On June 21st, 1948, CBS engineer Dr. Peter Goldmark introduced the new Columbia long playing record at a press conference. In the previous 15 years, there had been attempts to make a commercially viable long play album with no success. As with the concurrent development of television, the post-war boom made the project commercially viable. 33 1/3 rpm was considered the optimum speed to play the 12 inch long play microgrove records. And being made of a new plastic called vinylite they were virtually unbreakable. For shorter pieces and recitals, there were 10 inch records, but these only survived till the 1950s.
 
The new LP was considered a huge leap forward for listening to pre-recorded Classical music. A pop song took, on average, two or three minutes to play, which was just perfect for a 10 or 12 inch 78 rpm record. A symphony required up to 5 or 6 records on 78 rpm and had to be changed 10 to 12 times with the music often interrupted in the middle of a musical phrase. There were automatic 78 rpm record changers, but they were clunky and could damage your records. You also had to account for the amount of storage space needed for the brittle, breakable shellac 78s. The most dramatic part of Goldmark’s demonstration was when he was photographed holding a few dozen LPs while the equivalent in 78s were stacked six feet high next to him.
 
The introduction of the LP was not without controversy. Columbia’s great rival RCA Victor was developing its own system of 7” short playing vinyl records that played at 45 rpm. RCA engineers insisted that quality control problems with LPs would doom it. This started what was to be known as “The War of the Speeds” in which both companies spent a ton of money on print ads to woo the public before RCA conceded and converted to LP. When it was settled, it set up the paradigm that lasted for nearly 40 years: LP for albums, 45s for pop singles.

Another round of the men in white. A couple of these guys are wearing a bit of off white or cream, but I think that's close enough...

I finally picked up a copy of the Angel Collection on DVD. Not the Buffy spin-off but the classic 80s teen prostitute saga, "Angel." The original Angel starred Donna Wilkes as Molly Stewart (Angel). She also starred in another one of my favorites "Grotesque" with Linda Blair.  She was Molly during the day, a perfect honor student in high school and then turned into Angel at night, the teenage Hollywood Boulevard prostitute. This movie was released in 1984 and directed by Robert Vincent O'Neill. He had directed some great cult films of the 70s such as "Wonder Women" about kung fu girls on the rampage and "Blood Mania" about a sex crazed nympho who kills her father for the inheritance.

I'm not sure why, but this was one of my favorites as a teenager. I watched it one day on cable and was sort of obsessed with it after that. I couldn't actually remember what it was even called until I found it a couple years ago. You can imagine my joy when i found out it was released as a widescreen DVD box set. The film went on to spawn 2 more movies, "Avenging Angel" and "Angel III: The Final Chapter." All 3 are included in the box set. There is actually a fourth movie made in 1994 "Angel: Undercover." I have never seen this one but I can only imagine how horrible it is. Although, I would not pass it up if it ever shows up on cable. Angel is played by a different actress in each movie. The best of the bunch is for sure the first. Unfortunately you will not find any much needed commentaries or documentaries. But they do at least give you some deleted scenes and the original theatrical trailers.