In the 1950s, when I was little (but not too little), my mom occasionally let me look through her boxful of old 78 rpm records. My favorite among them was Baby, It's Cold Outside. These platters were almost 10" across, and stiff as... well, stiff as a platter. By the time I was old enough to buy records, technology had raced forward to 45 rpm singles (much smaller, but still one song on each side, like the 78s) with a much bigger hole in the middle. Don't ask me why! Capitalist plot to sell 45 rpm record players with a big fat spindle instead of the thin spindles already in use, I suppose, and also "adapters" made of metal, and soon plastic, to wedge into those big holes so you could play your 45s on your regular old record players, or on the new "hi-fi" record players you bought to play the new 33 rpm albums (bigger than the 78s, with about half a dozen songs on each side). Still called platters by some, they also picked up another vernacular name, vinyl, a reference to the new material they were made of, lighter and more flexible than the old 78s. Don't even get me started on 8-track tapes, and cassettes, and CDs, and iPods... it's amazing, when you think about it, the technology that's evolved just in my lifetime.
When I came upon this film, I had just found the 78 rpm recordings made by my auntie Marceline and my mom. Although the production of their records was nowhere near as elaborate, the process described in the film was nonetheless fascinating to me. I can only scratch my head and wonder who thinks these things up!
Run time: 18:58
3 comments:
Neat, huh?!? Thanks for sharing... brings back many old memories!
Bill ;-)
I still have a few 78's that my brother used to collect. My favorite one is White Christmas by Bing Crosby. My brother framed it for me one Christmas with a collage of pictures from the movie. I loved it!
I was shocked that it all started with wax! A very labor intensive process. Thanks for sharing this.
Post a Comment