Nine - Victory on Records—The Commercial and “House” LPs

Summary

NBC's decision to market a consumer Victory recording wasn't an afterthought. Shortly after Richard Rodgers's hiring in August 1951—with the Navy having cleared Victory for broadcast sponsorship—NBC circulated prospectus materials to top Manhattan ad agencies touting the companion recordings that RCA would be marketing. The initial LP was recorded on 2–3 July 1953, barely a dozen weeks after the last of Bennett's TV soundtrack sessions. Its sales success prompted RCA's “Volume II” collection (1958), a “Volume I” stereo re-recording (1959), and a concluding “Volume III” (1961). By 1964, Volume I's $1 million in sales qualified it for “Gold Record” status by the RIAA.

Bennett configured and conducted all twenty-three tracks on the three LPs, creating new introductions, transitions, and closings as needed. The excerpts retain his original orchestral scoring nearly intact, with typical touch-ups being reinforcements for passages originally written as narration underscoring. The 1953 recording prioritizes the twelve Rodgers themes, while the follow-up discs use less Rodgers material. Volume III has three tracks that are 100 percent Bennett while being filled out with the published “Symphonic Scenario” medley of the Rodgers themes rather than additional soundtrack excerpts.

The initial 1953 monophonic recording—only later dubbed “Volume I”—improves aurally upon the soundtrack sessions. The NBC musicians were familiar with the repertoire and had both a less harried recording schedule and a more flattering venue for recording. Though the television soundtracks had been done at Rockefeller Center's Center Theatre, the LPs were recorded in the nearby Manhattan Center—the first of them being sonically very consistent with RCA's other monaural Manhattan Center orchestral recordings of the era. As to the sound of the NBC Symphony musicians with Bennett vis-à-vis Toscanini on LP records, the locale was still a variable in 1953, with Toscanini disdaining the Manhattan Center and preferring Carnegie Hall. Another consideration is personnel, with NBC having supplied additional dozens of string players for Toscanini's concerts and recordings. Compared to that first 1953 LP, the 1958, 1959, and 1961 discs are stereophonic and sound notably different, with their multi-miked sheen.

Of greatest value to the student of Victory is the rare set of thirteen “house” soundtrack LPs that RCA mastered and pressed in small quantities during 1952–53 but never offered for sale. Each of their twenty-six sides has an entire episode's orchestra music, without narration and nearly always minus sound effects.