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A certain major otr dealer is reporting a almost complete run of the hour Kraft Music Halls from 1940 and on. Nope they are 12 inch disks presto. They did not record the music for the disks
Last edited by mstevens90 (02/5/2018 5:40 am)
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Thanks for your message. However, in order to ascertain whether or not this is indeed a hoax, I for one would like to know who this dealer is, and why you believe the KMH shows were not recorded. Because they most certainly were - if only for the AFRS. I hope you will tell us something more, because in this way, with no unpoliteness intended, I think you're only adding mystery to an already mysterious message.
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"MStevens",
Frans is correct. Many KMH shows have survived, whether in whole or part, right from the start of Bing's involvement. Whilst John Scott Trotter's well known private recordings tended to be of the musical items only (with "spillover" taking in intros and tail announcements), other recordings were made for a variety of reasons and some were more or less complete. From the start of the AFRS official transcriptions were made for broadcast to US forces abroad, (with the KMH commercials removed and other adjustments made, such as adding individual songs). Instead of calling the broadcast discs "Kraft Music Hall" they were named "Music Hall". Material was also put onto "V-Discs".
But other recordings from a variety of sources have also survived, some made privately by radio hobbyists "off air" on such things as wire recorders. A natural consequence is that audio quality varies enormously, as does the continuity, with some shows surviving complete, others just with one or more songs. However many recordings are in surprisingly good quality. In general, more of the later shows have survived, and they are also more complete.
A flavour of what has survived can be seen here - on the Old Time Radio Researchers Group website but is far from complete. Most of the audio material on this site has been digitised at very low bit rates.
At one time BingCrosby.com had KMH material in good quality in the MediaVault section but it has been removed.
For issues of LP and CD that have been generally available have a look at the Discography pages for KMH here
LPs issued by such as Spokane and others had much interesting material and more recently CD issues from JSP, Jasmine, Sepia and ICC. have included a number of items.
I am sure others can add to this thread, but, like Frans, I'd be interested to know the source to which you refer, and just what might be offered.
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Whatever- today is BING day, or what is left of it. Disappeared in Australia but still a few hours left in the USA and UK. More hours in Hawaii.
Sing Bing on your birthdate.
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Well yes , Mike, I do have all of the shows that are listed ... sort of. And that's a big "sort of" in this case. I transferred most of those Kraft shows from 12" Presto Discs and as you probably know, commercials, songs and other stuff were not recorded to make everything fit. And that's the case here. Much of the program is there, but unfortunately, all songs, including "White Christmas," were not recorded.
This is reply I got from the otr dealer . The disks are only 20 minute long
Here is whats left of the 1941 Christmas Show as an example