Rare 1920s radio is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 15 March) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

Rare 1920s radio in a simulated radio broadcast over the Warner Brothers’ radio station KFWB Los Angeles, filmed for Vitaphone Varieties in 1929, with Roy Fox and his Orchestra…

LONG PLAYING DIAMOND DISCS

The rare 1920s radio from 1928, includes two extant examples of a number of recorded broadcasts that year featuring ‘The Happy Hour Boys’ and the Ray Nichols Orchestra on WAAM Newark NJ. They were aired and recorded specifically to test Edison long playing diamond discs.

The programs were a demonstration of the audio quality of the quarter inch discs. As the WAAM announcer said, concluding the 9 Sep 1928 test broadcast featuring WAAM’s ‘Happy Hour Boys’ , the show, in co-operation with Edison engineers was ‘a test of the long-distance (sic) record. We hope its success will be huge, indeed.”

The Edison Diamond Disc Record was a type of phonograph record marketed by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. on their Edison Record label from 1912 to 1929. They were named Diamond Discs because the matching Edison Disc Phonograph was fitted with a permanent conical diamond stylus for playing them. Diamond Discs were incompatible with lateral-groove disc record players, e.g. the Victor Victrola, the disposable steel needles of which would damage them while extracting hardly any sound. Uniquely, they are just under 1⁄4 in (6.0 mm; 0.235 in) thick.

In 1926, an attempt at reviving interest in Edison records was made by introducing a long-playing Diamond Disc which still rotated at 80 rpm but tripled the standard groove pitch to 450 threads per inch by using an ultra-fine groove, achieving a playing time of 24 minutes per 10-inch disc (12 on each side) and 40 minutes per 12-inch disc (these were the only 12-inch Diamond Discs ever sold to the public). A special reproducer and modified feed screw mechanism were required to play them. There were problems with skipping, groove wall breakdown, overall low volume (about 40% of that of the regular Diamond Discs), and a failure to exploit the format by releasing a limited number of discs. Only 14 different Edison Long Play discs were issued before they were discontinued.

The Lee Sisters’ sound-on-disc Vitaphone appearance in 1929…

RADIO SET TEST

Another rare 1920s radio braodcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer is from 4 May 1929. The Brunswick Balke Collender company, which manufactured radio sets and records, booked time on WABC New York, after its broadcast day to air the radio experiment.

The experiment was a test of the audio quality of a Brunswick radio set. The test itself was a broadcast of a commissioned musical program over WABC which was then recorded off-air as it was picked up by a Brunswick radio receiver. It was, in effect, an early ‘home recording’, but not the first. a radio enthusiast in New York had recorded morse code radio off the air onto cylinder in 1915. That recording is lost, but an airing of the the original cylinder on a 1933 radio show exists.

1927 Vitaphone clip of The Revellers…

15 MARCH PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #536
107.3 2SER Tuesday 15 March 2022 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	1940s Swing Radio
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + A Symphony Under the Stars	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Brunswick Hotel WBZ NBC Bosyon 6 Dec 1941
I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem	Mal Hallett Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Hollywood 7 Jun 1945
Moten Swing + Cirribiiribin (theme)	Harry James Orchestra	Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca KFI NBC LA 1944
Set 2	Trad Jazz Radio
You Don’t Understand	Chris Barber Band	BBC Light Program London 9 May 1955
Everybody Loves My Baby	Chris Barber Band	BBC Light Program London 9 May 1955
Basin Street Blues	Kid Ory	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 25 Dec 1954
March of the Bob Cats + Honeysuckle Rose + Theme	Jack Teagarden	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 24 Apr 1954
Set 3	Modern Jazz on 1950s-60s Radio
Theme + A Woman’s Place is in the Groove	Vivien Garry Quintet	‘Jazz Club USA’ Voice of America 1951
Get Outta Town	Patti McGovern	‘Jazz International’ AFRTS Hollywood 16 Jun 1960
The Price is Right	Henry Red Allen Trio	London House WBBM CBS Chicago 30 Mar 1962
Set 4	1928-29 Radio
Onward Christian Soldiers + Beautiful Isle of Somewhere	John A Scott (organ and voc), Mr Greenfield (voc)	WAAM Newark NJ Edison Diamond Disc Long Play Test Transcription 1928
In Dreams I Kiss Your Hand, Madam	Dick Robertson	‘Brunswick Program’ WABC CBS NY 4 May 1929
Button Up Your Overcoat	Zelma O’Neill	‘Brunswick Program’ WABC CBS NY 4 May 1929
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love + In My Bouquet of Memories	Ray Nichols Orchestra	WAAM Newark NJ Edison Diamond Disc Long Play Test Transcription 4 Dec 1928
Set 5	Jack Hylton Orchestra
White Horse Inn Medley: You Too + White Horse Inn + Goodbye	Jack Hylton Orchestra	Comm Rec Paris 13 Apr 1931
Hylton Stomp	Jack Hylton Orchestra	Comm Rec London 12 Oct 1932
Today I Feel So Happy	Jack Hylton Orchestra (voc)	Comm Rec London 7 Sep 1931
Set 6	Male Harmony Singers
I’ve Got a Locket in My Pocket	Art Kassels and his Kassels-in-the Air Trio and Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1945
Take It From Me	The Three Ambassadors (voc) Gus Arnheim Orchestra	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Chi-Baba Chi-Baba	Lionel Hampton (voc) Hamp Tones	Casa Manana Culver City Ca KFI NBC LA 20 Jul 1947
Tiger Rag	The Inkspots	WFIL NBC Red Philadelphia 12 Jul 1939
Set 7	Benny Goodman Women Singers
Crazy Rhythm	Helen Ward (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NY 8 Dec 1934
If It’s The Last Thing I Do	Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 16 Nov 1937
It’s So Peaceful in the Country	Peggy Lee (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WOR Mutual NY 20 Sep 1941
Little White Lies	Patti Page (voc) Benny Goodman Sextet	‘One Night Stand’ The Click Philadelphia AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jun 1948
Set 8	Jazz Moderne
Confirmation	Ben Webster Quintet	Aircheck 1962
I Cover The Waterfront	Lester Young Sextet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 4 Dec 1948
Chasin’ The Bird	Charlie Parker Sextet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 12 Mar 1949