While the Great Depression was crippling America, the lovers of America were trying to keep each other updated by sending messages in the mail. However, when they go their message, it was no traditional letter. It’d be a voice recording on a record that was recorded in booths found in amusement parks, fairgrounds, military bases, post offices, even bus stops. All they would do is drop in a quarter and have about a minute of talking time.
A booth used for recording the users voice on a record and ready to mail off Photo Credit: Disc Makers
And though a good amount of the recordings have been lost to history, some of them have been saved to an archive. The phono-post holds a collection of the records and their recording with the info about the recording. Some of the recordings are personal like a man singing, while others are ads run by the Pepsi-Cola company. Anyone who enjoys music or music history should definitely dive into this site.
pono-post website features an archive of the “voice mail” from the 1930s and ’40s
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