Contents of the pack and other information What Picato contains

The Sooy’s involvement began when Harry O. Sooy at the age of twenty-three, in 1898, reported for work as a lathe hand at the machine shop of Eldridge R. Johnson. Later that year, Johnson sent him to England to work on experimen-tal machines, and within twelve months, Johnson asked Sooy if he would like to learn recording. Sooy was assigned to the Recording Department under Messrs.

Bentley Rinehart and William H.  Nafey prior to the patenting of Johnson’s recording processes and the incorporation of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Sooy explained:

We used . . . an Edison machine, converted to make disc records. The arm to which the horns were connected traveled across the record, away from the art-ist, and we found the records weak at the center. This machine, which was elec-trically driven, regulated very badly. We then got to work and built a machine of Mr. Johnson’s type, called the “Barn Door Roller Machine,” with stationary horn connections. It was built large enough to use for making ten-inch records.

This machine was electrically driven and regulated very unsatisfactorily.¹⁴ This was 1900 and Sooy, a machine hand with no high school diploma, became a fully fledged “recorder” by October.¹⁵ The Berliner Company went into receivership and Johnson hired Calvin G. Child to handle Artists and Repertoire (A&R) and serve as manager of the recording laboratory. Fred Gaisberg, Raymond Gletzner, and James W.  Owen came over as well. Recording, at this time, took place in a utilitarian room with no stage or audience, just the large megaphone-like record-ing horn(s). The process and environment could be dauntrecord-ing for the performers.

Recorders arranged vocalists and accompanists so the recording horn(s) would capture all the sounds while foregrounding the most important parts. Physical positioning of the players and singers was often uncomfortable with little or no eye contact between them.¹⁶ Raymond Sooy recalled: “No two artists ever face the recording instrument quite alike; some are nervous; some confident; some cannot

make records with a spectator in the studio, while others must have someone stand-ing by constantly.”¹⁷

He provided a fascinating and detailed description of the recording process in his unpublished memoirs:

We have used as many as twelve recording horns at one time with good results.

This made it very difficult because the more horns used, the less volume you would get in the records, consequently a very sensitive diaphragm had to be used for this purpose; then again, we were forced to use Stroh violins. These violins were made with a horn attached to them so that they could throw the music in one direction, but the tone quality was not so good. It was also neces-sary to place the musicians playing the ‘cello, oboe, clarinet, cornet, trombones and some of the other instruments on high chairs or stools, so that they could concentrate their tone directly toward the recording horns. They had to be placed so close together that it was almost impossible for them to play—the violinists, while playing, would oftentimes run their bows up the bell of the clarinets which were being played directly above them, or in one of the other musician’s eyes, which would cause a heated argument.¹⁸

Sooy also described an especially chaotic moment, “when a xylophone, propped three feet off the floor, on ‘flimsy stands,’ fell—taking out the horns and the vocal artist.”¹⁹

Listening to playback was not possible until well after performers had left the studio. This presented a particular challenge with field recordings. Recorders returned from their trips with hundreds of masters, the quality of which was unknown until the factory made a test copy. They had to rely on inspection with a magnifying glass to decide if the master was “clean.” If not, they had to record that piece again and with even the most assiduous visual checking there was no guarantee that it would be of sufficient quality for the Victor catalog. Harry Sooy explained:  “In the early days of Mr. Johnson’s Recording and Matrix work, the first pressing from the master matrix was made in the Laboratory, and from this pressing, it was determined whether the selection, or record, was worthy to be listed in the catalog. If such selection was listed in the catalog, matrices were made and forwarded to the Duranoid Manufacturing Company, Newark, New Jersey, who made all the pressings for the market.”²⁰ A committee, including a representative of the Laboratory, the Company’s Musical Director, and the Director of Artists Department, among others, made the aesthetic assessment. There were times when even the biggest stars had to return and rerecord selections. In later years, Victor brought the pressing facility into the Camden plant.

Recordings were made internationally in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Havana, as well as in homes, hotels, and, in 1922, the White House. The Sooy broth-ers were well paid and integral to Victor’s success but rarely acknowledged pub-licly. In 1909, Johnson promoted Harry O. Sooy to “Chief of the Recording Staff,”

and, in 1913, he was made a member of the “Recording and Matrix Committee.”

22 The History of Music Production

He became “Manager” of Victor’s Recording Departments in 1916, the same day Raymond Sooy moved up to “Chief Recorder.” The two brothers were in full mana-gerial and operational charge of the Victor Talking Machine Company’s recording operations. Regardless of their key technical roles, they were allowed no A&R input even though they presided over landmark sessions with a range of famous talents.

This included the first known jazz recording. Harry Sooy reported that on February 26, 1917:

The Original Dixieland Jazz band made their first records for the Victor Company. Incidentally, this was the first time the Victor Company made records of the real “jazz” and “blues” type of music for dancing, and, believe me, they were fully all that “jazz” and “blues” imply. The first records made by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band were “Livery Stable Blues” and “Dixieland Jazz Band One Step.” These were followed by “Tiger Rag,” “Skeleton Jangle,”

and others of similar character, making a very big hit with the public, particu-larly those who liked “blues” dance music.²¹

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (April 17, 1917, 14) said of this disc, “Here is positively the greatest dance record ever issued.”²² Nevertheless, it was subsequently controversial that a white group cut the first jazz recording when African American and Afro-Creole musicians dominated the genre. Also in 1917, Victor made a suc-cessful foray into recording large symphonic recordings, opening their doors to top orchestras.

Victor went to great lengths to protect its image of refinement by keeping its opera stars to the fore publicly, but its profits came mostly from popular music. This is not surprising given that Americans were embracing the rise of modern consumer culture. In addition to recorded music, this included readymade clothing, house-hold appliances and the Model T Ford. With rising prosperity and a declining pro-portion of income going to necessities, more Americans had disposable income.²³ Companies began using new, psychologically based advertising, publicity, or (as they were then known) propaganda techniques, which were pioneered by Sigmund Freud’s nephew, public relations guru Edward Bernays (1891–1995).²⁴ Recorded music exposed more people to more music, yet the belief that “mass duplication of the best available music would result in a process of social uplift”²⁵ proved wrong.

Most Americans and Europeans purchased popular music that “few reformers con-sidered uplifting.”²⁶

In 1923, Harry Sooy was finally appointed to an Artists and Repertoire (A&R) Committee but was excused after a few months. This was a boom time for the recording industry but change was about to come, with radio as the disrup-tive force. Commercial radio expanded rapidly in the early twenties and acoustic record players could not compete with radio’s constant stream of free and better sounding entertainment. After the holiday buying season of 1924, more than half the machines Victor produced did not sell. The company allowed dealers to sell off inventory at half price. They then licensed Western Electric’s new electric recording

equipment, switched over to electric recording and paired their latest turntables with Radio Corporation of America (RCA) radio receivers in cabinets. Harry Sooy grasped the revolutionary nature of these changes: “This meant discarding all of our old equipment used for direct Recording. . . . It also meant microphones for the talent to sing or play into, instead of a horn, as heretofore used, which necessi-tated different placing of the talent for the microphone, which we found beneficial because they could be placed whereby they would have more room and comfort while working.”²⁷

The musicians could now see and interact with each other better; positioned more as they were when playing live. Raymond Sooy commented: “The new elec-trical recording process is a marked advancement in the recording of sound. The musicians can be placed in a natural position so they can perform with ease, like-wise the vocal artists.” Harry Sooy described what may be the first multitracked session in late 1925: “Mr. Kellogg (Bird Whistler) had an idea of making a record, himself with six Orthophonic Victrolas. This was done by using six records (press-ings of a record he had previously made) on the Orthophonics in conjunction with himself, thus making seven bird voices on one record.”²⁸ There would be further experiments with these techniques but it would be nearly another quarter century before overdubbing would begin to find widespread acceptance and, in the process, transform production.

The Gramophone Company in England “had suffered . . . because of the war”

and did not have the capital to take advantage of a post-World War I boom, so Victor bought a 50 percent interest.²⁹ In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Victor Talking Machine Company had become a primary force in the record-ing industry at home and abroad. Then, in November 1926, Johnson sold Victor to New York investment firms netting millions for the family and many key employ-ees. Harry Sooy died May 22, 1927, and less than a week later, management made Raymond Sooy “Superintendent of Recording.” Shortly before the 1929 stock mar-ket crash, the Radio Corporation of America bought Victor creating RCA Victor.³⁰ Paul Fischer, who conducted this primary research on the Sooys, points out that at least one of the brothers was at or near the helm of the recordings made for the Victor Talking Machine Company for its entire existence as an independent (1901–29). The Sooys became international travelers and were befriended by great artists and political figures. Recordings made by them and members of their depart-ment earned Victor a reputation for excellence, and stand as exemplars of acoustic recording, milestones in the evolution of the recording industry.³¹

Despite the magnitude of the Sooy’s contribution, the Artist and Repertoire Department, Frederick Gaisberg, Calvin G. Child, and the like, decided who and what to record. They were regarded as key company figures, gaining international reputations, and considerable wealth. The Sooys were not valued as highly as the directors, factory foremen, sales executives, or those who made aesthetic decisions.

Management viewed them as part of an industrial process and, given sufficient space, equipment, and supplies, were expected to deliver.³² Acoustic recording was

24 The History of Music Production

not an exact science. The Sooys positioned performers relative to the recording horns, made them feel comfortable, advised and guided them in the art of record-ing, and coped with personality issues. Additionally, they shouldered the engi-neering responsibilities, setting up and operating recording equipment. Cutting a cylinder or disc, even into the electrical recording era, was a single opportunity, non-editable, real-time process. Checking or verifying takes was done visually. Even a minor mishap during recording required a retake. In the field, the challenges were greater, and supplies were limited. Transporting the fragile masters back from a remote recording session to the factory could be fraught. Raymond Sooy told an illustrative story about an important Rosa Ponselle session he recorded in New York, December 8, 1927. They cut six twelve-inch discs and, being concerned about breakage in shipping, decided to carry them personally “to insure their safe arrival.”³³ They took the train back to Philadelphia and all was well until: “Waiting there for a bus to bring the records to Camden, someone in the crowd bumped me, and I dropped the records on the pavement, which broke every one of them in a thousand pieces.”³⁴ Sooy commented, “After this accident, I did not know whether to go back to Camden and tell my story or to jump into the river.”³⁵ Nevertheless, the Sooys were entrusted with many important recording assignments for Victor, which implies that they achieved a high rate of successfully completed and deliv-ered recordings. They were pioneers in the field of popular record production, although the creative dimension of their contribution went unacknowledged and undercompensated.³⁶