With the former Rover Showroom in Warwick Road on the cusp of demolition, an interesting little bit of its history has been revealed from an archive at an American University.
The Rover Showroom, which ended its life as the Litten Tree Building, is shortly to be demolished to make way for the City Centre South redevelopment.
The building had a long and fascinating history, including being the design office for Donald Gibson and his team redeveloping the city centre during the War and the Food Control Office, where people went for their ration books.
In February 1938 an exhibition was held at the showroom to promote national savings. The exhibition was organised by the Coventry Savings Bank, the Post Office Savings Bank and the National Savings Committee.
With war looming, there was a big push to sell War Bonds, to help fund the country’s rearmament.
One of the attractions of the exhibition, was the offer of free voice records for 200 visitors each day.
Some of these recordings survive today, in an archive at Princeton University.
Researcher Stephen Baird reached out to the Coventry Society to try to find other recordings and more information.
The Phono Post Library at Princeton University is a unique collection that focuses on sound recordings, particularly those related to the history of recorded sound and its cultural impact. It includes various formats such as vinyl records, tapes, digital recordings and recordings made on aluminium encompassing a wide range of genres and historical periods.
The archive was founded and is curated by Professor Thomas Y. Levin, a notable figure in the field of media studies and German literature. Tom has contributed to discussions on topics such as the philosophy of technology, visual culture, and the implications of new media.
The archive has amongst its collection some 22 Voice Records made by visitors and organisers of the Coventry Savings Exhibition, making this collection unique.
The equipment used to make these recordings had been brought to Great Britain in 1934 by John Field, an Anglo / Irish financier and businessman. Voice Records as they were known, started as an attraction atop the Empire State Building.
Field acquired a British patent for the recording device and in 1934 the company was floated on the London Stockmarket. The recording machine itself resembled the machine showed in this newspaper cutting and for 6d you could make an instant recording which could then be posted along with suitable needles to friends or families. On the reverse was a pre-recorded advertising message.
Anslows, the well-known Coventry furniture store also had a machine installed.
The disks themselves were about the size of a modern CD and were made of Aluminium. They were played using a wooden needle that was supplied with the disk, as the normal metal needles would damage the disks. They were played at 78 rpm on record players of that date. Each recording lasted about a minute and they were two-sided, with a pre-recorded advertisement on the back.
They were withdrawn from service at the start of the war as the use of Aluminium was prioritised for the war effort. No doubt many disks were also donated to the war effort.
The Coventry recordings offer a unique insight to a population from all walks of life in the run up to war in Europe. The researchers are hoping that through local networks they can uncover further recordings or associated memorabilia and bring to life the people who made these recordings.
Stephen Baird says “Many of these discs are of people singing popular songs of the day or mimicking radio or vaudeville acts. We have found that there is a difference in how British people interact with these early recording devices compared to Americans of this period, with Americans being more conversational and relaxed in front of the microphone.“
You can listen to some of the recordings here:
Mr J.H. Davis, 141 Nunts Lane, Kersley, Coventry
Sidney Barrow, 12 Terry Rd, Coventry
You can search the archive here.
Sidney Barrow was a local musical talent. He was a member of the Coventry Hippodrome Orchestra who died during the War in RAF bombing raids over Berlin.
Stephen Baird is also a member of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society, a researcher, collector and writer on voice recordings. He is the administrator of a small Facebook Group – ‘Voice Records – A Sound History’ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/5149849871693848/) should you wish to explore early instant recording methods and the history of Voice Records in particular.
You can email Stephen at Mailto:[email protected]