Tweet Made my first record purchase, anyone know about 'em?

I made my first record purchase at Traders Village in Houston today. It's entitled "For Mother" and is a little collection of three records with the theme of, well, mothers. It's by an all-girl orchestra and choir and is from 1948. On the front it says To: MOTHER and From: James R. Cade. The "James" part is the only thing actually written on it, besides the "25 cents" part. I'll post pics at a later date. I'm pretty excited, as it's my very first record purchase ! Does anybody know anything about this?

The "all-girl orchestra and choir" in question is "The Hour of Charm", comprised of "50 young ladies", under the direction of a "Phil Spitalny". The songs are "Mother Dear, Pray For Me", "My Mother's Rosary", "Silver Threads Among the Gold", "You, Mother Dear", "Rock-a-Bye Baby", "Mother Dearest, Mother Fairest", and "The Old Refrain". The records themselves are copyrighted 1948 by a certain "Charm Music Co.", and are in little sleeves bound by hard covers. The front cover is, unfortunately, broken off, but we still have it. Sadly, we don't have a record player, so I don't know if they still work or not. The records themselves are pretty thick, and have a rather large diameter. The only female vocalist that is named is Betty Kelly, and there are violin solos are by an "Evelyn and her Magic Violin". On the inside of the back cover is the story of The Hour of Charm, which tells of Phil Spitalny, "a man with an ideal and an inspiration that became an outstanding reality.". It doesn't tell of Spitalny's life, just about his idea for an all-girl orchestra.

From Wikipedia:
"On radio, Spitalny was introduced as Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra featuring Evelyn and her Magic Violin. The magic violinist was Evelyn Kaye Klein, who used the professional name, Evelyn Silverstone. She helped Spitalny find the women he needed to assemble his all-female orchestra. Together, they auditioned more than 1000 musicians in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh."

"Phil Spitalny (November 7, 1890, Tetiev, Ukraine (territory of Russian Empire) – October 11, 1970, Miami Beach, Florida) was a musician, music critic, composer and bandleader heard often on radio during the 1930s and 1940s. He rose to fame after he brought together an orchestra with only female musicians, a novelty at the time."
From Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia:
"Spitalny appeared in at least ten musical shorts and two features, When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942) and Here Come the Co-Eds (1945). Between 1951 and 1953, he made three appearances on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town."

One more thing from Wikipedia:
"Evelyn Kaye Klein and Spitalny married in June 1946."
I'm not trying to hold Wikipedia as the ultimate source of knowledge, just showing what I found out. Don't worry, I checked Wikipedia's citations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spitalny

Pictures:








This is Album No.2.
The records are originl vinyl, ccording to my dad. They don't bend and will shatter if you drop them.

This album was advertised in LIFE magazine in March and April 1948. The discs are very likely pressed on *shellac*--not vinyl. As long as the surfaces of the records don't have any serious gouges or other damage, they should play fine on the right equipment (i.e. one with a 78 speed).

Something to be careful about with 78 albums: it doesn't look like these envelopes will be a problem, but make sure the records don't slip into the spine area, or you may hear an unpleasant "snap" as you're turning the pages. Storing 78s upright is best and handling them with reasonable care is a must.

Welcome to the hobby!

-HA

Thanks for the info, we may get a record player as soon as we clean my room and get it sorted out. I can't wait to hear the records and add to my new collection!
(If we have the room, that is... )

Something to be careful about with 78 albums: make sure the records don't slip into the spine area, or you may hear an unpleasant "snap" as you're turning the pages. Storing 78s upright is best and handling them with reasonable care is a must.

-HA

Hello and welcome to Nitrateville and to the world of record collecting. There's a lot of good old stuff out there, for music and movie fans to find in vintage record collecting.

Among other Phil Spitalny records, I have a similar Spitalny 78 album to yours, but it's all Christmas songs. Yours looks like something nice to record and present to one's mother as a gift.

Harold is absolutely right about handling those (and any other shellac 78's you may acquire) with care, especially if storing them in the original sleeves in that album. I've seen way too many fragile shellac 78's broken by the hazards of being kept in those covers.

As you can feel, shellac records are not flexible like vinyl records and should never be bent or dropped. The are very fragile.

Taking a quick look, I see that there some Phil Spitalny films (shorts and/or clips from features) on You Tube, if you'd like to see his band.
Also, many people post records on YouTube (just the audio, with some image such as the record label or a shot of the phonograph playing the record to look at while listening to the song). You can find some of Phil Spitalny's records there for your listening enjoyment. And by the way, at different times in his career Spitalny had regular orchestras/bands (that is, not all-female). You'll also find some of those records available for listening on YouTube.

Spitalny made quite a few records for Durium's cardboard Hit Of The Week label between 1930 and '32. In fact for a time he was that company's music director.

Betty Kelly was my grandmother (she passed away recently). I would be very interested in purchasing the record. Please send me an e-mail. As I currently live in Thailand, I could have you ship the record to my mother in the US. I haven't been able to find this record anywhere. I do have a CD of her singing, but it's not the same. I can pay via pay-pal or even send you the cash. Please send me an e-mail at johnpetit858@yahoo.com
Thanks,
John

Spitalny made quite a few records for Durium's cardboard Hit Of The Week label between 1930 and '32. In fact for a time he was that company's music director.

One of my favorite records is Spitalny's HOW record of "Betty Boop", a very tight and fast arrangement impeccably handled.

If you're collecting Phil Spitalny, The Hour of Charm Orchestra also made a number of Vogue Picture Discs in the 1940's. These records are getting to be worth some nice change, but oddly enough, I seem to still find them cheap at the occasional garage sale or swap meet, so they must have sold more copies then people think.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

When I was at the Ring Theater in Miami in the late 70's, Evelyn Spitalny was one of our patron "Friends of Theater". At the opening night party for DAMN YANKEES (I played Van Buren), I was introduced to "Evelyn Spitalny". I said, "it's a pleasure to meet you but where is your magic violin!?" She was completely taken aback that a young fellow would have any idea about her magic violin. Being an Abbott & Costello fan (HERE COME THE CO-EDS), I had the edge on my compatriots.