For the boys overseas

November 4, 2004 4:11 PM

V-Disc Records, a government-created music company, made 78's full of music, stories and announcements and sent them overseas to US servicemen from 1943-1949. They were never made available in record stores and, since the American Federation of Musicians was on strike at the time, they were the only recordings being made. All of the top stars of the day made them, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and more. After the program ended in 1949, the government, following an AFM request that the records not be used for commercial purposes, destroyed the original masters. Luckily the Library of Congress has a complete set of V-Discs and the National Archives saved some of the metal stampers.
posted by tommasz (2 comments total)

Thanks for the interesting link. I didn't know there were CDs of any of those recordings.

Note: The Library of Congress website won't let you save searches. So just go here and choose a basic search for v-discs.
posted by ?! at 7:58 PM on November 4, 2004

Great post. Thanks.
posted by geekyguy at 6:41 AM on November 5, 2004