GOODSON RECORD (GB)

The records are made of a white opaque celluloid. They were published in the autumn of 1928 and by the end of 1931 production stopped. The records were produced by the Goodson Record Company, Ltd., 12 Old Burlington Street, London, W.1. (GB). They cost 1s. 9d each. The Goodson records were made from Rhodoid, a synthetic material covered by British and overseas patents. At first they used the records made by the American

Emerson-Scranton studios (31000-series). After a few issues they used the Grey Gull-Van Dyke-Radiex catalog. Dominion and Filmophone used that catalog too. At the end they used English matrices exclusively. They have no label like the ordinary records. In fact, the whole record is used to print the information and was in fact a picture disc avant-la-lettre. There are several types. The 31000-series is also found on the Goodson produced discs carrying advertisements for Boothe Chemis, Wellsbach Lamps, Henleys, London Virginia Tobacco Cº and others. It seems that the London Virginia Tobacco Cº records, made for Sketch Virginia Cigarettes were sold in tobacco stores only.

SALABAST - GOODSON 111/112: This record was made by GOODSON for SALABAST Record needles, a German product. It's a good example that GOODSON RECORDS can br labelled as picture discs too.

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BOOTS - GOODSON 31295 This record was made by GOODSON for BOOTS The CHEMISTS, an English product. The songs on the record were also leleased in the regular GOODSON series.

HARLEM HOT CHOCOLATES [3tp-2tb-cl as ss-cl ts-cl as bars-p-banj-b-dm-vo]: Duke Ellington dir. p. Arthur Whetsel tp, Freddy Jenkins tp, Cootie Williams tp, Joe Tricky Sam Nanton tb, Juan Tizol tb, Johnny Hodges cl-as-ss, Barney Bigard cl-ts, Harry Carney cl-as-bars, Freddie Guy banj, Wellman Braud b, Sonny Greer vib dm, Irving Mills vo - SING YOU SINNERS Fox-Trot Harling Coslow (1045 C)- IM vo
Recorded New York City, Mar. 1930. Released May 6, 1930 as HIT OF THE WEEK 1045

HIT OF THE WEEK
These flexible card board records were produced in huge numbers as a weekly series by the DURIUM PRODUCT CORPORATION. The durium acetate was a German World War I invention, used as protection for airplanes. It was used for a few month at the end of the 1920s for the short-lived English card board WORLD ECHO record and was made better by Hal T. Beans, an American professor in Chemistry. Nowadays Durium is used in garden ornaments. Production started in 1930 using a new technology. By spreading out the durium acetate on large rolls of card board they could print many copies at the same time like a news paper. I fact the distribution of the label was like a weekly news paper; every Thursday a new HIT OF THE WEEK was on sale at all news stands. The sales figures were immense: more then 350,000 copies each week. Well known New York musicians of the early 1930s like Eddie Lang, Bunny Berigan, Mannie Klein and Tommy Dorsey and bands , like Don Voorhees', the Orchestras of Duke Ellington, Ben Pollack or Vincent Lopez, played for Durium, mostly under the name of the HIT OF THE WEEK Orchestra. After the fall and the restart of the firm in 1931 as DURIUM PRODUCTS..............

Hit of the week continued.............

INCORPORATED, the HIT OF THE WEEK label became the precursor of several innovations. Innovation like the 5 minutes playing time, the two titles on one side (with a visible interval between the two tunes) and the artists picture on the (empty) reverse later became common property. HIT OF THE WEEK records were exported to Europe (for France even with new label names like SEFONO, MP or DANCING). In 1932, thanks to the depression with dropping sales figures and the competitors who used the Durium innovations, the series stopped after c. 175 records. The large stock of unsold HIT OF THE WEEK records was dumped in the US and Europe during the second half of the 1930s. In the mean time an English Durium firm (with factory in Slough (near London) was founded. They produced a similar series of weekly records in Europe (durium EN-series) up to 1934.Other labels made by DURIUM are DURIUM DISCO (Latin-Americans), DURIUM RECORD (Folk-Country), DURIUM JUNIOR (4-inch) (Hill billy) and DURIUM DISCHI (Italian). DURIUM also produced numerous advertisement, courses and custom records.

HIT OF THE WEEK started in January 1930 and continued until July 1932 made by the DURIUM Company. They issued c. 175 single sided records

ORCHESTRE PHIL SPITALNY'S [3tp-2tb-2as-2ts-3v-p-banj- tu-dm-bo] Phil Spitalny dir., Bunny Berigan tp, Bob Effros tp, Joe Venuti v, Eddie Cantor vo, Paul Small vo. Sweet and lovely (RÉSIGNATION) Blue Arnheim Tobias Lemare -( K 5) - PS vo Notre-Dame " Victory March " (Marche de Notre-Dame des Victoires) Marche (K 5) - PS vo Recorded New York City, Sep. 1931. Released in France c. late 1931 as SEFONO K-5