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1999 by Eddie Ciletti
I’m 44 and have been fascinated with audio technology since the age of three. My dad and my uncle both worked for Philco, a Philadelphia-based consumer electronics manufacturer. As I watched my father change tubes and capacitors in an old radio he often asked me to “get out of his light!” We never owned a new TV because he always managed to find a set that was “fixable.” My first record player was a 45RPM
RCA “Victrola” that plugged into the back of our TV set…
As a kid, the grooves of phonograph records was so alluring and I wanted a record cutter so bad that I nearly ruined the artifact you are about to hear. More than mass-produced records, I found this piece of treasure in my grandmother’s basement. (My father would take me to see what old 78’s he or his brothers and sisters might have left behind.) It was there that I discovered a 5-inch disk, recorded at 78 RPM stuffed in a cardboard “mailer” dated 1942.
Like most recordable disks the surface is made from Acetate, which is easily cut with a special stylus and can withstand numerous playings. Unlike “professional” Acetates, the center of this disc is not aluminum but thick paper. Over the years, the paper absorbed moisture causing it to swell and the crack the Acetate coating. I was lucky enough to record it before it was unplayable. What you are about to hear has been cleaned up a bit, but the damage was too severe to make it even close to pristene.