Recorded in early June of 1932, and released on the 16th. Phil Spitalny dir., Sam Hermans xyl, Charlie Magnante acc, Ben Alley vo, ETON BOYS: (Jack Day bariton, Earl Smith 1st Tenor, Art Gentry 2nd Tenor, Chas. Day bass)
Hit of the Week records are one of the most interesting musical artifacts of the Great Depression.
They were made from a heavy cardboard that contained a plasticized polymer resin on one side. Into this resin was pressed the groove of a 78 rpm phonograph record. Probably the closest resemblance to these records in today's world would be the records that you could cut off the back of a breakfast cereal box. I remember those quite well from when I was a kid. And, oh yes, EvaTone Sound Sheets.
A chemistry professor by the name of Dr. Hal T. Beans invented the plastic resin, which he patented as \"durium.\" Hit of the Week, Inc. was launched in 1930, and its business plan was relatively simple - offer a novel, light-weight, unbreakable record of a current hit pop tune, played by a well-known orchestra or sung by a popular radio personality, and sell them for 15 cents apiece, one-fifth the price of a major-label shellac record.
At first the idea was a hit: the company was pressing almost a half-million copies of the first records it sold. Even though buyers had to be careful with the records (the tended to slip on felt-covered turntables, and could be ruined by one play with a steel needle) the public seemed to be satisfied with their quality and with the caliber of artists that the records offered.
However, the company's success was short-lived. By the end of the year, record orders had fallen to less than 350,000 per issue, and by March 1931 the company could not pay royalties to copyright holders. The company fought back with a new series of records that boasted five minutes of playing time. Still, this did not do the trick and the company went into receivership in mid-1931.
The new owners of Hit of the Week, desperate to generate revenue to pay creditors and royalties, made yet another change. This time, in an attempt to correct the obvious problem inherent in a one-sided record, the records boasted two full-length performances on their five-minute playing surface. Hit of the Week was still able to attract top recording talent, but the public's interest went elsewhere. Hit of the Week issued its last record in June of 1932, then quietly vanished.
Apart from Hit of the Week, a number of other record manufacturers, most notably the Durium Record Company, flooded the British record market with light-weight, flexible records during the same time period. Most of these record companies lasted no longer than Hit of the Week.
