1957 RCA Music Albums TV Commercial His Masters Voice HMV

Take your home, and then set it a glow with the magic of music. It's Frankie Carle, Lena Horne, and Pery Como. 1957 color commercial for their music collection.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• 1950s
• Pery
• Como
• RCA
• Victor
• Frankie
• Carle
• Commercial
• Lena
• Horne
• LP
• Albums
• TV
• Advert

[2thepast]

sorry about the audio, it's the original video source that makes it wobble

[fromthesidelines]

This ad was originally seen in "prime-time", aimed at "the family"- therefore, it was a "mainstream" pitch to those familiar (and comfortable) with singers and musicians like Frankie Carle, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte and Perry Como [he was also headlining his own weekly TV series on NBC, RCA's subsidiary back then]. Mentioning Elvis would have brought a flood of mail from angry viewers wondering why, since he obviously wasn't a "real" singer, he was included among those albums....

[cartoonfan1920s]

Oh yeah, and the family is FROZEN!

[cartoonfan1920s]

That is some messed up looking house! LOL! Thank you for posting this commercial, I hope to collect some 1950s RCA records soon. I love their covers and the sound quality is breathtaking!

[looneywoman]

Good point about the King, Billy! :)  Gotta admit, I wondered about that too; the marketing here seems to be more towards families and adults rather than teens. Maybe they felt that it was unnecessary at the time, although RCA-ads in the mid-60s seemed to make more of an effort to target the "Swinger Set" with their record player ads in particular...

[SmokyPondFarm]

$7.98 in 1967 would be $51.65 in 2009 dollars. That's certainly a lot of money for an 8 year old to spend on a record.

[BillyRockfish]

I remember as an 8 year old getting yelled at for blowing my allowance for a $7.98 Stereo copy of the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour"! (fall 1967)

[BillyRockfish]

Initially, I thought maybe the ad was for 16 rpm records! Also, for the person down below . . in 1957, Elvis didn't need to have RCA sell his records . . . they already sold to the tune of 48% of all 1957 RCA Victor output was just Elvis alone! Long live the King!!

[looneywoman]

Funny, they're advertising long-playing records, yet the record at 0:13 is turning slowly enough to pass for a *super* long-playing record!

[SmokyPondFarm]

Google "Federal Reserve CPI calculator"

[arhuxtable]

I'd agree with you there. I just wonder how you came up with those exact figures?