"in 1954 the only way to record sound was to press a phonograph or record sound on film for a movie."
There was wire recording:
There was wire recording:
http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/company.histories/ampex/leslie...
An interesting article about archiving of Dictabelt and other audio format recordings: http://thequietus.com/articles/18004-sound-library-british-l...