V-Disc Records , a government-created music company, made 78's full of music, stories and announcements and sent them overseas to US servicemen from 1943-1949. They were never made available in record stores and, since the American Federation of Musicians was on strike at the time, they were the only recordings being made. All of the top stars of the day made them, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and more. After the program ended in 1949, the government, following an AFM request that the records not be used for commercial purposes, destroyed the original masters. Luckily the Library of Congress has a complete set of V-Discs and the National Archives saved some of the metal stampers.
posted on Nov 4, 2004 - View this thread