In his autobiography, Jimmy Savile claimed to be the first person to use two turntables and a microphone, at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947.
[1] Savile is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of twin turntables for continuous play of music,[2] though his claim has been disputed.
[3] There was an obvious need for such a setup when the normal music format was 78rpm records that played for five minutes at most and a classical symphony came in a box which might contain ten discs or more.
Using a pair of turntables was a way to keep the music playing without a break, as can be seen in the 1948 movie The Red Shoes, where two stage hands do a poor job of changing records during a ballet performance in the church hall that housed the Mercury Theatre.
"Two turntables and a microphone" is the title of a 2008 documentary of the life of hip-hop DJ Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell).