This series attempts to create information for records that would’ve been around for any adult living during World War Two. The age range will be from 1900 to 1945.
About the 78 Record Project Series:
Collecting 78 Records is a recent hobby of mine. I enjoy going into antique stores and finding 78 Records and playing them on my record player. There is just something enjoyable about listening to the snaps, crackles, and pops on vintage record players that digital cannot capture. I think for me, it is the connection to the past. That shared experience of selecting a record, setting it, adjusting the needle, and playing it that digital music lacks. Digitized music can come across as impersonal (after all, it is nothing but 1s and 0s), whereas music in a physical format is deeply personal.
Project Purpose and Organization:
The purpose of this article is to provide historical reenactors with some basic information regarding period-correct records. The idea is to give a reenactor who may not know enough about records some “rules of the record” to visually identify a period-correct record.
This project series will be organized around record labels. It will focus more on the common record companies before and during World War II. Any record from any company (including some of the smaller record companies/labels and the companies/labels that were defunct by WW2) could have been played on a player. Budget labels and older-named labels will be included where relevant.
The labels of this project will include only the following 78 Record Labels:
The article will not cover musicians or bands unless mentioned specifically. This article will not cover Edison discs or cylinders, as Edison records require a specific Edison player rather than a generic record player. This article does not cover Canadian, British, or other European 78 record labels and companies unless relevant. The dates for the record label and the catalog numbering of the records are not designed to be completely accurate, but provide a general time frame.
Finally, I will cover some Post-World War II records, as they have a tendency to be grouped together with Pre-World War II records. This is an important consideration as the discerning historical reenactor may seek to exclude those that are beyond the dates of World War II (1939-1945).
For a brief historical narrative of the US record industry between 1925-1950, as well as a survey of retail pricin,g see: THE U.S. RECORD INDUSTRY AND THE RETAIL PRICE OF POPULAR RECORDS, 1925-50 by Steven Lasker, who helps run the Vintage Jazz Mart website.
Below is a link that describes how the records were made, along with notes for anyone interested in collecting 78s.
Clarion Records was a budget label for Columbia records. Clarion was introduced in Aug. 1930 and was discontinued in June 1932 after only 477 releases. It appears the label started from 5000 and ended with 5477. The label focused mainly on children’s and novelty records. It sold for 35 cents.
Some Clarions are experimental “Longer Playing Disc” with thinner grooves to accompany a longer track (4:30-5:00 minutes). A special note about Clarion was the fact that two other different labels also called Clarion did exist. Below is the label for Columbia.
Columbia Records in the US had two parts. A manufacturing company called American Graphophone Company (later it became the Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company in 1916). A graphophone is a device used to play cylinders.
Bluebird records were part of the RCA-Victor Corporation. It was created as a budget label by RCA-Victor in 1932 in order to enter the discount-record market. Original Bluebirds were 8 inches but were dropped by March of 1933 in favor of 10in. records.
Originally founded by Edward Lewis in England. Decca came to the US in 1934. The first US Decca label was a Sunburst design but that design disappeared in 1937. The sunburst design was replaced by a Decca in block lettering. The pre—WW2 Decca in block-lettering can be found in mainly blue and red.
Introduction Otto K. E. Heinemann founded the General Phonograph Corporation (GPC) in 1916. GPC’s first record label was Okeh (named after the founder’s initials) in 1918. One story suggests that the Indian Head logo was selected because like the name “Okeh” it was accessible to everyone, even Indians. Another one comes from the following account published in The Talking Machine World in May, 1918, describes: “Otto Heineman, president of the Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Co., New York, announced this week that the company is now ready to place on the market the Heineman record, which will be known as the “OKeH” record. This name is derived from the original Indian spelling of the term colloquially known as O.K., standing for ‘all right.’ “
The General Phonograph Corporation was sold to Columbia Phonograph Company in 1926. Columbia Phonograph Company produced the Okeh label in many different colors (black, blue, red, and maroon) The Columbia Phonograph Company was then sold to American Records Corporation (ARC) in 1934. ARC dropped the Okeh label but when Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) bought ARC in 1938 it brought back the Okeh label and added the CBS “Note and Mic” logo to the Okeh label.
Victory Discs or V-Discs Introduction: V-Discs are a 12in., double-sided, 78 Records that contained popular songs of the day. They were distributed for free/played to soldiers serving in World War II. The sides of the record were labeled as an A-side and a B-side. Each side contained one song that was about 6 minutes. The extra two inches (as compared to 10in. for a regular 78) allow for more grooves to be cut in the record, thus increasing playing time.
The term 78 to describe the record refers to the 78 revolutions per minute it makes around a record player. Prior to the late 1940s, all 78 records were made from shellac and then dyed a particular color (black being the most prominent but also red and green were popular). However, World War II would have a dramatic effect on the 78 records production.
