From: "Bob Conrad" <bob618@xxxxxxxxx>
I have a number of Jim Jordan radio broadcasts from 1929 Chicago, station WENT
I assume you mean WENR unless the recordings spoof a fake radio station.
<>("Mike and Herman")It is just a hunch, but I have always thought
these were made as auditions, to be sent to far off radio stations in
the hopes of signing them up in some sort of syndication or affiliate
deal.
This is possible since Chicago was where the business of syndicating recordings of programs was invented with "Amos 'n' Andy" in March 1928 and The National Radio Advertising Co's Maytag drama series in December 1928. But Jim Jordan was probably doing "The Smackouts" on WMAQ by 1929, and the names Mike and Herman sound like those used in "Louie's Hungry Five" which was syndicated by The Chicago Tribune in 1930, and it is known that Jim Jordan had nothing to do with that series.
and all of them are on uncoated aluminum, some
are 7", others are 5" and all play at 78rpm.
So the technology did exist, at least in 1929. Bob Conrad Fort Lee, NJ
From Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>:
Any idea of the specific date? The uncoated aluminums were in use one side or the other of 1930, but were mostly a "bureau" operation, as far as I can tell, until home recording units became available as well. Typically, there were booths in music and department stores.
The first known Speak-O-Phone installation was in a St. Louis dept. store around Thanksgiving 1928. They did not make machines available to individuals except for one supplied to Cabel Greet of Columbia University who used it to record Vachel Lindsey. Other companies had machines for embossing aluminum on the market by 1930.
As to those who recorded off-the-air on a speculative basis and made dubs on demand, one service I know of began c. 1934. There may have been others. I understand these recording outfits were listed in the yellow pages of the cities in which they operated. Steve Smolian
There were many recording studios in business making air-checks by the end of 1930, especially in Chicago.
Steven Smolian wrote:
I remember reading that the trial of a navl enlisted man for rape in Hawaii (there was a PBS bcst on it recently) had Darrow's jury summation broadcast back to the mainland.
What does this have to do with the 1925 Scopes trial?
It could have been recorded either by Ediphone dictating machine or, just possibly, by RCA paper discs for use with the Electrola radio and recorder. I've seen but do not own some dated late in 1929.
Steve Smolian
They weren't paper, they were celluloid on paper for the 5-inch discs and vinyl for the 10 and 12-inch. The first machine was the Radiola 86 which was released in Sept 1929.
From: <Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx>
kmccormi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
The trial was the first live radio broadcast from a trial but there was no recording made.
William Jennings Bryan did record a number of other
speeches some of which are available online at
<http://www.historicalvoices.org/earliest_voices/bryan.html> from the Vincent Voice Library (although none appear directly related to Scopes).
It would have been difficult for Bryan to record anything related to the Scopes trial since he died several days after the end of the trial. All the recordings he did make were Edison cylinders and Gennett discs.
This information is helpful. The people putting on the play somehow thought that they should incorporate a wire recorder into the set. While we could have loaned them a Telegraphone, it is just as well that they don't need it.
There was a WGN carbon microphone in the courtroom and that was it. Why would anyone have considered having a recording machine in the courtroom since it is well known that this did not happen.
That time period must have been a null in extemporaneous sound recordings.
There are quite a few broadcasts that were recorded between 1923 and 1930. But not the Scopes trial. People have been looking for them for decades.
Michael Biel mbiel@xxxxxxx
<>Wax cylinders were out of the picture and instantaneous discs
had not been well developed.
I remember reading in a contemporary early 20's magazine about a
project to archive radio broadcasts on Telegraphone wires. I
wonder if anything
ever came of that.
Mike Csontos
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