V-Disc records

[RetroToday]

I was very happy to win two 1940s era twelve-inch "V-Discs" at a recent auction, numbered 685 and 712, all labels pictured below.
I'd heard a lot about them for years and the artists that made these special recordings, but had never seen an actual one for sale up here in Canada until this sale.

The V stood for Victory as these records were specially made by recording artists for troops overseas during WWII as a morale booster. Well, most were original recordings but some recycled snippets of popular radio broadcasts made their way onto some. They look and feel a lot like LPs but play at 78 rpm.

More about the V-Disc program here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Disc

Does anybody else here collect them or have one or a few?

A full shot of one side of the 685 disc

Label only shots

 

[Vornholt]

I gave my father a box full of these for Father's Day last year. I think he's still in process of transferring them to CDs.

 

[Django]

I have been buying them on iTunes, but I've never seen a real one before. Cool!

 

[Eyemo]

I have one...can't remember who the artist is at the mo..shall dig it out later

 

[Eyemo]

Polly Wolly Doodle.
Cinderella Sue.
All through the day,
Limehouse Blues .
By Ray Bloch and his orchestra

 

[RetroToday]

Vornholt: You're lucky to have found a whole box, incredbile.

Django: Glad you found it to be cool. Neat that this is the first you've seen.

Eyemo: Does your record basically look the same as my V-Discs?

 

[Lauren]

Ok, that's awesome. I have some of these on cd, but also have never seen an original. Now I know what to look out for! Thanks for posting the pics!

 

[Eyemo]

pretty much so..want a picture?

Eyemo: Does your record basically look the same as my V-Discs?[/QUOTE]

 

[RetroToday]

pretty much so..want a picture?

Sure, if you have one handy.

 

[Eyemo]

Here you go...along side another very large record i have...any ideas, would this be wartime too?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The big one is a radio transcription -- Armed Forces Radio Service stations played them over the air, and they were also sent to camps for play over the PA system or in the rec room. This particular one is an edited version of a stateside radio program, but there were others that contained original material. Date on this one, based on the label design, would be 1943-ish. There might be an actual date of the original stateside broadcast scratched in the runout area.

They play the same as a V-disc, except at 33 1/3 rpm. Each side holds about 15 minutes.

 

[Eyemo]

Thanks very much...had four of the large ones (stupidly gave two away.. )

 

[RetroToday]

Very cool to see those Eyemo, thanks for showing us. :eusa_clap

This is the first time I've seen one of those War Department transcriptions, a great find! Sorry to hear your regrets of letting two of them go. I've also had the same problem, I give or throw something away then I want or need it the next day.