Sunday, August 22, 2010

Antique Acetate Love Letter

I found an antique acetate in a shop in Brooklyn about a month ago. For those that don't know, from the 1930s to the late 1950s, before the introduction of magnetic tape, recordings were often made directly to acetate discs. I finally got around to converting the audio to a digital format, and after some manipulation to get it to the proper speed (my turntable doesn't support 78RPM) and to remove a little of the noise I was surprised to uncover a love letter! Given the likely time period this technology was used was pre-50's, and the acetate was marked "Ft. Dix Gen Hospital", I'd like to imagine these are the words of a solider returned home from WWII, recovering in the hospital, missing his love.


Antique Audio Love Letter by djmikecrash

If the embedded audio isn't working, just go directly to my Soundcloud page here.
I tried my best to transcribe the full message, here it is:
"Hello baby darling, it's me. I may seem a little nervous, but that's because of the surroundings. Uh, I'll tell you about that later. It's been a long time, and I've travelled many long and weary miles, but you're still the sweetest thing on this Earth to me. I've seen mademoiselles in France, and fraulines in Germany, but you're still the one. There's still no one who can compare with you. I love you more than anything on this Earth, and I always will. On this Christmas and these holidays, I wish you the best of everything. You deserve the best of everything now. With all my love, *unintelligible* (aside) Now I'm done."

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