The RCA Plant –Smiths Falls –The Day the Records Stopped Spinning

First Picture Disc in the RCA plant from The Record News 1978

In May of 1953 work on the construction of the two unit record factory of RCA Victor Company Ltd. was begun in Smiths Falls and the $750,000 plant was expected to be in operation by fall. December of 1953 saw 26 presses beginning to turn out phonograph records and the RCA division expected to be in full production by the end of January 1954.

The Smiths Falls factory might employ up to 125 workers and have a yearly potential of 8,000,000 records for both domestic and export markets. Over 75% of the employees were women and the plant had seven soundbooths where “testers” checked on quality,  where only maybe two or three per cent of production was rejected.

Marilyn Bennett originally from Perth was recorded on Facebook as saying she made the very first picture disc of Elvis in 1978. When Elvis died in August, 1977, workers remembered being called in to work to produce Elvis records to satisfy the nostalgic rush. They pressed almost a million Elvis records in one month. The very first Beatles record ever pressed in North America was done at the Smiths Falls RCA Victor plant in February 1963.

So what happened next was shocking to the residents of the Ottawa Valley rural town. In 1975 RCA Canada pulled out of Renfrew with 250 people losing their jobs after working there since 1955. After the company reassured the council and town they were not closing the Smith’s Falls plant they ended up shutting down completely in 1979.

Photo–www.capitol6000.com–RCA smith falls 1968 pressing plan (Google Image)

Instead of complaints, the Smiths Falls staff marched out of that RCA plant to the tunes of a local piper when the very last shift ended. Lois Mantle was quoted in The Ottawa Citizen saying  that they wanted to show the town they had some spirit left and that they would be good employees for any new industry that might be choosing Smiths Falls  as a new location. Mantle had worked at the plant for over 17 years, and she and her husband were among the 300 workers to lose their job that day in April of 1979.

RCA officials blamed the closing on stiff competition and the lack of automated equipment at the valley location. Then Smiths Falls plant manager, Harry Fisher, praised the employees for the co-operative spirit they showed during the shutdown period. While Fisher and four others had jobs with a Toronto company that would still produce RCA records, most of the remaining were not so fortunate.

Local citizens were shocked as they expected RCA factories in Montreal and Prescott to close, but not in Smiths Falls. Over 6000 Canadians were once employed by RCA in 1970, and in 1978 the total had dropped to 2,000. The thing that angered local residents most was that RCA had never been above board with anyone.  Smith Fall’s Mayor Fred Aboud said the closure of RCA was going to be more disastrous to the town than the huge layoffs that had been  done at the nickle plant in Sudbury.

There was no doubt that when the plant left town, it let many people down. Some still say today they haven’t bought an RCA product since,  and the same with a Hershey Chocolate product. But most of Smiths Falls rallied together and stood tall for their town, and as the Beatles once sang:

“But tomorrow will rain, so I will follow the sun”.

Sandra Rattray— My Mom worked there for a number of years, after Bates & Innes in Carleton Place called. She worked in one of the sound booths, testing records and took so much pride in her job. I remember when she test Elvis’ album “Moody Blue” and the first covers were, I believe, signed by him. She was so excited. I also remember the sheer devastation she felt, when, at age 57, she was laid off. Chances of another job at that age were nearly impossible. She was a “company man” or “company woman” as you would say today, and very production and quality control oriented. Very sad for all the workers.

Help!! Got a Readers Question yesterday from Newfoundland… Can you help?

Hey!

This might seem like an odd question, but did you write an article about the RCA pressing plant in Smiths Falls last year? I’m trying to track down the master stampers of a record that was pressed there in 1980. I’m sure I’m on the hunt for something that doesn’t even exist anymore, but why not ask around. If there’s any way you could help me out, if you know any ex-employees, I would appreciate it! Thanks, Alex

“Smiths Falls, Ontario, can rightfully claim to be the real birthplace of Beatles records in North America,” writes author Piers Hemmingsen.

The Beatles in Canada, The Origins of Beatlemania, by Piers Hemmingsen

The Day I Tried to Long Tall Sally Paul McCartney

Long The Beatles’ tunes were streaming online, their early records were pressed at a Smiths Falls factory. The author of a book on the band tells us about The Beatles’ Smiths Falls connection and the official launch of Beatles book set for March 12 in Smiths Falls. (I’d post the link to the article about the announcement in the Canadian-Almonte Gazette but it does not work)

Read-

The RCA Plant –Smiths Falls –The Day the Records Stopped Spinning

Photo–www.capitol6000.com–RCA smith falls 1968 pressing plan (Google Image)

So because this brings back fond memories I am reposting this story.

 

 

Growing up in the Beatles era, being erratic seemed to be the norm for me and millions of other girls. If you got the chance to get near a music star, you just stood there and screamed your heart out.

In 1964 I was sent to Mercer Island, Washington for the summer, and my grandparents hoped that their best friend’s daughter, Sarah, would keep me out of trouble. When we started plotting an imaginary trip to Vancouver, Canada for a Beatles concert, they knew what a mistake it was to mix us together. The Beatles were set to perform August 12th at the Seattle Center Coliseum and we had not been able to get any tickets. The 14,300 five dollar tickets were sold out in no time and some were even scalped for $30 later on. Instead of tickets, my step- grandmother came home with a Paul McCartney “Beatle Bobbin’ Head” doll. It did not take her long to find out that the little rubber doll was not going to cut it with me. An immediate call to Sarah was placed, and we began plotting our next move.

If my grandmother thought that Sarah was the perfect teenager she was greatly mistaken. In whispers, Sarah suggested we get her brother to haul her parent’s boat out to the harbor. It was nothing short of a dangerous attempt to get near The Edgewater Inn, where the Beatles were staying. If I was scared to walk 200 feet across the floating bridge, there was little hope I was getting into a boat. Plus I had already figured out it was too dangerous to get her brother to maneuver such a feat and I insisted she come up with another plan.

The great day of the Beatles’ arrival, we asked my grandmother to drive us into Seattle to go shopping at ‘The Bon’. I have to admit, she really got sucked into that one, and just smiled at me and clapped her hands. To her, that was a lot better than having to drive all the way down to San Francisco to pick me up off the streets after I ran away. I was most certainly a terrible young teen who was always bound for trouble!  Armed with a ten dollar bill and my “Beatle Boppin’ Doll”, Sarah and I were driven downtown, let loose and told to meet my grandmother at 5 pm.

Somehow, we weaseled our way near the entrance and when the cars holding the Beatles showed up, they stopped right in front of us. If you ever saw the movie, ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ we were worse than those felines who were shown knocking on the Beatles’ cars in the film. I banged my Paul McCartney “Beatle Boppin’ Doll” on the window and I guess the scenario looked pretty funny to them. Slowly the window of the car inched open, and there in plain sight was Paul McCartney’s head, and it was ‘boppin’ with laughter

Faster than you can say ‘She Loves Me,’ I reached my hand into that 12 inch space and grabbed some of Paul’s hair. In one split second, my arm was pulled out and grabbed by what seemed like millions of girls. They were touching it with wild abandon and trying to wrench it out of my arm socket. Security rushed in and literally saved me from what was going to be a ‘Twist and Shout’ massacre. My arm was beginning to bruise and there were lots of scratches on it, but I was okay and quite shaken.

In my dreams I wanted Paul to exit out of that limo and save me. Was that not what every girl wanted in those days? Instead we were hauled into a police car and my grandmother was called. My mother had died in September of 1963 and my grandparents had been told to handle my sister and me with kid gloves. The gloves were off that night and I was sent to my room without dinner. This was the second stunt I had pulled and that was it for them for the summer holiday.

My late father always blamed The Beatles for my creative ways. Anything that I did that was different from the norm he would look at me straight in the face and say,

“It’s all that ‘ya ya ya’ business!”

Maybe he was right and one day when I need some of my youth back I think I am going to sit down and listen to nothing but Beatle songs-“when I’m 64!”

Notes from the Peanut Gallery:

 

Sounds like you had a “Hard Day’s Night!”- B Bailey

From my book Menopausal Woman From the Corn

The RCA Plant –Smiths Falls –The Day the Records Stopped Spinning

My Dog Does Not Read Cosmopolitan – Zoomer

 

My Dog Does Not Read Cosmopolitan – Zoomer.

When I’m 64 – Zoomer

 

When I’m 64 – Zoomer.

Thrift Store Shopping — Framed! – Zoomer

 

Thrift Store Shopping — Framed! – Zoomer.

Don’t Let Me Down – The Beatles — Sung by an almost 2 year old – Zoomers

Don’t Let Me Down – The Beatles — Sung by an almost 2 year old – Zoomers.

I Just Want to Be a Paperback Writer – Zoomers

 

I Just Want to Be a Paperback Writer – Zoomers.

 

 

“Throughout the years I have always written short stories or funny letters but never began to earnestly write until something tragic happened to me. For days the nightmares lived through me until one afternoon I sat in my car and began to write on a scrap piece of paper. Pretty soon the paper was full, and I continued to write on my hand as the words flowed with intensity and much anger. For paragraphs I said exactly what had been on my mind for years and wrote under a third persona called Emileeeeee McPheeeeee.“