15 Be sure to play this record today

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Week 15: april 4-10, 2004
Curator: Hans Koert

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The card board durium records, as released in the US and Europe were light, unbreakable and not expensive to make. The producers were advertisement agencies and used these little brown card board cards for promotional purposes. Give it a message - make a thousand of them - give it an address sticker and hand it over to the post office !!! But how do you tell the advertiser that these ephemeral Durium records are the best way to promote your product? Well, let the record "talk". Sound Distributors, a Durium successors, sent a "Personal Touch" in 1935 to new potential advertisers.

1. The Personal Touch (An 1935 English advertisment record to promote the benefits of direct mailing, made by and for Sound Distributors)
The size of the records ranges between CD-format up to the normal 25 cm/10 inch proportions; some are even square. The playing time ranges between less then one minute up to 5 minutes.

 2. College Humor Magazine - Banks of the Wabash (Advertisement record made for the College Humor Magazine in 1931 by DURIUM (USA))


The College Humor Magazine, which still exists, made this little record as an addition in the cover of a regular Hit of the week record, to promote their magazine. It happened several times that collectors found such an ephemeral product after 75 years in a cover of a "new" Hit of the week.

It is said that during the 1930s every family in the US had its own car; In Europe we had to wait to the late XXth century, but there is no different in the process how to obtain a new car. Advertisements enlarge the benefits of the new models.

 

Chevrolet, one of the US leading companies, used Durium for several advertisement campaigns. They promoted their 1932 model, made courses for car sellers and a record that should be played in the sales room during the first introduction week of a new model.

New customers were approached with direct mailing, just an address sticker on the reverse without an envelop.

3. THE GREAT AMERICAN VALUE FOR 1932 (Advertisement record made by DURIUM (USA) for Chevrolet to promote the new Chevy 1932)
The English Durium Products (G.B.) Ltd. and her successors Dubrico and Sound Distributors made such ephemeral records for the European market..

4. PLENTY OF TIME FOR PLAY (1935 Advertisement record made for the Norwich Corp. Electricity Department) with the SYDNEY BAYNES ORCHESTRA ( Vocal Refrain by HELEN RAYMOND).

The Plenty of Time for Play record was released to promote the benefits of electricity. It gave house wifes plenty of time to do other things, if we may believe this tiny card board record.

 5. Nino già t'aspetta (1934 Advertisement record made for Fiat to promote the new Fiat 508)

At the end a rare Italian advertisement record made in Slough (GB) that wanted you to purchase their new car model.

Download all music files at archive.org

10. THE SELF CHANGING RECORD

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Week 10: feb 29 - mar 6, 2004
Curator: Hans Koert

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In Jan. 1998 Peter Tanner, record collector, ordered my “Durium (GB) Discography”. For the first time all European Durium records were listed. I read your book on Saturday morning and again that night, he told me later. Then I found the address of the Durium factory in Slough, and because I had nothing to do I took my car and because there is not much traffic on Sunday I drove to Slough and found the street and the number. And there it was. The roof was new, but the walls were still there. Unfortunally it was dark inside and there was nobody who could show me the building.

April 1932 the production of large amounts of card board records started in Slough, a suburb or London. Like its American parent company they started a weekly series with popular dance music. The American firm broke up in the summer of 1932, but the card board record survived in Europe.

1. IMP (=DURIUM DANCE ENSEMBLE) – WHEN THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN

FOX TROT – Recorded London, Apr. 1932 (durium GE-10)
The introduction of the record was well prepared. Not only in England, also on the continent. This Dutch “gratis proefplaat” (= free sample) was made by an English orchestra with an announcement in Dutch, spoken by an Englishman (some sources say it was Lew Stone himself) with an accent, that makes us smile nowadays. Unfortunately no Dutch records were made, only a series of language courses for the Dutch with the NOROPA label.

 

 2. no band name HAAR HARMONIKASSEN I LANDSBYEN GAAR VALS DAN FOLKE MART FRYBERG 

VALS DAN FOLKE MART FRYBERG – Recorded in London, summer 1933. (SUPER durium SC-133)
The English factory in Slough made records for Italy, France, Germany and Scandinavia. This is a Swedish one, released as a SUPER durium in a weekly magazine-like cover (Veckans Skiva)

3. ORCHESTRE – MUSETTE P. DUREL – CHANTEE PAR ANDRÉ PASDOC ET GINA MAREZE – AU BORD DE L’EAU
 SCOTTO-CHARLYS: Recorded in Paris, c 1934 – 1935 (SEFONO 6051)
In France they didn’t want foreign labels, so Durium (and Hit of the week) were issued by the Société D’Editions Phonographiques as SEFONO. When the English firm stopped in 1934, SEFONO’s continued in France the local market, like this musette.

  4. CANTA MISCEL RADIORCHESTRA (sic) DURIUM DI LONDRA DIR. DAL Mº. MANTOVANI – ERA AI BAGNI …..

(BORELLA MASCHERONI) CANZONE ONE STEP ED. CARISCH – Recorded in London, summer 1933. (SUPER durium T-114)
A special find was made some years ago. A series of early unknown Mantovani recordings were discovered. No violins yet, but straight dance tunes being popular in those days.
The factory in Slough stopped producing music records around 1934 but in Milan and Copenhagen small factories survived for the local market. Card board durium records were made up to the late 1930s, although a mysterious post war card board durium record has been found, so new investigation have to be made !!
In Slough they made advertisement records up to 1936, a subject I’ll love to tell you more about later.

4. Durium (1) hit of the week

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 18-25 januari 2004
Curator: Hans Koert († 4 sept. 2014)

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HIT OF THE WEEK HOOREN IS HIT OF THE WEEK KOOPEN !! 1. Don Voorhees Orchestra- Tip toe through the tulips with me   Fox-Trot Dubin Burke   (opgenomen New York City December 1929) (HIT OF THE WEEK 1019) with Fred "Fuzzy" Farrar tp, (Red Nichols tp), Bill Trone tb-mell, Charlie Butterfield tb, Joe Tarto tu, unknown male vocal 

Soms ontstaan goede ideeën bij toeval. Eind jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw vonden een paar reclamejongens in New York City een gat in de markt. Hun idee doet nu in 2004 nog steeds modern aan en wordt nog steeds toegepast. Elke donderdag brachten ze een goedkope grammofoonplaat op de markt met de laatste "hits van de week" en verkochten die, exclusief in de krantenkiosk. Voor 15 dollar cent, 20% van de prijs van een normale breekbare "bakelieten" plaat, kreeg je een lichte buigzame kartonnen plaat, aan één kant bespeelbaar, maar dankzij nieuwe "micro-grooves" wèl met tweemaal zoveel muziek. Er werden er zo'n 350.000 van gemaakt per week, omzetten waar anno 2004 menig artiest jaloers op zou zijn. Van deze "Hit of the week" platen werden er in Amerika in totaal zo'n 130 uitgebracht, die bijna allemaal na een half jaar voor 1 gulden ook in Nederland te koop waren.

HIT OF THE WEEK 1019) with Fred "Fuzzy" Farrar tp, (Red Nichols tp), Bill Trone tb-mell, Charlie Butterfield tb, Joe Tarto tu, unknown male vocal
During the late 1920s a few advertisement boys in New York City launch a new idea. An idea that still looks modern in 2004. Every week, on Tuesday, a new Hit of the week was sold in the newspaper stands of the city. For US $ 0.15, twenty percent of the price of an ordinary shellac record, you got a light flexible card board record, playable on one side, but thanks to the so-called "micro-grooves", with twice the playing time of an ordinary record. About 350,000 records a week were produced; a number, that would put every artist's nose out of joint; even nowadays. About 130 so-called Hit of the week records were sold in the US. In Holland they had to wait for some months, before these records were sold for one guilder. 

2. Freddie's radio orchestra - It's the girl
{Ella es} Fox Trot Oppenheim Baer   (Recorded New York City Aug. 1931) (HIT OF THE WEEK K1) with ? Tommy Gott tp, Bunny Berigan tp, Tommy Dorsey tb, Charlie Butterfield tb, Elmer Feldkamp cl as vo, ? Tony Parenti cl as, Cornell Smelser acc, Joe Venuti v, ? Walter Gross p or Freddie Rich p, Eddie Lang g, Joe Tarto or Hank Stern tu.

De bands, die de opnamen maakten, waren studio orkesten, bestaande uit muzikanten, die op dat moment voorhanden waren. Veel beroemde jazzmusici waren blij met zo'n snelle schnabbel. Studio in - bladmuziek eenmaal doorspelen en plaat opnemen. Binnen anderhalf uur weer buiten en contante betaling. De arrangementen kwamen vaak gewoon rechtstreeks van de gangbare partituren, gebaseerd op een lengte van drie minuten, de lengte van een gemiddelde grammofoonplaat. Hoe vul je dan een vijf minutenplaat? De oplossingen waren geniaal: gewoon alles twee keer achter elkaar, soms één keer met zang en één keer zonder of een extra kort populair deuntje, waarover geen rechten betaald hoefden te worden, zoals in het volgende nummer het geval is met "Good Night Ladies".

{Ella es} Fox Trot Oppenheim Baer  (Recorded New York City Aug. 1931) (HIT OF THE WEEK K1) with ? Tommy Gott tp, Bunny Berigan tp, Tommy Dorsey tb, Charlie Butterfield tb, Elmer Feldkamp cl as vo, ? Tony Parenti cl as, Cornell Smelser acc, Joe Venuti v, ? Walter Gross p or Freddie Rich p, Eddie Lang g, Joe Tarto or Hank Stern tu.
The bands, that made the recordings, were studio bands, full of musicians that were in for ready money. Many now wellknown musicians were glad to make some money - no rehearsals, just playing the notes one time and record it. Just one-and-a-half hour work and ready money. Stock arrangements were used as published, mostly with a length of an ordinary record, a three minutes playing time. What to do with a five minutes record? The solution was very simple; just play the song two times (one time with a vocal and one time in an instrumental version) or give a little extra tune, free of copyrights, like "Good Night Ladies" in the next sample. 

3.Nick Lucas and his troubadours - All of me
4. Nick Lucas and his troubadours - Goodnight Ladies
   
(Recorded New York City, januari 1932) (HIT OF THE WEEK A4B1) met o.a. Eddie Lang g, Nick Lucas ? g vo.

Eigenlijk waren de uitgevers van de Hit of the week reclamejongens en dus gebruikten ze het medium ook voor talloze advertentieplaatjes. Hierover in een andere week meer. Na een jaar was het nieuwtje er af en gingen andere platen maatschappijen ook goedkope platen maken. Er verschenen artiesten foto's op de achterkant of er werden mini grammofoonplaatjes verkocht of gratis weggegeven om de verkoop te stimuleren. Ook werden er twee hele nummers op één kant geperst.

(Recorded New York City, januari 1932) (HIT OF THE WEEK A4B1) met o.a. Eddie Lang g, Nick Lucas ? g vo.
The publisher of the cardboard Durium record was an advertisement agency, so they used this unbreakable record for advertisement purposes too. This part of the story will follow later. In its second year the sales figures lowered and other record companies made cheap records too. To raise the sales figures Durium started to print publicity pictures on the back side of the record and they gave little records, Durium Juniors, for free. Even two complete tunes (later in Europe they called this "The self-changing record") were not enough to save the firm. 

5. Bolero-Son (Grupo Canario) - ANGEL DE MI QUERER
Ungrateful Manuel Gimenez(Recorded New York City, c Aug-Oct 1932) (DURIUM DISCO 5011)  

Durium probeerde d.m.v. export en platen voor andere bevolkingsgroepen andere markten aan te boren; zoals die van de grote groep Spaans sprekenden. In de zomer van 1932 ging de Durium Products Inc. failliet en de enorme voorraden werden met containers vol naar Europa verscheept. In Engeland namen ze in 1932 het stokje over en vanaf april 1932 werden er vanuit een studio bij London wekelijks durium platen uitgebracht voor de Europese markt. Over de reclameplaatjes en de verovering van Europa later meer.

Ungrateful Manuel Gimenez(Recorded New York City, c Aug-Oct 1932) (DURIUM DISCO 5011) 
Durium started to make records for export and series for the Latin-American market, hoping to prevent the ship from sinking. In the summer of 1932 the firm failed and the large stocks were sold and shipped to Europe. In England an advertisement agency founded the Durium Products (GB) Ltd. with a factory in Slough, in Greater London. Like its US precursor they published a weekly Durium card board record. About the conquest of Europe I'll tell you another time.

Hans Koert
Auteur en uitgever van "The Hit of the week Discography"6+-edition p.o.d. (2004)


Update mei 2004:

John R.T. Davies 1927 - 2004 this short e-mail to let you know that Ristic died this morning, 25th May just before 8 am. He had a wonderful party for Jo's wedding and to celebrate our 50 years together on the 9th May which has become a sort of advance wake. I think he had really been holding the cancer at bay to be there and play with the band and by this weekend he was really tired and in a lot of pain so the medication had to be raised and some stuff to keep him calm added. Jo and Jess and I were with him. We just want a quiet funeral and I would like to thank all of you who have e-mailed and written over the past month or so for the wonderful things you have said about him - all of which I know are true - he was a great friend as well as a great husband and father. love to you all, Sue Davies
A great man past away.Although I never met him personally I remember him from the few contacts we had, first by letter, later by email. I remember that he bought my "Hit of the week Discography" 4th edition somewhere in the late 1990s and I wondered why HE wanted my discography. I sent him the book and a few days later I got a few lines reading that he couldn't find any of the Hit of the weeks recordings in my book he had haphazard from his collection. First I felt very disappointed, but after a good night's rest I asked him what records he couldn't find. He wrote me back that he couldn't find ANY Hit of the week record in my book.
I told him that he must have made a joke. He answered and taught me that he thought that a good discography should be a description of the text to the letter as it appears on the record label should be entered in a good discography, even with all the "slips of the pen" With this opinion I understood that he couldn't find any record from his collection in books like Rust's discographies too. I told him that and he agreed and told me that he hadn't found any discography up to now that had listed his discs in a correct way. He promised me to check my complete book and I told my wife, that I expected to hear never from him again.
Ten days later the post man brought me a packet, with my discography, with hundreds of additions and remarks on every page written with a sharp pencil in a small lettering. Can you imagine how happy I was with these additions made by the master himself. 

 Thanks John !! 

I'll keep the discography with your additions as a great treasure. The deepest and most sincere condolences go to his wife Sue, and all their family in this most grievous loss. 

Hans Koert 

Update januari 2015:

Kortgeleden ontving ik van zijn vrouw Corrie per e-mail het droevige bericht dat Hans zelf ook niet meer onder ons is. Op 4 september 2014 bezweek hij aan de gevolgen van longkanker. Hij is begraven in zijn geboortedorp, Hoedekenskerke. (Zuid-Beveland). Zijn unieke en met zorg gemaakte bijdragen aan deze 52 weken en aan Vreemde Geluiden gaven de projecten extra glans en betekenis. Op vrijdag 4 mei 2007, werd ik samen met mijn echtgenote bij het echtpaar Koert gastvrij ontvangen. Hans haalde en bracht ons van en naar het treinstation, waarbij hij speciaal omreed om ons trots 'zijn' Zeeland te tonen. Een hele bijzondere man die veel te jong is overleden.

A few weeks ago I recieved and e-mail from his wife Corrie, that Hans too is no longer among us. On september 2014 he died from long cancer. Without his contributions 52weeks and Vreemde Geluiden wouldn't have been the same. I will always remember the day in 2007 we finally met in person. He was so proud to show me and my wife his birth provence Zeeland and his music collection. A very special man who passed away far too young.