The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1914)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 31 Motion Picture Views of Victor Co.'s Plant. Impressive Exhibition of the Process of Manufacture of Victrolas and Records From the Lumber Yard to the Shipping Platform, Given in Atlantic City During Convention— C. G. Child Discusses Recording ProblemsMrs. Frances E. Clark Gives Illustrated Lecture on Progress of Educational Campaign. (Special to The Talking Machine World.) Atlantic City, N. J., July 8. — Never before in the talking machine trade and probably not in any industrial field has the process of manufacture of an article been set forth so completely and in such detail as was the making of Victor talking machines and records when motion picture views of each of the departments of the factory from the lumber yards to the shipping platform were flashed upon the screen at the Apollo Theater yesterday for the benefit of those attending the convention of the National Association of Talking Machine Jobbers' The pictures required three weeks of constant work on the part of the operators and much careful thought and effort on the part of the factory officials for their production, and although the jobbers had learned through indirect channels that the films were of an elaborate character, they were not prepared for the magnificent and impressive exhibition that was offered to them. Beginning with the immense lumber yard, the great piles of lumber, some as high as a fourstory house, were first shown on the screen, with the men at work stacking newly received lumber, or, preparing stock for removal to the drykiln. From this point the consecutive operations connected with the manufacture of Victrola cabinets were shown in detail including the cutting and carving of various parts, with scores of wonderful automatic machines of original design making for both speed and absolute accuracy; the staining and finishing of the complete cabinet after the parts had been assembled in a trifle over a minute, and the final inspection. Next came the pictures of motor making which included views of the machines making all the various parts, even to. the tiniest screws, the powerful presses for stamping out the spring cases and the machinery for making the springs themselves. The inspecting, testing and assembling of the motors was shown in a most comprehensive manner. The pictures then lead through the various other departments to the shipping department, where machines were shown as they were finally inspected, crated, checked, and, lastly, placed in the waiting trucks for shipment. No detail was overlooked and every operation was shown as actually carried on, general views of entire departments being supplemented with close up views of the actual operation of the various and wonderful machines. C. G. Child Discusses Recording Problems. After the presentation of the views of the manufacturing departments as relating to the machines, Louis F. Geissler, general manager of the Victor Talking Machine Co., introduced Calvin G. Child, head of the Victor recording laboratories, who gave a most interesting summary of the problems faced by those whose duty it is to secure the artists and select the music from which to make up the record lists. He said : Some years ago, we conceived the idea that the only way to protect our business was, in the words of the phrase which we coined at that time, "to take it out of Coney Island." By that I mean to give it a permanent and authentic standing in the musical world ; to make the Victor an acknowledged musical instrument by obtaining for you the best music and the greatest singers that were to be had in the world. We have our dance craze ; we have our ragtime craze; we have our good old summer times; we have the days of the Banks of the Wabash, and you know as well as we do, how short lived most of these sudden popular crazes are, they come as quickly as they go. The backbone of the Victor business has been the Red Seal work, the records and music given to you by the great singers of the world who are represented in the Victor catalog. It is just as necessary for me to make the contracts and arrangements for the Victor Co. with these people interesting and profitable as it is for the Victor Co. to give you a fair and generous profit on the business which you are doing, and we can only do this with your help. The field of what is known as the bel canto music and style of singing of the older Italian composers grows more and more limited each year, and we are compelled to turn to the concert field and the concert repertoire to give our artists a certain number of new representations each year. It is a fact that Mme. Marcella Sembrich goes on concert tour through the United States and fills the theaters in which she sings, giving a wonderful program of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, and that her audiences are always interested and instructed. It is a fact that perhaps one of the most successful concert tours in the history of concert managers was that of Miss Geraldine Farrar in the fall of 1913, and it is a fact that selections of this kind when listed in the Victor Co.'s catalogue meet with little recognition from our dealers, and a great many come back to us on exchange propositons. I have in mind a little song of Mme. SchumannHcink's "Die Forelle" ("The Trout") a little fishing story in German. The sales on this record have been so very small that we feel almost compelled to withdraw it from the catalog; yet all my friends who have heard this record are delighted with it. Some friends from Chicago said on hearing the record, "that brings me nearer to Schumann-Heink than I have ever been before." We listed quite a number of the selections which Miss Farrar was to use from coast to coast in her concert tour last year and the majority of them have met with the usual lack of success of concert songs listed in our catalog. I do not know to just what cause this lack of interest in this better music may be attributed. It is not quite as easy to sell as "Care Nome" or the Miserere from "II Trovatore" or the Quartet from "Rigoletto," but as so.on as the patron becomes interested in these better things, he will turn more and more to them. I find with much regret that quite a few of the Victor jobbers with whom I have talked, do not really know the monthly bulletin. It would seem to me that with the great interests which you have in this business, a serious study of the monthly bulletins would be of wonderful help. We must go on making records by our big artists ; we must show them each year an increasing royalty account for selling their records ; royalty is the only way in which we can keep the artists alive to the interests of the Victor Co., therefore, I ask you gentlemen if you will not try and aid us in an effort to make this really better historical music in Victor records move faster than it is doing at present. The profits on the Red Seal records are greater to you than any, and we believe that a careful study of the lieder and concert songs by your sales people will awaken them to the possibilities of this kind of music, and we hope that you will see the real necessity of helping us to get better results from this field. The activity of the records in our Red Seal catalog is one of the greatest importance to the Victor business, and I hope that you gentlemen will consider my appeal to look into the class of music to which I have referred and see if it cannot be handled and put before your customers in a way that will create a greater interest in it. There are few left of the older operas which we have not already drawn on very heavily. The new grand opera of to-day is largely a musical drama with recitative work and not with the wonderful melodies which we find in things like "Traviata," "William Tell," "Faust" and the older operas, but the field of the lieder and concert songs is almost unlimited and we must draw upon it for future work and we must not permit our artists to become discouraged at their small sale. I wish it were possible for you gentlemen and you good ladies to know these great singers as I know them. I am asked frequently: "Do you not have all sorts of trouble with these singers?" And I say frankly, very little. They have their tempermental side, without which no singer can be great; but I find them very human and I could tell you story after story of the great singers which would show you that they are all real people, with a very human side, all keenly interested in what we are doing with them and anxious above all things, to have their records just as good as it is possible to make them. When we first began this work, almost anything was considered good enough by some of the singers, but they -very quickly realized that if they did not sing the very best they knew how for their records, it reflected on them and not on the machine, and it is quite a common thing to have a date with one of the big singers cancelled, because while they feel that they are perfectly fit to go through an operatic performance before an audience in the opera house, they feel that they are not just in condition to hand down a record of their work to posterity. We have had, at times, some criticism from you gentlemen on repetition of repertoire, but I ask you to look at your sales on such things as the Prologo from "Pagliacci" and other popular operatic numbers of this kind and I have to tell you that when a new baritone comes and makes a great success in "Pagliacci," we must give to you for the friends and admirers of that singer the "Prologo" and your sales show that this has been a wise policy. I thank you very much for the attention which you have given these few remarks and I hope that they will have the effect of calling your earnest attention to the class of music to which I have referred. Views of the Recording Laboratories. Following Mr. Child's address there were thrown on the screen views of the recording laboratories with six prominent members of the Victor Light Opera Co. in the act of recording the Sextet from "Lucia," accompanied by the Victor Symphony orchestra. Next was shown the other side of the partition with the master record in the actual process of the making and then the record was followed through the various details of manufacture from the raw material and to the placing of the finished record in the envelope for delivery. The exhibition wound up with pictures of over six thousand employes of the Victor Co. leaving the various buildings of the plant — a veritable army of men and women of a distinctly high-type — and finally views of General Manager Geissler addressing the employes, and the members of the light opera company singing the Sextet from "Lucia" in the open. The exhibition was opened with a short" address by Louis F. Geissler, general manager of the Victor Co., and as the pictures were thrown on the screen they were explained by Henry C Brown, advertising manager of the company who, with the assistance of the department heads, had gathered together a great fund of valuable and interesting information regarding the various sections of the work. He made an excellent lecturer. The entire exhibition was both impressive and inspiring, showing, as it did, the inner workings of one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States. It proved that the enormous {Continued on page 32.)