Durium 1, Hit of the week

This is the first re-post of some of the episodes of the 52 weeks-project from 2004, which was a slightly more modest follow up on Otis Fodder's 365 days in 2003.
We'll start with the submissions of the late Hans Koert, a Dutch jazz specialist who, among many other things investigated the history of Durium Records thoroughly.

Jan T.

HIT OF THE WEEK HOOREN IS HIT OF THE WEEK KOOPEN !!
(to hear hit of the week is to buy hit of the week)

1. Don Voorhees Orchestra- Tip toe through the tulips with me
Fox-Trot Dubin Burke (recorded New York City December 1929) (HIT OF THE WEEK 1019) with Fred "Fuzzy" Farrar tp, (Red Nichols tp), Bill Trone tb-mell, Charlie Butterfield tb, Joe Tarto tu, unknown male vo

During the late 1920s a few advertisement boys in New York City launch a new idea. An idea that still looks modern in 2004. Every week, on Tuesday, a new Hit of the week was sold in the newspaper stands of the city. For US $ 0.15, twenty percent of the price of an ordinary shellac record, you got a light flexible card board record, playable on one side, but thanks to the so-called "micro-grooves", with twice the playing time of an ordinary record. About 350,000 records a week were produced; a number, that would put every artist's nose out of joint; even nowadays. About 130 so-called Hit of the week records were sold in the US. In Holland they had to wait for some months, before these records were sold for one guilder.

2. Freddie's radio orchestra - It's the girl
{Ella es} Fox Trot Oppenheim Baer
(Recorded New York City Aug. 1931) (HIT OF THE WEEK K1) with ? Tommy Gott tp, Bunny Berigan tp, Tommy Dorsey tb, Charlie Butterfield tb, Elmer Feldkamp cl as vo, ? Tony Parenti cl as, Cornell Smelser acc, Joe Venuti v, ? Walter Gross p or Freddie Rich p, Eddie Lang g, Joe Tarto or Hank Stern tu.

The bands, that made the recordings, were studio bands, full of musicians that were in for ready money. Many now wellknown musicians were glad to make some money - no rehearsals, just playing the notes one time and record it. Just one-and-a-half hour work and ready money. Stock arrangements were used as published, mostly with a length of an ordinary record, a three minutes playing time. What to do with a five minutes record? The solution was very simple; just play the song two times (one time with a vocal and one time in an instrumental version) or give a little extra tune, free of copyrights, like "Good Night Ladies" in the next sample.

3. Nick Lucas and his troubadours - All of me
4. Nick Lucas and his troubadours - Goodnight Ladies
(Recorded New York City, januari 1932) (HIT OF THE WEEK A4B1) met o.a. Eddie Lang g, Nick Lucas ? g vo.

The publisher of the cardboard Durium record was an advertisement agency, so they used this unbreakable record for advertisement purposes too. This part of the story will follow later. In its second year the sales figures lowered and other record companies made cheap records too. To raise the sales figures Durium started to print publicity pictures on the back side of the record and they gave little records, Durium Juniors, for free. Even two complete tunes (later in Europe they called this "The self-changing record") were not enough to save the firm.

5.Bolero-Son (Grupo Canario) - ANGEL DE MI QUERER
Ungrateful Manuel Gimenez(Recorded New York City, c Aug-Oct 1932) (DURIUM DISCO 5011)

Durium started to make records for export and series for the Latin-American market, hoping to prevent the ship from sinking. In the summer of 1932 the firm failed and the large stocks were sold and shipped to Europe. In England an advertisement agency founded the Durium Products (GB) Ltd. with a factory in Slough, in Greater London. Like its US precursor they published a weekly Durium card board record. About the conquest of Europe I'll tell you another time.

Hans Koert