[Jukebox-list] RE: Original Title Strips on Ebay

[David Breneman]

--- Automatic Music <jrutoskey at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What typeface was used in the 1950's title strips?

I don't know if you can really dignify it with the
term "typeface".  Most one-stops used little hand-
cranked "printing presses".  You'd insert the
letters into the face of the stamper by hand, feed
a sheet of strips into in, and turn the crank.
"Stamp - stamp - stamp - stamp" and out they'd
dome.  It's just a very plain sans serif upper case
character set.  I'm surprised someone hasn't
scanned in those little letters to make a font
for title strip programs.  You can get fonts that
look like Dymo embossed-plastic labels, and that's
just as much a "typeface" as title strip printers
used.  I use an IBM Selectric and an "Orator"
element for mine.

> As a sidenote, I'd like to know the name of the
> original typeface used on the record rack and
> popularity meter strips on the B-C and then the
> G-R-J-W? It's not Helvetica, as that face didn't exist
> until 1957.

See if you can find an old Chartpack catalog.  These
were rub-transfer letters and numbers used extensively
in the litho business well into the 1990s.  I know
the "Select-o-Matic Mechanism" verbage on my M100-A is
a dead ringer for Chartpack Script characters.  I
used a lot of that stuff when I was putting together
ads for a former employer in the late 80s and early 90s.


David Breneman         david_breneman at yahoo.com


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