Description
Material related to two 1979 Bell Telephone Laboratories albums titled "Early Hi-Fi ; Wide Range and Stereo Recordings Made
by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1930s - Leopold Stokowski Conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1931-1932."
Background
The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski began performing live on NBC's radio network in 1929, but Stokowski
was unhappy with the fidelity of these early broadcasts, and approached physicist Harvey Fletcher at Bell Laboratories seeking
ways to improve the transmissions. Bell Labs had been involved with developing improved sound recording and reproduction since
1915, and was willing to record Stokowski and the orchestra among other test subjects, and so in in 1931 and 1932, one hundred
experimental high fidelity, long playing, and stereophonic recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra were produced. These recordings,
being excerpted passages rather than full works, were experimental and not intended for commercial release at the time. However,
over forty years later, engineer Ward Marston transferred the original metal stampers to tape, and in 1979 Bell Labs celebrated
these early technological advances with a vinyl issue in two volumes. As part of this release, Stanford University hosted
a special conference and received a commemorative box containing a metal part (of unknown origin, perhaps from the 1930s session,
but more likely for one of the 1979 discs).
Restrictions
Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.