{"id":1206,"date":"2013-11-18T05:01:46","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T05:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:39:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:39:53","slug":"breaking-records-for-the-war-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/11\/18\/breaking-records-for-the-war-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking records for the war effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Soldiers <\/a>
Soldiers stationed at South Park collect records. (Sun-Telegraph photo) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Couples <\/a>
Couples with donated records for the War Records Dance at the William Penn Hotel. (Sun-Telegraph photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Carol <\/a>
Carol Mansfield of Wilkinsburg with donated records. (Sun-Telegraph photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"One-year-old <\/a>
One-year-old Phillip Cutrara with a donated record called Baby Me. (Sun-Telegraph photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Since its invention more than a century ago, the phonograph disc has been abused, broken, burned and demolished for a number of reasons. We remember when several people got ticked off at a statement made by John Lennon in 1966 and decided to burn Beatles records. Then there was the infamous \u201cDisco Demolition\u201d in 1979, when a mountain of disco records was blown up at Comiskey Park in Chicago.<\/p>\n

A much more sensible destruction of musical recordings took place here in Pittsburgh in 1942, when two young women broke discs for the benefit of a Sun-Telegraph photographer. Published under the picture was a caption urging people to donate their cracked, broken and worn out dance records so the materials in the discs could be recycled.<\/p>\n

During the early years of World War II, the War Production Board ordered a 70 percent cut in the production of new phonograph records. Record production consumed about 30 percent of the nation\u2019s supply of shellac, a resin desperately needed by the armed forces. Shellac was used in the making of signal flares and explosives, and it was applied as a coating on artillery shells.<\/p>\n

Ancient discs of out-of-date melodies like \u201cRemember the Days Long Ago, Maggie\u201d and \u201cKeep the Home Fires Burning\u201d piled up at collections points.<\/p>\n

Newer discs containing more contemporary tunes like\u00a0\u201cJersey Bounce,\u201d by Benny Goodman and Kay Kyser\u2019s \u201cPraise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition\u201d\u00a0were sent to military camps where they were played for the entertainment of soldiers.<\/p>\n

Pittsburghers did their part. Women brought discs to a \u201cWar Records Dance\u201d at the William Penn Hotel in 1942 \u2014 the price of admission was five records. Service personnel got in free. The next year, an American Legion collection post counted 25,000 donated discs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since its invention more than a century ago, the phonograph disc has been abused, broken, burned and demolished for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesBreaking records for the war effort<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[948],"tags":[960,1032,1178],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/tumblr_mwbsnbNocp1rr5swxo2_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C733&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2322,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/11\/05\/the-parade-to-end-all-parades-in-pittsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":1206,"position":0},"title":"The parade to end all parades in Pittsburgh","date":"November 5, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"We at the Digs have witnessed some astonishing parades in our city.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/tumblr_mctxowhcmk1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C910&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9441,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2019\/06\/06\/d-day-pittsburgh-newspapers-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":1206,"position":1},"title":"D-Day on Pittsburgh’s front pages","date":"June 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Above: The front pages of three Pittsburgh newspapers on June 6, 1944. 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