This 1949 color addendum to an otherwise black and white 1942 film (Part 2 of 2, see Periscope Film #XD39044 for Part 1) concludes a detailed look at the process by which a 10” shellac 78 rpm commercial audio recording is produced, mastered, and pressed, featuring footage from an RCA Victor plant of the World War II era. This final portion of the film introduces and promotes the then-new 7” 45 rpm format for “singles,” showing off the concept of colored vinyl with a unique color-coded genre classification system (TRT: 2:35).
A family at home in a living room. A mother and father read, while a girl produces a record from a cabinet-style entertainment console. Mother helps place the record onto an automatic record player, which clears another record from the turntable to make room for the new “Blue Danube Waltz” recording (0:06). A small, portable record player (a bakelite RCA Victor 9-EY-3) loaded with two 45rpm singles pressed on red-colored vinyl. The narrator mentions “the world’s most colorful music…the new 45 rpm recordings,” and “non-breakable vinylite.” A woman listens to a 45 playing the Blue Danube (0:39). As the record spins, he notes, “150 records, 24 hours of listening pleasure, fit into a 1 foot bookshelf” (1:12). A promotional display with a “His Master’s Voice” dog statue and a “standard” 78 rpm album of recordings by Arthur Fielder’s Boston “Pops” Orchestra. Another display of 7” 45s shows music by Freddy Martin, Al Goodman, and others in yellow, green, red, orange, and blue vinyl, “a rainbow of melodies” (1:32). A unique color-coding system of sorting vinyl by genre is introduced. “Ruby red records for the classics, midnight blue for popular classics, golden yellow for children, and sky blue for international favorites. And of course the green of the range for country and western tunes, with cerise for rhythm and blues, while black will still be used for the popular tunes.” Roy Rogers is visible among the green records. Desi Arnaz’ “Babalu” is pictured among the “popular” selections, alongside Vaugn Monroe’s “Down Memory Lane” collection (1:40). Title card: “The End,” surrounded by a full array of colorful 45’s (2:15).
RCA pressed the first 7” 45 in late 1948 at their Indianapolis Sherman Ave. plant while workers were striking at the New Jersey plant depicted in the first part of the film. To cite a notable example of the color-coding system in action: Widely regarded as the first rock & roll record, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s All Right” (RCA 50-0000) was released as a 45 on RCA’s cerise (orange) colored vinyl in 1949.
This RCA Victor promotional film is not to be confused with “Command Performance,” the radio program broadcast from 1942-1949 on the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRS).
