When they made their debut after leaving WGN (as Sam 'n' Henry) Gosden &
Correll's deal with the Keith Orpheum theater circuit had them traveling
extensively around the country doing live appaerances, often in markets
where NBC did not yet have affiliates that were wired to the relatively new
network. Therefore it was shrewdly arranged to pre-record the episodes. I
don't know or recall who made that decision. I think that it's discussed in
"The Adventures Of Amos 'n' Andy" by Melvin Patrick Ely. The ETs were issued
(with-destroy-by- dates on the labels) done on 12" 78 rpm lateral cut
shellacs` whose masters were cut in wax. They lacked commercials & opening
& closing announcements that were delivered by local announcers. The disks
were turned over during the mid-show commercials. The locally generated
live portions, added to the pre-recorded ones nominally totalled to 1/4 hour
or less to accommodate other local commercials and annoucements.
The earliest date that I have is 7-15-28 matrice #s 5081 & 5082.. The
latest that I have is 7-5-29 matrice #s LTR 117 & 118. The LTR matrices
denote Brunswick recordings & pressings, not the inferior Marsh ones..
Given the once-only applications of these disks it'd have been technically
better if they'd had a deal with Columbia, given its substantially sonically
superior laminated pressings.
Art Shiffy Shifrin
www.shifirin.net
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