Hello Barbara,

For the Bell Labs experimental recordings which were made at 463 West
Street, those may have been transferred to their current headquarters in
Murray Hill, NJ. There is a museum there and perhaps their staff would be a
good starting point. Some of your father's work may even be on display. In
Andre Millard's book "America on Record" he references a box of your
father's manuscripts sourced, presumably, from "AT&T". The full citation is
Stanley Watkins, "The First Sixty: A Sortabiography", unpublished
manuscript, box 84 10 03, p. 151, AT&T. If this is new information, you
could try contacting the author or Bell Labs.

You are probably aware of the Vitaphone project
http://www.vitaphoneproject.com/ <http://www.vitaphoneproject.com/> Many
of those first "talking pictures" have been released by Warner Bros. and
can be seen on TCM from time to time. I am hopefully awaiting a future
release of a particular Vitaphone made in 1937 of the Ciro Rimac Orchestra
"A Musical Journey to South America" as Ciro was part of my in-law's family
in Peru.

David Robison



On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 7:03 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Another datapoint. As of maybe 10 years ago, perhaps a couple years
> further back, there were intact Vitaphone projectors and some disks in an
> unused part of the projection booth at the Loews Jersey Theatre in Jersey
> City NJ. I saw them with my own eyes. The funding and management situation
> there were in flux, so no idea of all that stuff is still present.
>
> Regarding non-Vitaphone work your father did, I think most of the
> back-catalog of interest to you is owned by Sony.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Witemeyer" <
> [log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2015 11:39 PM
>
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] BELL LABS/VITAPOHONE
>
>
> Wow! what a lot of irons in the fire to follow up on. I do appreciate all
> this information, and will see whether I can glean anything from your
> suggestions. Keep them coming.Thanks again, Barbara
>
> Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2015 23:08:36 -0500
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] BELL LABS/VITAPOHONE
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> If he goes back as far as the WE experimental recordings of the New York
>> Philharmonic and other off the radio line sources in 1922-24, many of
>> those
>> discs are at the New York Philharmonic in their Archives and some were in
>> the 10 CD set they issued. I was among those involved in finding and
>> restoring them and still have a few non-Philharmonic items in the Western
>> Electric experimental recording series that were pressed (in the Pathe
>> factory in Brooklyn?) I was once told there was a hand-written notebook
>> documenting this X- series. I had heard it was in the Sarnoff
>> Library-Museum at one time but when I went there to look for it
>> specifically
>> in Princeton a few months before the Library closed, neither the librarian
>> not I could find it. I believe much of the content of that library is at
>> the Camden Historical Society. Incidemtally, Vitaphonr and other U.S.
>> film
>> synchro-discs were also pressed by RCA and, possibly, Brunswick.
>>
>> This is a "blind men describing an elephant by feeling it" story. Tim
>> Brooks worked on the 4 volume matrix numerical covering the commercial
>> records. Ross Laird did a similar study of Brunswick. The folks at Santa
>> Barbara are publishing much Victor material on line from your period.
>> Check
>> DAHR. They include much fugitive stuff. Also check Mike Biel's thesis on
>> transcription discs. He's also an ARSC member. And so much passes
>> through
>> dealer Kurt Nauk's hands including some of the Philharmonic "X" pressings
>> that he may have a part of the story as well.
>>
>> You might plan on attending the ARSC conference in Bloomington this coming
>> May.
>>
>> This is off the top of my head. Some corporate names may be approximate.
>>
>> Steve Smolian
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Witemeyer
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2015 1:23 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [ARSCLIST] BELL LABS/VITAPOHONE
>>
>> Hello ARSCI'm writing a biography of my father, Stanley Watkins, who was
>> instrumental in the development of the Vitaphone system at Bell Labs. With
>> Sam Warner he produced the soundtracks for Don Juan and The Jazz Singer.
>> (That's a very brief summary and leaves a lot out!)I would be grateful for
>> any information your organization might have about the sound recordings
>> during this period. During the experimental process he personally was
>> recorded on many trial discs at the Labs and I would love to know if any
>> remain.Also, Stan Watkins was in charge of recording at Columbia in the
>> early '20s and recorded Bessie Smith and Eddie Cantor. I have been unable
>> to
>> find out where to look for Columbia archives of this period - I usually
>> get
>> sent way back to 1960!I'd be glad of anything you can suggest which might
>> be
>> of help in my research.Thank you in anticipation.Barbara (Watkins)
>> WitemeyerAlbuquerque, NM505-268-7579 =
>>
>