Re: [ARSCLIST] Pirated Mengelberg 78s

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > This is fascinating! I'd always assumed (and to assume is to make an ass
> of u
> > and of me) that Obie stole nothing but Telefunkens..but there's a period
> where
> > Telefunken and Polydor (DG) are sharing the same roof, maybe before the
> Siemens
> > era. It still raises the question of how Obie got the discs to bootleg
> while we
> > were at war with Germany, or were enemy phonograph records still being
> exported
> > to the US? I find that hard to believe.
> >
> > As for "RCA", Obie wanted everyone to believe that the Record Corporation
> of
> > America stood for just that.
> >
> I should imagine that Obie had connections in other pseudo-neutral European
> countries (i.e. Spain for one, or pre-occupation France) where German
> records
> could be purchased. Or...the material he pirated could have been obtained
> before 12/8/1941, with plans for use after the US entered WWII (which many
> people felt was just a matter of time)...?

Something I'd have thought possible until a couple of hours ago (see the note
about Beethoven's Eroica being the Schuricht recording from September 1941).
It's POSSIBLE that it was issued quickly and on sale in New York stores before
Pearl Harbor, I suppose.

>
>
> Interestingly enough, I just ran across a later Varsity that used two
> Three Suns sides previously issued on Majestic...under their original
> T-* matrix numbers, yet!

And I'll bet they sound infinitely better than their original Majestic
incarnations! Those later Varsity reissues sometimes were better transfers from
the original lacquers than had been done at first. I have some Louis Primas on
Varsity that sound great (and even better on Canadian Compo pressings),
especially compared with the ghastly Majestic originals.

Those "3 Suns" recordings appeared on every imaginable label..including
Philharmonic.

dl