10 " 1930 VICTOR 33 rpm Demonstration Record - Side 1

[@tamaracktom]

My grandparents bought one of these Victor phonograph-radio combinations in 1931. It included a home recording attachment that used vinyl records with grooves already cut into them. Our family still has recordings made by my grandparents which feature my mother and her siblings singing Christmas carols with my mother at the piano. The recordings are not the best quality but it's still fun the listen to them. my grandpa also recorded a few radio shows such as Eddie Cantor and others directly from the radio at 33 and 78 rpm speeds. Unfortunately 33 rpm album sets of classical music they purchased do not survive but I do have a 78 rpm 10 inch record titled "How To Sell Victor Home Recording" which was given to me by the daughter of the local Victor dealer.

[@fromthesidelines]

Your grandparents were among the "lucky" ones able to afford those "combos", as most people couldn't afford to buy them during the Depression.

[@tamaracktom]

I am sure that they knew they were were very fortunate though their large family lived very modestly for the most part.

[@PRSRECORDS]

I have the machine.

[@Micrographone]

Wow! My grandmother's trio, the Three X Sisters, sang on some of those Eddie Cantor shows. Do you know if they are on any of those recordings?

[@colbycrawford8969]

@@Micrographone Unfortunately I don’t think they were on any of the home recordings he made.

[@hotsickle]

I used to have a tape of this I bought from Radio Yesteryear ! Thanx for sharing !

[@jimdrake-writer]

According to the Victor ledgers, this recording was made on 30 July 1931.

[@hyzercreek]

That's not the whole story. The 33 1/3 format started in 1926 when Warner Brothers teamed up with Victor for the Vitaphone format of Talking movies, which had the sound on discs. The discs were 16 inches and 33 1/3 RPM so the sound would be the same length as a reel of film. The records were shellac but they were breaking so often that Victor started researching for an unbreakable material, and started using a PVC compound mixed with plasticizers which they called Victrolac. The Vitaphone format was so popular in movies that they tried to sell it as a record format, but in 1931 all the movies went to sound-on-film and Vitaphone died, so there was no impetus to continue with that format, since the record industry was already settled on shellac 78's and the depression hit so forget about selling a new format.

[@Arthur_McGowan]

Sounds as though it was played with a modern LP stylus! This record is not microgroove. The grooves are the same size as a 78.

[@Micrographone]

Nice! Do you have many of these older 1930s era 33LPs? Wondering if you had any of the Isham Jones recordings with RCA Victor from 1932? They recorded several versions of their tunes at their recording session at the RCA Studios in New York on Oct. 13, 1932. Some on 78s, some for Paramount Pictures, and apparently some with these Trascriptions on the 33 LP format. Though not sure of this series?

[@BrucesPhonograph]

Contains an interesting snippet of Ferde Grofe's Mississippi Suite

[@fromthesidelines]

Actually, this was recorded and introduced in 1931.

[@Musicradio77Network]

Yes it was! This was a failed attempt to put out a long playing 33 1/3 RPM record for 1931, and RCA Victor didn’t like it, but it discontinued in 1933 due to poor sales. By 1948, Columbia took another stab and launched the LP record where it took many of the songs onto one album. And then a year later, RCA Victor launched the 45 RPM format and the 45 RPM players in 1949 and it was small, compact and portable, and then, by 1950, RCA Victor re-launched the long playing record, and the rest was history.

[@waynebrown8366]

The narrator wanted you to turn the record over...what was on the other side???

[@The1920sDandy]

A great find indeed ! Do some pictures of that "monstruous machine" exist ? I am very curious to see what a 1930 33rpm record player looks like !

[@gavinmillar7519]

The artiste is Frank Crumit

[@fromthesidelines]

The economic effects of the Depression, and the fact that very few people bothered to buy those "LP's", was why RCA quietly discontinued their "Program Transcriptions" in early 1933...although the records that were produced remained available in the Victor catalog through 1939, and those special radio-phono combinations were manufactured through 1934.

[@Micrographone]

Interesting, I didn't know that!

[@Micrographone]

Oddly, as Vintage of an Orchestra that Isham Jones had been in 1932, he was also represented on these RCA records. Through some of my research, my grandmother's trio, the Three X Sisters, also made a transcription journey with the Jones band. I'm not sure if it's of this series.

[@expertsenior6262]

I have a copy of this record, in mint condition. These LPs were pressed in a type of plastic called "Victrolac", with very smooth surfaces and (if played with correct stylus size and proper equalisation) superb sound. Please see my Expert Senior site for optimum sound.

[@michaelwatkins1702]

The slower speed reduced the head room and also the signal to noise ratio. The end result is a reproduction that is no better than the pre-electrical acoustical recordings.

[@stevereventlow5217]

That is an absolutely ideotic statement!! Does this sound like an acoustical recording?? Directly recorded program Transcriptions made after mid - 1932 are hardly distinguishable from their 78 RPM counterparts. I have over 60 PT,s - both popular and classical. The very last of the shellac pressings are made on the "Z" material, and have very quite surfaces.

[@fromthesidelines]

Actually, this was released in the fall of 1931, when RCA introduced the first 33 1/3 rpm commercial record (using the speed reserved for radio and "Vitaphone" transcription discs). However, their big mistake was not providing an inexpensive attachment- the kind you could plug into a radio- to play those records. No, they insisted you buy an expensive [$250] Victrola radio-phonograph combination...the ONLY one that could play those records. WHO had that kind of money during the Depression?

[@mrmjb1960]

Kinda Frazzled sound. But because the Acetate Sound coming from it,it's natural it sounds the way it does!

[@expertsenior6262]

Please see my comment elsewhere.