Command Performance (1942)

★★★★★ · "Command Performance" is excellent · ERD · 2006-03-24

An outstanding RCA Victor 1942 documentary on how shellac records were made. Well written narration, excellent visualization. Enjoyed hearing Milton Cross.

★★★★★ · Excellent! · 78rpmnut · 2006-12-05

It is great to see how things used to be made, and this film does an excellent job. And it gives a great view of the ledgendary Victor vault (long since decimated) and the pressing plant in Camden (long since demolished). Unfortunately, Nat Shilkret does not have any part in this movie. He was still on the RCA Victor payroll at this time, but he is not the conductor of the recording session pictured here. And neither is this movie listed in the appendix of his autobiography (Nat Shilkret: Sixty Years In The Music Business) as one of his many soundtracks. If you look closely, there is no…

★★★★★ · AWESOME!!!! · jtrane0118 · 2005-09-14

Great clip!!!! Here is some info on the conductor of the Victor Salon Orch. who were performing the piece: Nathaniel 'Nat' Shilkret (1889-1982) was a multi-talented instrumentalist and arranger who came up through the ranks of the Sousa, Pryor, and Goldman bands. In 1919 he was named director of light music at the Victor Talking Machine Company, remaining in this job until 1935. Shilkret was responsible for booking hundreds of recording sessions involving various bands, and for recording material under his own direction that Victor's contract artists didn't care to handle: mainly waltzes…

★★★★★ · Pressings-an added note · op712 · 2006-12-20

The phonograph at the end of this film is one of those "Magic Eye" units that plays both sides of the record-having two tonearms..one above the other. A marvel to read about and to see. Yes, it's amazing of no catalog numbering being shown on the pressings.

★★★★★ · And you thought Compact Discs were hi-tech? · MNErik · 2002-10-17

An absolutely AMAZING account of how records used to be made. From the beginning,where the music is recorded onto wax discs in order to make the metal plated master discs, to the mixture of the ingredients necessary to make the consumer product, to the actual production of the records. After viewing this, you will see how difficult it was to make a record that only held a precious few minutes of music, and why even today, there are many "music purists" that still swear hands-down that phonograph records are superior to the Compact Discs of today.

★★★★★ · the MUST seen for all vinyl-holics · FLo Kaufmann · 2003-03-06

normally kept as a secret by most pressing plants, here you see absolutely anything you should know about manufacturing records. there is nearly no information available about this topic so this footage closes a huge gap. we all can see producing vinyl has nothing to do with voodoo...so lets go home and start pressing records at home. thanks for this great 18 minutes crash course.