RCA Records Pressing Plant, Canonsburg

Short-lived record pressing and product manufacturing facility (such as of AM radios and radio-phonograph combos) for RCA Victor, located in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, nicknamed "The House That Perry Built" in honor of top-selling RCA recording artist (and Canonsburg native) Perry Como. Originally opened in 1947 as a fourth pressing plant to supplement the pressing capacity of RCA's other plants then in operation (RCA Records Pressing Plant, Camden; RCA Records Pressing Plant, Indianapolis; and RCA Records Pressing Plant, Hollywood). Canonsburg pressings of RCA Victor 78's were distinguished on the center label design with the concentric rings, which had a break on the top of the label, and broken away from the RCA 'meatball' logo at bottom (the latter also a characteristic of Camden pressings). After a period of inactivity in 1948-49 (which followed in the wake of an industry-wide sales slump), Canonsburg was reopened in November 1949 as a facility devoted exclusively to the manufacture of 45 RPM records. Pressings from the plant from then on were distinguished by the lacquer numbers (i.e. A1RW-0002 1S) stamped onto the deadwax in small serif type reminiscent of that from typewriters of the period, followed by mother (mold) numbers (e.g. A2E, A3J) and a small, faint, sans-serif 'C'. (Another plant, located in New York and designated on the deadwax by a faint stamped 'N', was in operation from about 1949 to 1955.) Besides RCA's own product (and that of its sublabels), and pressings for several clients of RCA Victor Custom Records, Canonsburg was known to have pressed selected 45's for Columbia and Okeh in the late 1951 / early 1952 period when the Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Bridgeport was on strike. RCA gradually deactivated its Canonsburg pressing operations during 1953, a year prior to the opening of the newer RCA Records Pressing Plant, Rockaway.