I have a few Mercury 78s,from 1957-58,of The Platters,and Del Vikings,some are shellac,some are vinyl.The vinyl ones are thinner,and pooer quality than the 45s of the time.

                                         Roger

Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Hi David:

When you say "Mercury went BACK to shellac some time in the mid 50s," do you mean for 78's or 
microgroove? I have no Mercury or Emarcy recording among many from that time-frame that appear to be 
pure shellac but there is that strange vinyl-ish material for the Emarcy jazz records. Was Mercury 
still pressing 78's widely in the mid-50's?

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] vinyl 78's


> The majors began using vinyl for kiddie records around 1947 (earlier in the case of Cosmo's "Tubby 
> the Tuba" in 1945) and Victor began pressing DeLuxe editions also in 1946 or 47. Decca put out a 
> few pressings on plastic as well (Eugene List playing the Rachmaninoff 2nd). I don't think there 
> was much use of plastic for commercial 78s until wartime restrictions ended, but of course V-Discs 
> were vinyl (except the ones Columbia pressed).
>
> Victor put out the Stokowski "Gurrelieder" on its Victrolac compound in the early 30s. Aside from 
> their use of the stuff on 33RPM Program Transcriptions, that's the only example I can cite of 
> commercial discs on vinyl at that stage.
>
> DJ pressings used vinyl in the mid 40s, of course (except Musicrap). Mercury and MGM seemed to 
> have switched to vinylite (Merco-Plastic, Metrolite) in mid 1949, and a number of other small 
> labels went along, while the majors stayed with shellac for the most part.
>
> Anyone know why Mercury went BACK to shellac some time in the mid 50s? (Canadian pressings 
> remained on Quality's vinyl-ish material to the end.)
>
> dl
>
> Tom Fine wrote:
>> What's the history of vinyl 78's? I have a small pile from I think the very early 50's, these are 
>> pop and country tunes. Was vinyl used for 78's in any mass quantities previous to when vinyl LPs 
>> were mass-manufactured? The "newest" vinyl 78's I know of are kiddie records pressed in the 
>> mid-60's. Aside from novelty stuff, was the medium used after the mid-60's?
>>
>> Thanks for the coming history lesson!
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>>
> 


       
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