-1/3 record in
the early 30s (the "Program Transcription" series) and
had failed miserably.  Edison had also failed with a
long playing record in the late 20s.  RCA was convinced
that the public did not want a long playing record, period.
But they did believe that recording technology was ready
for a leap forward, and that's what motivated their
research, not Columbia's LP.

> J. Krivine writes in his book: "In this belief they were supported
> by one of
> the most powerful figures in the music industry, Carl T. Kelvey,
> general
> sales manager of Seeburg." (see page 107) Kelvey's intention was,
> the
> smaller the record, the faster it plays the shorter the playing
> time of each
> record is - this means more money in a hour for the operators.

Krivine is patently (no pun intended) wrong here.  The
45 was intented from the start to have a playing time of
5 minutes in "high fidelity" mode, matching the capacity
of a 12" 78, and up to 8 minutes in "degrated" mode.
*Shorter* duration was never a part of the concept.  If
Kelvey thought smaller diameter meant shorted playing 
time he would have been a fool.  Although Krivine's book
is a "good read" it frequently focuses on personalities
at the expense of history or technology.  The guy seems
to almost worship Farney Wurlitzer and Homer Capehart.
You don't have to muddle the fact to tell a compelling
story.


David Breneman         david_breneman at yahoo.com

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