JONATHAN WINTERS Vinyl 12" Radio Spots for Elgin Watch & Clock early 1964 unique

$

40

JONATHAN WINTERS Vinyl 12" Radio Spots for Elgin Watch & Clock early 1964 - uniquely rare
For a few years in the early 1960s, until the advent of 4-track and then 8-track audio tape cassettes that could loop commercials, radio advertizing in the US had to rely on having the sound ads actually pressed on vinyl and distributed to the radio stations.
They were immediate and up-to-date - up until the end date of the campaign, after which they were usually immediately thrown away! These types or record were used for everything that needed repeating on a scheduled basis: P.S.A.s [Public Service Announcements], commercials, even what was playing at the local drive-in theater.
Here is an example of a celebrity performing a series of commercial spots for the Elgin Watch Company.
No cover, as issued. 33 1/3 microgroove Designated number: N-GN-2556A / N-GN-2556B [these numbers are also the only thing engraved in the run-off tracks.]
Record Title: ELGIN CENTENNIAL RECORD #1 - FEATURING JONATHAN WINTERS - SPRING '64
Side A tracks - 1. Jonathan Winters - Radios    :40 #6001  with Maudie Frickert 2. Jonathan Winters - Calendar    :40 #6002   3. Jonathan Winters - Electric Clocks    :40 #6003 4. Jonathan Winters - All Weather Watches   :40 #6004 5. Oh You Elgin    :53   #6005 6. "Concentrate" Calendar   :10   #1013 7. "Get The Time" Calendar   :10   #1014 8. "Brain Surgery" Calendar   :20   #2001
Side B tracks -    1. Apollo  :15   #1001  ["When Spacecraft Apollo lands on the Moon, Elgin Central Timing will land with it..."]   2. "Soft"   :10   #1002   3. "Legal Problem"   :10   #1003   4. "Rush Hour"        :16   #1004   5. "Jet Age Watch"        :14   #1005   6. Transistor Portables   :17   #1006   7. "Fashion Plate"         :12   #1007   8. "Heirloom" Diamonds     :12   #1008   9.  Lord Elgin  $59.50         :16   #1009 10. "Elgin Sets The Pace"     :20   #1010 11. "Touch of Apollo"          :15   #1011 12. "2064"   :19   #1012
Below the track listings on both sides is printed: USE THRU JUNE '64. This indicates the basic intent was for this broadcast tool to be discarded after use.
On Monday night, February 20, 1964, the Jonathan Winters television comedy special "A Wild Winters Night" was broadcast on NBC-TV, with Art Carney and special musical guests The New Christy Minstrels, and it was sponsored in part by the Elgin Watch Company.
This record probably came about soon after that event.
The record may have been played once or twice. However, since it was issued without a cardboard cover [a waste of money in the eyes of the producers, who viewed these types of advertising discs as fully disposable], it did suffer a little bit in the last 50 years of its existence. There are light scuffs in small areas of both sides, but they seem minor at best.   -------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND:
The Elgin National Watch Company, most commonly known as just the Elgin Watch company, was a major US watch maker from 1864 until its closure in 1968. The company sold watches under the names, Elgin, Lord Elgin, and Lady Elgin.
For nearly 100 years the company's manufacturing complex in Elgin, Illinois was the largest site dedicated to watchmaking in the world.
The company was first incorporated in August 1864 as the National Watch Company, in Chicago, Illinois. The founders of the original company were Philo Carpenter, Howard Z. Culver, then-Chicago mayor, Benjamin W. Raymond, George M. Wheeler, Thomas S. Dickerson, Edward H. Williams and W. Robbins. In September of the same year the founders visited the Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts, and successfully convinced seven of Waltham's makers to come to work for their new company.
During World War II all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons.
Over time a number of additional plants were operated, mostly in Elgin. However, additional plants were located in Aurora, Illinois and Lincoln, Nebraska. The original, obsolete factory in Elgin closed in 1964, after having produced half of the total number of pocket watches manufactured in the United States (dollar-type not included). In 1964 the company relocated most manufacturing operations to a brand new plant in Blaney, South Carolina, a town near Columbia, South Carolina which renamed itself Elgin, South Carolina. A leased building in Elgin that housed offices as well as casing, fitting, shipping, service, and trade material departments was maintained until about 1970.
All US manufacturing was discontinued in 1968, and the rights to the name "Elgin" were sold and subsequently resold multiple times over the years. The rights eventually were purchased by MZ Berger Inc., which company manufactures its watches in China and distributes them outside traditional watch dealerships. Elgin-branded watches produced after 1968 have no connection to the Elgin Watch Company.
Robert Johnson, pre-eminent Delta bluesman, sang "She’s got Elgin movements/ from her head down to her toes" in his 1936 recording of "Walkin' Blues".
Elgin American, maker of watch cases and compacts, sponsored the original radio version of Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life from October 1947 to January 1950. (The TV version started in October 1950.) Elgin American was a different company from Elgin National Watch Company.
NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor was named after the Elgin National Watch Company.
Daniel Beard's sketches of an angel at the end of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court are based on the Elgin National Watch Company's logo.
The Steeleye Span album Bloody Men contains a track titled "Lord Elgin", which is superficially a standard love song, but in fact is about the Lord Elgin Watch.
The watch company is referenced in the video game L.A. Noire, which takes place in post-World War II Los Angeles.
R&B group The Temptations originally wanted to use the name "The Elgins" in honor of the company, Elgin watches being considered a status symbol. Another, later Motown group called The Elgins chose their name for the same reason.