Personal Record 50018-P
This page presents a discography of Columbia Personal Record 50018-P.
It is part of the site 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 site, but it is documented here to assuage possible curiosity about the missing number, and as a little-known item of recorded Americana.
For dates of creation and latest update, please see 'Page information' in left sidebar.
Personal Record 50018-P
| Selection | Artists | Format | Matrix | Stamper | Recorded | Location | Label cat. no. | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol – 'Fessiwig's [sic] Party' (Stave 2, extract) |
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 |
| ibid., 'Christmas Morning' (Stave 5, extract) | 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 (shown as W in the table above).
Cuts
Both selections reportedly recorded in abridged form (it has not been possible to audition the disc for this discography).
Availability
Sold privately, for charity (see below); price and pressing run unknown.
Notes
The Rigler-Deutsch Index, accessed via WorldCat, contains only one entry for disc 50018-P, documenting the side with matrix number W91728. This states that the reader was the priest and noted educator, the Reverend Endicott Peabody, founding headmaster of Groton School, in Groton, Massachusetts, USA.
An enquiry to Groton School revealed that Peabody originated a tradition of readings by headmasters from A Christmas Carol before the start of the Christmas vacation, which has continued unbroken from 1899 until today, and of which this disc was evidently intended as a memento. The Groton School archives show that Peabody was in New York 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, the school magazine, reported that 300 copies of the disc had been sold for the benefit of the Groton School Camp for underprivileged boys (run by the school until 1966).[2]
Copies known
Groton School, Mass., USA.
Transfers
Audio cassette, Groton School.
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 full details of the disc's contents, probable recording date and purpose, as well as photocopies of both labels, 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): Bingham, Kenneth E. Groton School Camp, Charleston, South Carolina: Binghamus Press, 2009
