Personal Record 50018-P
This page presents a discography of Columbia Personal Record 50018-P.
It is part of the wiki Classical 'Society' Records by Nick Morgan.
The sequence of Chicago Gramophone Society catalogue numbers is discontinuous: it does not include a disc with the catalogue number 50018-P.
This was Personal Record 50018-P, recorded and manufactured by Columbia's custom recording department, launched in 1915.[1] The same department recorded and pressed the Society's issues, whose catalogue numbers were likewise taken from a Columbia 'Personal Record' series starting at 50001-P.
Strictly speaking, this disc falls outside the scope of this wiki, but it is documented here to assuage curiosity about the missing disc, and as a little-known item of recorded Americana.
For dates of creation and latest update, please see 'Page information' in left sidebar.
Selections
Both selections were drawn from A Christmas Carol, the novel by Charles Dickens.
Origination
| Selection | Artists | Format | Matrix | Stamper | Recorded | Location | Label cat. no. | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dickens A Christmas Carol – Stave 2, 'Fessiwig's Party' (abridged) |
Endicott Peabody (reader) | 12" / 30 cm lateral disc |
W91727-1 |
1-A-1 |
c. 11 March 1927 |
Columbia studio, New York City(?) |
Personal Record 50018-P | USA |
| Stave 5, 'Christmas Morning' (abridged) | Endicott Peabody (reader) | 12" / 30 cm lateral disc |
W91728-1 |
1-A-1 |
c. 11 March 1927 |
Columbia studio, New York City(?) |
Personal Record 50018-P | USA |
System
Western Electric, under licence to Columbia, as denoted by the logo Ⓦ preceding matrix numbers. This symbol cannot be searched for in MediaWiki, and so is not used in the table above.
Cuts
Both selections recorded in abridged form.
Availability
Sold privately, to raise funds (see below); price unknown.
Notes
The Rigler-Deutsch Index, accessed via WorldCat, contains only one entry for disc 50018-P, documenting the side with matrix number W91728; the other side appears to be missing. Nevertheless, this reveals that the reader was the priest and noted educator, the Reverend Endicott Peabody, which prompted an enquiry to Groton School, in Groton, Mass., USA.
Groton's founding headmaster, Peabody originated a school tradition of readings by headmasters from A Christmas Carol before the start of the Christmas vacation, which has continued unbroken from 1899 until today.
The Groton School archives show that Peabody stopped in New York, on his way to Bermuda, on 10 or 11 March 1927; the archivist suggests the latter as the most likely date of the recording.
The June 1927 issue of The Grotonian reported that 300 copies of the record had been sold for the benefit of Groton School Camp.[2]
Copies known
Groton School, Mass., USA.
Transfers
Audio cassette, Groton School.
Other issues
No other issue known.
References
- ↑ Brooks, Tim 'Columbia Corporate History: Personal Recording', from Rust, Brian and Brooks, Tim The Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume I, U.S. matrix series 1 through 4999, 1901-1910 with a history of the Columbia Phonograph Company to 1934, Westport, Connecticut Greenwood Press, 1999
- ↑ Thanks are due to Douglas Brown, archivist of Groton School, for kindly furnishing information about the disc's contents, recording date and purpose, as well as a photocopy of one disc label, and to Stephen T. Marchand, Library Director, McCormick Library, Groton School, for kindly responding to my initial enquiry (personal communications, February 2017)
Further reading (not consulted for this wiki): Bingham, Kenneth E. Groton School Camp, Charleston, South Carolina: Binghamus Press, 2009
