Radio Company Promotional records

[RetroToday]

Another record I recently found at auction was this promotional 78 record for Philco (pressed by Compo for Decca of Canada) featuring a couple of Bing Crosby's well-known songs.

Philco celebrated it's 20 Millionth radio set produced for the public in 1947. As a special promotion for this milestone, they offered the Bing Crosby "Signature" record free with the purchase of a Philco 706 "Consolette" (Canadian model number). The 1948 Consolette has since become known as "The Bing Crosby" radio, because Bing's face promoted it very heavily.
My bit of research found Canadian advertisements for the record, but I'm sure these were also available in the USA and elsewhere.

Here's a little excerpt from a 1947 newspaper ad about the record:

And a couple of YouTube links to the songs featured on the record:

Blue Of The Night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRl-gMqyJLQ

Home On The Range:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VW7-GQUjyY

The Philco Consolette was an oddly styled record player / radio combination unit that took records in through a flip down door in the front, something like modern CD and DVD drives.
The needle arm sat inside the unit and was rigged to automatically start playing once a record was inserted. Philco proudly stated that the Consolette was so easy to load that "even a child" could load it.

After I found the record I realized that I have sheet music for one of the tracks:

Does anybody else here have this type of promotional material? Would love to see it.

 

[Fletch]

In 1929, Victor Radio - no, not RCA, but the Victor Talking Machine Co. just before the big breakup - released record no. D-1, the Victor Radio Tone Demonstration.

Milton Cross of NBC and the Met Opera announced; Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra played Victor's (probably very short-lived) radio signature, Victory.
This campaign must have been junked pretty promptly at the rollout of the Radio-Victor Corp.,* as there have always been quite a few copies of this demo around.
*In 1931, of course, Radio-Victor became RCA Victor.

Also in 1929, Brunswick Radio produced "the most sensational musical test of radio quality ever conceived." The record was - or claimed to be - recorded off the air via a Brunswick set! (Veracity of said claim unknown.)
Hear it here
Ted Husing spoke from WABC, CBS-New York, introducing vocal spots by Dick Robertson and Zelma O'Neal.
Within a year, Brunswick too would be out of the radio game. It divested its music and sound operations to Warner Brothers, who had no wish to make or sell radios.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That Brunswick record is legit -- one of a bare handful of genuine 1920s airchecks known to exist. The Brunswick recording ledgers, documented by Ross Laird, confirm that side A was recorded off a direct line to WABC, and the B side came from an aircheck "recorded from Brunswick Radio receiver."

 

[Fletch]

:eusa_clap And Elizabeth of the Ether comes through once more!

That is very respectable reproduction, once you hear thru the surface crackle. It gives you some idea how a broadcast might actually have sounded, rather than just a reference of it.

 

[RetroToday]

Hi Fletch, incredible. I didn't know tone checks were produced that far back. Was this record made for consumers or technicians?

In the mid-1920s, here in Canada, Victor (not RCA Victor) teamed up with the Northern Electric Company (Our version of Western Electric) to build radios so they could branch into that newly lucritive sales market. I own one of the Northern Electric antennas that would have been featured on one of those radios, sadly, I don't have the radio!

1926 Victor / Northern Electric radio newspaper advertisement

My Northern Electric radio antenna

Talking machine and record companies at the time were very afraid of radio broadcast technology, because it showcased reordings played for free over the air. Sounds kind of like how all companies are scared of the freedom of the internet today!

Victor went on its own for a couple of years and then came the merger with RCA, which started in 1929.

The 'Victor only' brand name continued to be used on the fronts of radios a few years into the 1930s but eventually the RCA Victor name became the norm.

 

[Fletch]

Hi Fletch, incredible. I didn't know tone checks were produced that far back. Was this record made for consumers or technicians?

Most probably for in-store demonstration to consumers.

 

[Flivver]

Hi Fletch, incredible. I didn't know tone checks were produced that far back. Was this record made for consumers or technicians?

In the mid-1920s, here in Canada, Victor (not RCA Victor) teamed up with the Northern Electric Company (Our version of Western Electric) to build radios so they could branch into that newly lucritive sales market. I own one of the Northern Electric antennas that would have been featured on one of those radios, sadly, I don't have the radio!

1926 Victor / Northern Electric radio newspaper advertisement

My Northern Electric radio antenna

Talking machine and record companies at the time were very afraid of radio broadcast technology, because it showcased reordings played for free over the air. Sounds kind of like how all companies are scared of the freedom of the internet today!

Victor went on its own for a couple of years and then came the merger with RCA, which started in 1929.

The 'Victor only' brand name continued to be used on the fronts of radios a few years into the 1930s but eventually the RCA Victor name became the norm.

Those Victor-Northern Electric Superheterodynes were magnificent radios. They were based on the Western Electric 4D Superhets that were sold as broadcast monitors only. But the Northern Electric sets had a power output stage added because they were intended for home use.

Here in the U.S., only RCA was licensed to build superheterodynes until 1931 when RCA began licencing others to do so. So Western Electric was restricted to selling their sets for commercial use only.

These sets (both the NE and WE versions) are hot performers...very sensitive and selective. They use the WE-215 peanut tubes that have a very low current drain for long battery life.

 

[Flivver]

Fletch...thanks for posting the link to that Brunswick recording. I never knew it existed. It's so nice to hear what radio actually sounded like in the 1920s.

And, until hearing it, I didn't know how to pronounce the "Balke" part of the Brunswick-Balke- Collender name!

 

[Fletch]

Yes, they invented the slow-draining spaghetti strainer.
...balky colander. heh.

Just notice the headline reads "promomotional." Perhaps featuring the saxomophone.

 

[RetroToday]

Just notice the headline reads "promomotional." Perhaps featuring the saxomophone.

Fixed it, sorry 'bout that. :eusa_doh:

Thanks for the link to that Brunswick recording, incredible.

 

[Fletch]

BTW RT, I think it's kinda cool how the railroad used to run the radio network in Canada. (I know, they used to run everything in Canada, but still, it's kinda cool.) Is there much online about that?

I'm also impressed by the National Library's posting historical recordings of Canadiana on their site, such as the bells of Parliament - a real achievement for 1927 - and French versions of English pop tunes. (I can no longer find the link, tho. Hope it's still there.)

 

[RetroToday]

BTW RT, I think it's kinda cool how the railroad used to run the radio network in Canada. (I know, they used to run everything in Canada, but still, it's kinda cool.) Is there much online about that?

I'm also impressed by the National Library's posting historical recordings of Canadiana on their site, such as the bells of Parliament - a real achievement for 1927 - and French versions of English pop tunes. (I can no longer find the link, tho. Hope it's still there.)

I believe it was Canadian National Railways that started really spreading the broadcast of radio here, but the CNR was started by the Canadian government, made up of struggling railways that were amalgamated to form it. The CBC was hatched soon after and the CNR stations held less prominence.

There are some shots of the broadcasting room of CNOR here, along with other historical shots of the CBC here

- The CBC has a digital archive of radio broadcasts, one 1927 clip here

- Link to a good video doc. from the CBC on the history of radio in Canada: http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/1631/

- The bells of Parliament were recorded for the 1927 Jubilee, it was in the documentary clip above, but I think it was cut from the clip on the CBC archives website. I have a recording of those bells in my 78 collection.

 

["Skeet" McD]

- The CBC has a digital archive of radio broadcasts, one 1927 clip here

Fascinating! Great stuff! Particularly interesting to hear the early versions of the "Canadian" accent...a good deal of variation, but distinctly Canadian.

Thanks, Retro!

"Skeet"

 

[RetroToday]

Those Victor-Northern Electric Superheterodynes were magnificent radios.....

Thanks for the insight Flivver, I didn't know very much about these radios. Hope I find one someday soon for my antenna and it comes with the peanut tubes... they can be very pricey these days!

"Skeet" - You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed the clips. Hmmm, us Canadians have an accent, eh?

 

[RetroToday]

Knew I had this 78 record somewhere.... took me a little time to find it among the pile - I really do need to index my records.

It has two of the songs played on the Victory Tower's new set of Carillon Bells during celebration ceremonies for the 60th Anniversary of Canada's Confederation in 1927.
This Parliamentary event was the first to be broadcasted by radio nationally.

A little more history on the bells:

The Peace Tower Carillon (Originally called the Victory Tower) was inaugurated on July 1, 1927, the 60th anniversary of Confederation. It was commissioned and installed by order of Parliament to commemorate the Armistice of 1918 and the sacrifice made by Canada during the First World War. The inauguration ceremony was a major event and also marked the first live coast-to-coast radio broadcast in Canada. It is estimated that several million people heard the inaugural concert both in Canada and internationally.

Between 1925 and 1927, the world famous bell foundry of Gillett and Johnston in Croydon, England cast and tuned the bells. The carillon is comprised of 53 bells, ranging in size from the bourdon, which weighs over 10 tonnes, to the smallest bell, which weighs only 4.5 kilos. Each bell is tuned to produce a specific note of the musical scale. The bells are stationary, and are rung by the movement of their internal clappers. Each clapper is connected through a series of direct mechanical linkages to the carillon keyboard. A carillon’s mechanical playing action, like that of a piano, allows the carillonneur to vary the sound by changing the way he or she strikes the keys.

www.parl.gc.ca/Sites/Collections//carillon/history-e.htm