Slopfest #17 · Summer 1948 · Vienna

Twenty-Three Minutes a Side

A new record held more than twenty minutes of music per side. Our speeches got longer at once.

#17Photo lost in the Great Slop Flood.

12-inch record sleeve, square: 'SLOPFEST #17: Greatest Speeches, Vol. 1' over a photo of a lectern surrounded by empty chairs

Museum status: On view by appointment. Appointments not available.

Venue: Musikverein, the Brahms hall
Attendance: 183
Guest of honour: Louis Armstrong (held one note for the whole of side A)
Fun fact: 46 minutes of speeches, 14 copies sold

What happened

The committee pressed its own long-playing record containing every speech ever given at Slopfest. Side A held the opening addresses, side B the closing ones, and nobody could tell them apart. Louis Armstrong, in town for a concert, played along with a single note for the whole of side A. It remains the committee's best-selling record, having sold 14 copies.

Elsewhere in 1948

Columbia Records introduces the 12-inch long-playing record, with more than 20 minutes of music per side.

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