"Hit Of The Week" Hints Wanted

I'd like to know if anyone out there can tell me the best way to store Hit Of The Week 78s without increasing their chances of bending or warpage, and if there are any tricks to playing them on a standard turntable. I inherited about a dozen of the things and though they still sound great, years of improper storage have caused the edges to curl down a little bit. Until a few years ago, the only way I could play them was to put some sort of circular weight (like a large washer) loosely on the center of the record and that worked to spread out the record to lay flatter on the turntable. I'm not sure if that extra weight (a few grams at best) might affect the performance of the elctronics. This trick worked on a late-1970s phonograph but for a more fragile and more recent 78 turntable I'm not sure if it's such a good idea.
(For our friends outside the U.S., I'm referring to the records produced between 1930 and 1932 which were one-sided paper records coated with a material known as Durium - they were sold at newsstands during the Depression here in the U.S.)

I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I don't think theres much you can do to take the warp out of these. I only have one, and I left it sitting untouched for about 2 yrs, on the bottom of a big pile of 78's, hoping it would flatten out. No such luck. Within minutes it was back to how it was when I put it there.

The problem is that the cardboard shrunk with age, so flattening efforts don't work. An increase in humidity might work.

I wonder what "durium" is. Acetate?

Well, I keep them in the basement with the dehumidifier off during the "heating months" - November through April or so - so I'll take a look at them in a few weeks to see if they're any more playable. The ones I inherited were kept inside a farmhouse and the Victrola where they were stored was pretty close to where the central heater was for the house. So they're probably shrunk for good.
You can get the lowdown on Durium Products at http://www.mainspringpress.com - there's a great article there on the history of Hit Of The Week records.

Try going to http://www.durium.opweb.nl/
This sight has all the info on H.O.W. records you could ask for.

Holy cow...you're right. This is a fantastic site!

Wand143,

I heard some folks use a binder clip on the spindle to hold their HOTWs down. I have about twenty, stored flat in a small record mailer box about three each in record sleeves. none of mine have curled to the point of needing to flatten them. I have read something either here or another forum regarding tricks to flatten HOTW discs. I'll poke around this week to see if I can find it again.

Regards,
J.

I may have to experiment with that. For the record (no pun intended), I'm currently using a Vestax AC / DC portable player which is plugged directly into my stereo system...those Viva-Tonal Columbias and "VE" Victors sound GREAT coming through 200-watt speakers! Since mine is a "short" spindle - as opposed to a longer auto-changer spindle - I'm assuming you just clip the clip onto the spindle directly from the top?

Wand143,

Yup, as long as the spindle turns with the turntable as on a Victrola etc., just clip the binder clip over the spindle and it should hold down the HOTW just fine. Good luck with it.

Regards,
J.

OK, thanks, I'll give it a shot. I received the records under the least ideal of conditions - my dad's older brother died suddenly and my dad wanted to rescue the records before anyone else got to them, strictly to keep them in the family. Of course he was distraught but I made him feel better when I realized that one of the HOTW's was by the Harlem Hot Chocolates, a/k/a Duke Eliington and his orchestra. I already had "St. James Infirmary", then thanks to his "rescue" effort, I also got "Sing You Sinners". Some of the shellac items he got out of the lot weren't too bad either.

I use a single play turntable with a short spindle shaft. When playing a warped H.O.T.W, record I simply put a 3/8" socket over the spindle and that does a pretty good job of holding the record flat to the turntable. Not very scientific, but it works.

Funny you should mention that - I used a socket, too, at one time. Mine was more like a 1-3/8" socket, though - some beast I found along the roadway once upon a time. It was probably too much weight for the turntable, but them again, it was a sturdier 1970s-vintage player.