VARSITY & ROYALE 78 RPM RECORDS - ILLUSTRATED HISTORY & DISCOGRAPHY (BOOK)

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Eli Oberstein’s United States
Record Corporation

A History and Complete
Discography, 1939–1940

By Allan Sutton
and the Record Research Associates

298 total pages • Illustrated
7" x 10" quality softcover

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Eli Oberstein — the man band-leader Artie Shaw once called “a horror” (and much worse) — was notorious for business conduct ranging from short-sighted to occasionally illegal, which overshadowed his early accomplishments.

Oberstein's Varsity and Royale labels were hailed as promising new entries when they launched in 1939. A year later, Oberstein's United States Record Corporation collapsed into bankruptcy — but not before he'd produced a substantial, and often intriguing, group of records.

This volume covers USRC's complete output — its many original recordings, as well as its infamous reissues of material from Crown, Gennett, Paramount, Ultraphone, and other sources.

The Varsity portion updates and expands on Mainspring's long-out-of-print Varsity Discography. The Royale portion is published here for the first time and includes much newly discovered information, such as details of the Ultraphone, Artiphone, and other foreign recordings that Oberstein reissued pseudonymously.

Other features include an illustrated USRC history and a balanced, objective biography of Eli Oberstein. There’s also a discussion of original-vs-dubbed masters, with a summary of comparative testing by the author and by the RR group.

As an added feature, you'll find excerpts from record reviews that appeared in publications of the day, including Jazz Information, Down Beat, and The Steinway Review.

(NOTE: This volume covers all of the 1939– 1940 Varsity and Royale series. The later Wright Record Corporation issues on these labels, from the late 1940s and early 1950s, will be the subject of a future study.)

ALLAN SUTTON is the author of numerous books on early sound recordings and recording history, including Recording the 'Twenties and Race Records and the American Recording Industry, and winner of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections' 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award.

THE RECORD RESEARCH ASSOCIATES (Walter C. Allen, Len Kunstadt, George Blacker, Perry Armagnac, et al.) was a group of well-known discographers and writers affiliated with Record Research magazine. Mainspring Press currently maintains the group's papers, discographical data, and unpublished manuscripts, to which it holds exclusive publication rights.

"Mainspring Press is the benchmark publisher for well-researched,
literate recorded-sound scholarship.”
— ARSC Journal (Association for Recorded Sound Collections)

“Mainspring Press has a reputation for commitment to serious discographical
research and superb quality book production.”
— Vintage Jazz Mart

“Significant contributions to discographic research.”
— Notes (Music Library Association)

Visit the Mainspring Press website and blog for free articles on vintage cylinders and 78 records

GUARANTEE: If you are dissatisfied with your purchase for any reason, you may return it postmarked within 14 days of receipt for a refund of your purchase price, shipping fee if applicable, and U.S. return-shipping fees (U.S. addresses only, limited to actual cost at USPS Media Mail rates). Returns must be received in clean, unused condition. Refunds are made only to the PayPal account that was used for the original purchase.