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HIT OF THE WEEK: A History of Durium Products

By Allan Sutton

(Mainspring Press Collection)

In the early Depression years, the Durium Products Corporation offered the perfect product for the times: an up-to-date, expertly produced record selling for a mere 15¢. For several years, Durium’s flexible plastic Hit of the Week records would succeed as many other labels failed.

Dr. Beans' Durium

The plastic that would come to be used in Hit of the Week records was developed in 1927 by three Columbia University chemistry professors—Dr. Hal Trueman Beans, Dr. Louis Hammett, and Dr. George H. Walden, Jr. Beans was the primary researcher and would soon become the product's chief spokesman and promoter. The patent application stated that the compound began as a mixture of formaldehyde solution and linseed oil, dissolved in resorcinol. The resulting mixture was blended drop-by-drop with a sodium hydroxide and formaldehyde solution, then cooled. ¹ The light brownish coloration resulted not from dye, but from the compound’s photosensitive qualities. Unlike the slow-cooling shellac compounds used in standard 78 records, Durium hardened so quickly after heating that, as Time magazine reported, “[records] can be stamped on it with the speed of a printing press.” ^1a

A later Durium Products, Inc., stock certificate specimen.

In January 1930, the New York Times reported that Dr. Beans had perfected his plastic—soon to be trademarked as “Durium”—and was working with a newly formed company that would produce inexpensive flexible records. The Times reported, probably somewhat naively,

Dr. Beans demonstrated records and talking picture disks made from his new compound yesterday [January 3]... Paper phonograph records weighing but a fraction of the ordinary record were reproduced. Then Professor Beans took a hammer and pounded the record until he split the chair he was using for an anvil. The record showed no evidence of its maltreatment when reproduced. Scratching the needle across the surface left marks and damaged the needle but did not affect the quality of reproduction. ²

The Durium Products Corporation Launches Hit of the Week

The new company, incorporated in Delaware as the Durium Products Corporation, signed a lease on the fifth floor of the Master Printers Building (460 W. 34th Street) on the same day that Dr. Beans took hammer to record, sharing space with the Capital Piano & Organ Company. ³ The company’s founding officers included L. A. Van Patten, president; Arthur S. Jones, vice president; G. L. Smith, treasurer; and F. C. Lowthorp, secretary. ⁴ As later events would prove, Beans’ role was solely to act as a technical consultant.

Durium’s first product was the Hit of the Week record, a flexible single-sided 10" disc consisting of a thin durium playing surface laminated over reddish-orange card stock. A trademark filing was made belatedly in May 1930, after the first issues had appeared. ⁵ Songs and performers were to be chosen weekly by a board that was said to include Eddie Cantor, Vincent Lopez, and Florenz Ziegfeld, although the degree to which they participated has never been established. Bert Hirsch served as the company’s first musical director and conducted the house orchestra.

Durium leased studio space in the McGraw-Hill Building on West 42nd Street, and the first records were rushed into production. The first issue, "Hello, Baby" by Bert Lown's Biltmore Orchestra (Hit of the Week 1001), made its debut in February 1930. Sold at news stands for just 15¢ each, with a new title released every Thursday, they were the cheapest and most current records on the market at that time. They were not the best value, however, as several brands like Oriole offered double-sided discs for 25¢. Nevertheless, the records proved to be a perfect impulse-purchase item at a time when cash was dear. They were an immediate sensation, making headlines across the nation. Many of the earliest releases featured rather mundane performances by Hirsch’s house orchestra, but the label was soon offering such major bands as those of Vincent Lopez, Fred Rich, Phil Spitalny, and Duke Ellington—the latter disguised as the Harlem Hot Chocolates.

Durium produced many small-diameter discs, including the four-inch
Mother Goose series for children. The short-lived 4" Durium Juniors were given away
with the purchase of regular 10" discs.
(Adapted from the American Record Label Image CD)

Demand grew steadily, with Durium claiming sales of 400,000 copies weekly by late 1930. ⁶ For a time, Hit of the Week records were given free as a promotion for Liberty magazine, and there undoubtedly were similar premium schemes. Besides Hit of the Week, Durium Products produced the short-lived Durium Deluxe disc—apparently a single issue by Eddie Cantor and Phil Spitalny’s Orchestra—which was Durium’s most expensive issue at 25¢, and also a best-seller, if the surviving number of copies is any indication. The miniscule Durium Junior, a 4" disc with a playing time of one-and-a-half minutes, was introduced in October 1931. They were given away free, packaged in the envelopes along with the regular 10" discs. Production costs were subsidized by the placement of ads on the reverse sides, or spoken pitches incorporated in the recording itself. ^6a

Durium also produced a children's series (labeled Durium Mother Goose) a wide array of custom advertising and private-issue discs, discs pressed onto postcards, and other novelty items. There were educational issues as well, including Gregg shorthand practice records, a Durium Language Course series, and poet Vachel Lindsay reading his own poems, "The Congo" and "The Strong Boy of Boston," under the Columbia University Phonograph Record Label.

The Victor Threat and Other Crises

While Hit of the Week records were taking the country by storm, the relationship between Dr. Beans and Durium Products was approaching a state of crisis. Durium initially paid Beans, Walden, and Hammett $100 each per day as consultants. In addition, the three jointly received 4,123 shares of mixed preferred and common stock, as well as a joint annual salary of $6,000. However, the three went on to perfect other improvements in the manufacturing process, for which they demanded additional compensation.

When the company refused, Beans and his associates approached RCA-Victor with an offer to sell them Durium’s trade secrets. Their subterfuge was quickly discovered. On September 2, 1930, Durium Products applied to the New York Supreme Court for an injunction barring Beans and associates from disclosing any trade secrets to RCA, and requiring them to assign to Durium all patent rights. ⁷ A short time later, rights to the formula and manufacturing process were assigned to Durium by one Adolf Hawerlander of New York, to whom Beans apparently had assigned rights at some point. ⁸

As the Depression deepened, demand for Hit of the Week records began to wane. By early 1931 the Durium Products Corporation was bankrupt, having been sued for more than $141,000 in unpaid royalties by various composers and publishers. In February 1931 there appeared a puzzling legal notice that the Durium Products Corporation had formally changed its name to the Deeantee Corporation, ⁹ a company about which nothing further has been found. The Durium Products name remained in use, however, and in April 1931, Durium’s creditors were advised to file their claims with the company’s receiver. ¹⁰ In June 1931, the Durium Products Corporation was sold to the Irwin-Wasey Advertising Agency.

The Hit of the Week Revival

A revived Hit of the Week series appeared on August 13, 1931. The new labels credited Durium Products, Inc., a reorganized corporation headed by a new president, Ralph H. Maxson. The discs, although still single-sided, now contained two selections, thanks to finer grooving that allowed playing times of five minutes per side. The new releases used a letter prefix to denote the month of issue (H- for August, I- for September, etc., beginning over with A- for January in 1932), followed by one or two digits denoting the sequence of issue for that month. Most featured a long track for the main selection, followed by a shorter track, often containing a college marching song or other public-domain selection. Many ended with a brief spoken pitch for the next week’s release. It became the standard format for most of the later Hit of the Week releases.

Later issues featured two selections per side (left). The Durium De Luxe (right) was a more
expensive record at 25¢, but Cantor's issue seems to have sold very well.
(Mainspring Press Collection)

The records now came packaged in attractive illustrated envelopes, and artists' portraits were sometimes printed on the reverse sides of the discs. A back-issue service was even instituted to sell old inventory by mail-order. But all these amenities, coupled with the signing of high-priced stars like by Eddie Cantor, Morton Downey, Rudy Vallee, and celebrity dance instructor Arthur Murray proved costly while doing little to halt declining sales. Eventually the price was raised to 20¢ per record—just a nickel shy of popular double-sided brands like Banner and Perfect—sealing Hit of the Week’s fate. The final issue—“My Silent Love" and "Hummin’ to Myself,” played by Phil Spitalny’s Music (Hit of the Week F-4-5)—was released on June 23, 1932.

Later issues were packaged in picture envelopes that listed old issues for sale by mail-order
on the reverse. By 1932, increased costs forced Durium to raise prices to 20¢.
(Mainspring Press Collection)

Defecting to England

On June 25 came the news that Durium was closing most of its New York facilities and moving the business to England, where Durium Products (G.B.) Ltd. had been marketing American Hit of the Week pressings under the Durium label since April. The official explanation was that a newly imposed 5% federal tax—amounting to 3/4¢ per record—made manufacturing “impossible in the present state of business.” ¹¹

Seventy-five New York employees were laid off as Maxson sailed to England to oversee construction of a new Durium factory at Slough, near London. “The manufacture of ‘Hit of the Week’ records will be discontinued,” the New York Times reported, “and an announcement to this effect will be mailed to the trade... Manufacture of advertising records, on which the profit is greater, will be continued here, however.” ¹²

The New York Recording Laboratories, makers of Paramount records, reissued one Hit of the Week release on its Broadway label following Durium’s closing in June 1932. Broadway 1514, the last Broadway issue to be produced by NYRL, used a dubbing from an April 1932 Hit of the Week release. ¹³ Whether the dubbing was authorized or pirated remains unknown, but there were no further NYRL issues known to have been pressed from Durium recordings.

Durium Products (G.B.) Ltd., the British company, survived its American parent for a short time, supplying both the British and Australian markets. It suspended operations in April 1933. Sefono, a French company, also produced Durium pressings for a time. Durium-Milano, an Italian company formed in the early 1930s, proved to be much longer-lived. It began by re-pressing old Hit of the Week masters for the Italian and French markets but was soon producing its own material. It remained in business at least as late as 1950, making phonographic postcards and other novelty items.

References

¹ “Material and Process for Making Phonograph Records.” U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: Application serial #224,770 (filed 10/7/1927), referenced in: Patent #1,842,168, assigned by Adolf Hawerlander, assignor by mesne assignments to Durium Products Corp. (Delaware).

^1a “Durium Records.” Time (2/17/1930).

² “Unbreakable Disks Made of New Resin.” New York Times (1/4/1930), p. 4.

³ “Business Leases.” New York Times (1/4/1930), p. 49.

⁴ New York Times (1/4/1930), p. 4, op. cit.

⁵ Durium Products Corp.: “Hit of the Week.” U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: Trademark registration #300,013 (filed 5/6/1930). The “Durium” trademark was filed earlier, on 2/27/1930 (#296,589).

⁶ “Sues to Protect Formula.” New York Times (9/3/1930) p. 54. By October 1931, a story in Time magazine placed the average figure lower, at a still-impressive 200,000 copies per week.

^6a “Durium Junior.” Times (10/15/1931) p. 54.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ U.S. Patent #1,842,168, op. cit.

⁹ “Corporate Changes.” New York Times (2/7/1931), p. 33.

¹⁰ “Legal Notices. Durium Products Corporation. Notice to Creditors.” New York Times (4/15/1931), p. 28.

¹¹ “New Taxes Drive Disk Business to England.” New York Times (6/25/1932), p. 19.

¹² Ibid.


¹³ Van der Tuuk. Paramount’s Rise and Fall, p. 185. Highlands Ranch, CO: Mainspring Press (2003).