In the early 1960s, RCA Victor demolished its Camden warehouse. This warehouse reportedly held four floors' worth of Victor's catalog dating back to 1902 and vault masters (most of them were pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. The company retained some of the more important masters (such as those by Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, George Gershwin, Glenn Miller, Fats Waller and Jimmie Rodgers; why the masters of Sergei Rachmaninoff apparently were not saved is a mystery), but it is uncertain just how many others were saved or lost. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the US and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could carry with them for their personal collections. Soon afterward, record collectors and RCA Victor officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was dynamited, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, to celebrate the centenary of Rachmaninoff's birth, RCA planned to reissue his complete recordings on LP; according to R. Peter Munves, director of RCA Red Seal at that time, RCA was forced to obtain copies of certain records from collectors because the RCA archives were incomplete, as documented in an article in Time magazine.
In the early 1960s RCA Victor demolished its Camden warehouse This warehouse reportedly held four floors' worth of Victor's catalog dating back to 1902 and vault masters (most of them were pre-tape wax and metal discs) test pressings lacquer discs matrix ledgers and rehearsal recordings The company retained some of the more important masters (such as those by Enrico Caruso Arturo Toscanini George Gershwin Glenn Miller Fats Waller and Jimmie Rodgers; why the masters of Sergei Rachmaninoff apparently were not saved is a mystery) but it is uncertain just how many others were saved or lost A few days before the demolition took place some collectors from the US and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could carry with them for their personal collections Soon afterward record collectors and RCA Victor officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was dynamited with many studio masters still intact in the building The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them In 1973 to celebrate the centenary of Rachmaninoff's birth RCA planned to reissue his complete recordings on LP; according to R Peter Munves director of RCA Red Seal at that time RCA was forced to obtain copies of certain records from collectors because the RCA archives were incomplete as documented in an article in Time magazine