Picture this

For just under a year in the mid-1940s, a company called Sav-Way Industries of Detroit, Michigan, produced a series of 78s that were like no others.

The artists featured on those recordings weren’t what made them notable; many of them are all but forgotten today, though the roster did include a few artists who might be familiar to Cladrite Radio listeners—names such as Shep Fields, Art Mooney, and Phil Spitalny.

What set apart the seventy-four 10-inch Vogue records that Sav-Way released over between May 1946 and April ’47 was that they were picture discs—phonograph records that have an image embedded in transparent vinyl, usually depicting a scene that relates to the song on that side of the disc.

Below are three examples, but don’t be satisfied with these. There are many more available at VoguePictureRecords.org, a site that celebrates these forgotten treasures.

Vogue disc of Art Mooney's recording of Seems Like Old Times Vogue disc of Shep Fields' recording of I Can't Begin to Tell You Vogue disc of the Hour of Charm All-Girl Orchestra's recording of Blue Skie

Our only complaint about the site? No audio. But YouTube features a number of VPRs, of which a couple can be accessed below.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider
supporting Cladrite Radio on Patreon
Become a patron at Patreon!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.