78 RPM - Biography Updates

USA
Label

Opened February 1954 as an outlet for Acuff-Rose music publishing, with three discs by Al Terry, Tommy Hill and Bobby Dick.
Wesley Rose as President - Fred Rose head of A&R - Murray Nash Sales and Promotion and John R Brown as Manager

» Latest edits by KeithS SUBS : Biography Credits

Gem [Los Angeles]

USA
Label

Owner Joe Greene Billboard March 30 1946 reported that Royal Record Company will change its name to Sepia Record Company and rename its Gem label to G-Clef all because of difficulties with registering company names which are already in use in various forms by other companies
No trace of the new label seems to exist and the few Gem artists seemed to end up on Aladdin

» Latest edits by KeithS SUBS : Biography Credits

Capitol

USA
Label

U.S. label founded in Hollywood, CA, in 1942 by singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer, songwriter and director of Paramount Pictures Buddy DeSylva, and Hollywood record store owner Glenn Wallichs.

The label released pop, jazz, and country music. Between August 1942 and Fall 1943 (strike of the American Federation of Musicians), Capitol successfully avoided the restrictions of the so-called Petrillo ban by buying and releasing matrices with recordings by the King Cole Trio, Ceele Burke, and Bob Sherwood from Hugh Claudin's Excelsior Records and other sources.

From the start, Capitol had its discs pressed by three pressing plants: Allied Record Manufacturing Co. in Los Angeles, California, Clark Phonograph Record Company in Newark, New Jersey, and the Scranton Record Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, then one of the largest pressing plants in the world. The latter also did contract pressings for many other labels. As early as March 1944, Capitol acquired an option to buy the Scranton plant. First, however, Capitol set up its own pressing plant in Los Angeles, California in late 1945, with machines and technical help from the Scranton Record Company. In March 1946, Capitol bought the Scranton plant itself for $2 million, turning it into Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Scranton.

Scranton pressings were initially marked with a reverse S ("Ƨ"). Starting in mid-1944, the plant instead introduced a symbol that collectors now call the "Scranton Anvil" or "Scranton Lathe" (the "Ƨ" wasn't immediately phased out, though). Pressings by Capitol's own Los Angeles plant were marked first with a five-pointed "Hollywood" star (☆), later with a six-pointed one (✲). The early pressings by Clark Phonograph Record Co. are characterized by a small pressing ring around the spindle hole. Los Angeles also used a wider typeface for song titles (first Metroblack No. 2. Starting in May 1950, when they switched to Bert-Co, they used 12 point Spartan Heavy). Capitol's Scranton plant had its labels printed by Keystone Printed Specialties Co., Inc. in Scranton, PA, which used a narrower type face (14-point Intertype Vogue Bold Condensed for titles, 12-point Intertype Vogue Bold Condensed for artist names).

Between mid-1947 and October 1951, Capitol Records designated their A-sides "y" and their B-sides "z".

Between late July and October 1947, the label briefly introduced prefixes to its catalog numbers. A stood for "Americana." The A-prefixes start with A40020; they end with A-40044. B was used for Pop (cat. nr. B437 to B-465). Issues released between late September 1947 and mid-October 1947 also show a hyphen separating prefix and catalog number.

Capitol series:
100: 10-inch Pop series, black label, price 50c., 1942-
10000: 10-inch Criterion Pop series, purple label album discs, price 75c., May 1944-
20000: 10-inch Pop series, black label album discs, price 50c., September 1944-
15000: 10-inch Pop series, purple labels, Oct. 1947-
25000: 10-inch Children's series, 1947-
40000: 10-inch Capitol Americana folk series (Country, Hillbilly, Blues & Jazz) May 1947-1950, marked as "Americana" only until April 1948.
3-40000: 10-inch red label, 1949 only
7-25000: 10-inch Children's albums, dark-blue labels, 1949 only
37-572 to 671 (ca.): 10-inch Pop series, red labels, April to July 1949 only
37-40154 to 40170 (ca.): 10-inch Country series, red labels, April to June 1949 only
57-000: 10-inch Pop series, purple labels, 1949 only

Capitol Records, Inc. was acquired by EMI in 1955.

See also Capitol 40,000 Series
Tim Neely on the prefix letters of Capitol's album series:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/records-price-codes-the-definitive-thread.364593/
A brief guide to label designs and dates: http://www.friktech.com/btls/capitol/capitollabels.pdf
A list of Capitol album dates: http://harryjk.blogspot.com/2008/11/harrys-blog.html.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Down Town

USA
Label

Label from Oakland, California, active between 1948 and 1950.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Harmony

USA
Label

Label bio

Budget label founded by Columbia Records, active September 1925-1931. The earliest releases, up to ca. #H-158, read "Manufactured by Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., U.S.A." at the bottom of the labels. Around April 1926, this text disappears.

Distributed by Eli Oberstein, the label was briefly revived in July 1949, reissuing older Columbia material.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Tempo

Germany
Label

German budget label founded by Otto Stahmann in Berlin-Babelsberg. From 1936, records were sold in discount stores (later also in regular shops) for RM 1.-.The label recorded a number of well-known artists and actors; in addition, it used matrices of the Brilliant brand. After 1947, the East German Amiga label continued to release old Tempo matrices; Stahmann himself resettled to Munich and resumed record production there.

Tempo catalog number system:

1 - 750 (1937 - 1941) red/brown center labels.
4001 - 4300 (1942 - 1943) Tempo Elite series
5001 - 5165 (1940 - 1944) 5001-5005 with blue labels, since 5006 with purple labels.

3001 - 3901 (1948 - 1957) Munich pressings (Lic. 91 APO 407)
4017 - 4113 (1946 - 1947) Ehrenfriedersdorf pressings ("Hergestellt unter der Zulassung Nr. B-511 der Nachrichtenkontrolle der Militärregierung.")

The later 4000-series were Tempo Elite pressings produced in Ehrenfriedersdorf (Saxony); in 1947, the state-owned "Lied der Zeit" took over the plant and all its assets.

» Latest edits by cherkazoo : Biography Credits

Electrola

Germany
Label

Founded on May 8, 1925, "Electrola" was the label released by the German branch of the British The Gramophone Company, owners of the "His Master's Voice" label in Britain.

Before the First World War, HMV and the German Deutsche Grammophon (DGG) had both been part of The Gramophone Company, but during the war DGG was taken over by the German government as an "enemy asset" and sold to the German Polydor company.

After hostilities ceased, both HMV and DGG claimed an exclusive right to use the "Nipper" trademark in their respective countries. So HMV records were exported to Germany under the Electrola label, and DGG used the Polydor label for their exports to Britain.

Electrola soon became one of the most important German labels, recording many popular German artists, but also releasing masters provided by the British HMV, the French Disque Gramophone, and by Victor and Bluebird in the United States. Its pressing plant was located in Berlin-Nowawes. In 1932, production moved from there to a plant at Schlesisches Tor in Berlin S.O.

Release year according to catalog numbers:

EG1 - EG420 = 1926
EG421 - EG763 = 1927
EG764 - EG1170 = 1928
EG1171 - EG1750 = 1929
_________________

EG... BLR 6000 - 9000 = 1930

Recording year according to matrix numbers:
_________________

OD1 - OD740 = 1931
OD741 - OD1365 = 1932
OD1366 - OD1869 = 1933
OD1870 - OD2100 = 1934
_________________

ORA1 - ORA300 = 1934
ORA301 - ORA980 = 1935
ORA981 - ORA1700 = 1936
ORA1701 - ORA2550 = 1937
ORA2551 - ORA3504 = 1938
ORA3505 - ORA4400 = 1939
ORA4401 - ORA4850 = 1940
ORA4851 - ORA5350 = 1941
ORA5351 - ORA5650 = 1942
ORA5651 - ORA6050 = 1943

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Silvertone

USA
Label

Sears, Roebuck & Co. label, used 1916-1928.
(Label guide)

Budget label produced by various manufacturers for the Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail-order company between 1916-1928. The 1916 labels show a piper on an orange background. 1917 brought a piper on a dark-purple label with golden script. The label was discontinued 1918-1919, then reintroduced in 1919 with double-sided discs (5000-series) under a redesigned blue label with a silver Silvertone logo. From Fall 1923, Sears used a tan label (starting as a 2000 series) until it replaced Silvertone with the Supertone brand in mid-1928. From mid- to late 1926 (from around cat. nr. 3168 to cat. nr. 3457), the phrase PAT'D IN U.S.A. JAN. 21, '13 AND MAY 22, '23 appears on the top of the labels, as on contemporary Columbia issues.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Aurora

Canada
Label

Canadian Label owned by T. Eaton Co, made from 1931-1933~.
used masters from Victor, Brunswick/Vocalion and the many ARC labels.

» Latest edits by Muglee2222 : Biography Credits

The Little Marvel

UK
Label

5½" and 6" Series of acoustically recorded 80-rpm records produced by Vocalion and sold at 6d ea. by F.W. Woolworth in the UK between 1921 and 1926.
See Woolworths Museum, The Little Marvel
Other Woolworths labels were
Crown
The Victory
Eclipse
The Mimosa
Discography at http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/Records/LabelPages/Little_Marvel.htm

See also Little Wonder

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

4 Star

USA
Label

Los Angeles, based label, active from August 1945. and originally run by Clifford MacDonald,
He relinquished that title to become manager for T. Texas Tyler - the labels biggest artist, letting Bill C. Call take over the responsibility. The two clashed heads in March 1947 when MacDonald attempted to - unsuccessfully - sign his artist with Capitol

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Columbia

UK
Label

Wax cylinder records and machines from The Columbia Phonograph Company, General, of New York USA had already been imported by British companies in the 1890s when Columbia established a branch in Britain in 1900. In 1902 Columbia in America acquired the Globe Record Company, which included the Climax label, and was Columbia's path into flat disk records. In Autumn 1902 the Climax label was changed to Columbia and both labels were sold in Britain in 7, 10 and 14 inch sizes.

Columbia's first double-sided disks, only nine in number and with black and silver labels, were issued in 1904, but because of threats of patent litigation by the International Talking Machine Co. mbh (intimately connected with Lindström and its large stable of labels like Parlophone and Odeon) no further double sided records were issued. The patent claim was finally dismissed in a test case in 1907.

Columbia Double Face Records
Columbia had been producing records from a plant at Earlsfield in Surrey since June 1906, and when this patent claim was dismissed, announced that double-sided records would be on sale from October 1907 as Columbia Double Face records, which eventually appeared in December 1907 (D.68 upwards), although some earlier double-sided issues were made on time with ordinary single-sided Columbia labels and numbers, and later issued as D.1 to D.67. Double Face records continued to be released until October 1909, with final pressings made in early 1910.

Rena Double Face Records
In December 1909 Columbia began issuing records bearing the Rena name, but with Columbia as the company name. Rena records had been issued since December 1908 by an independent company (The Rena Manufacturing Company Ltd) with numbers 1001 to 1217. The records that Rena issued had come from recordings in the Columbia catalogue. The Rena records issued by Columbia were numbered 1218 to 1408, with 998, 999, and 1000 as later special issues.

Columbia-Rena Records
In October 1910 the Rena label was abandoned, and all records were issued under the Columbia-Rena label, continuing to use the Rena series of numbers. In March 1913 Columbia changed its name to The Columbia Graphophone Company, New York-London. In February 1914 Columbia began issuing budget priced records on the Regal label, and many Columbia titles were re-released on Regal. In the early years of Regal it is possible to find the same new records issued on both labels.

Columbia Records
In October 1915, the Rena part of the label name was dropped. In wartime 1916, the British Government passed laws banning non-essential imports, stopping flow of all Columbia recordings from the USA, which led to the formation of a British based Columbia company in February 1917 - The Columbia Graphophone Co Ltd - although still majority owned by USA stockholders. The label was changed from COLUMBIA to Columbia about April 1922.

In early 1923 the British company became independent of the American Company. Recording using Electrical methods started in October 1925, and the final record in the original Rena number series was 5740, issued in February 1930.

Starting in September 1927, the phrase Magic Notes appeared no longer to the right of the two joined semi-quaver notes, but were split up to the left and right of the notes.

In 1932 EMI was formed by a merger between Columbia and HMV.

<can someone else fill in from here on please.>

Dating

Columbia Double Face series
D1 - D103: 1907
D104 - D235: 1908
D236 - D298: 1909

D333 - special Columbia-Rena issue to dealers c. Jan 1914

Rena, Columbia-Rena, and Columbia 10"
Note: A few numbers out of sequence are not shown.
998 - special Rena issue to dealers, Dec.1909
999, 1000 - special Rena issue on death of Edward VII, June 1910
1001 - 1050: Dec. 1908
1051 - 1242: 1909
1243 - 1518: 1910
1519 - 1782: 1911
1783 - 2030: 1912
2031 - 2276: 1913
2277 - 2483: 1914
2484 - 2624: 1915
2425 - 2732: 1916
2733 - 2818: 1917
2819 - 2861: 1918
In May 1918 the Columbia factory was destroyed by fire.
From then until August 1919 new releases were sporadic.
2862 - 2892: 1919
2893 - 2922: 1920
2923 - 2995: 1921
2996 - 3067: 1922
3068 - 3336: 1923
3337 - 3519: 1924
3520 - 3816: 1925
3817 - 4182: 1926
4193 - 4661: 1927
4662 - 5137: 1928
5138 - 5637: 1929
5638 - 5740: 1930

Columbia 12"
101 - 156:1909
157 - 213:1910
214 - 269:1911
270 - 349:1912
350 - 422:1913
423 - 498:1914
499 - 582,L1001 - L1015:1915
583 - 636,L1016 - L1123:1916
637 - 695,L1124 - L1223:1917
696 - 716,L1224 - L1273:1918
717 - 770,L1274 - L1333:1919
776 - 842,L1334 - L1394:1920
843 - 882,L1395 - L1413:1921
883 - 909,L1414 - L1454:1922
910 - 951,L1455 - L1513:1923
952 - 999, 9001 - 9012, L1514 - L1595:1924
9013 - 9064,L1596 - L1683:1925
9065 - 9149,L1684 - L1807:1926
9150 - 9272,L1808 - L2017:1927
9273 - 9526,9542 - 9561,L2018 - L2185:1928
9527 - 9541,9562 - 9901,L2186 - L2356:1929
9902 - 9943,L2357 - L2374:1930

Main Sources
Columbia 10" Records 1904-30, Frank Andrews, 1985 (Columbia Ten-inch Records: A Listing of Standard Repertoire British Double-sided Records from 1904-30 Frank Andrews (City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society))
Regal Records 1914-1932, Arthur Badrock and Frank Andrews,2009
Columbia 12" Records 1906-1930, Ronald Taylor,1994

See Also
Regal Biography for more information on Columbia involvement in budget records.
Rena Biography for more information on Rena.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Marcelli - Herson
Artist

Madeleine Marcelli-Herson (1898-1971) was a French cellist, born in Roubaix. She recorded about 30 discs between 1929 and 1932, mostly small works for cello and piano, but she also recorded chamber music like Ravel's trio.

» Latest edits by Christocello : Biography Credits

Beka

Germany
Label

In November 1903 Bumb and König GmbH was formed to produced Beka records, the label name coming from the company founders' initials as pronounced in German (Beh - Kah).

The parent company, the Bumb and König Institute for Modern Inventions, had been involved in the import of Zonophone discs and machines from the USA to Germany since 1900 through its Zonophon Gmbh subsidiary. When a factory to produce International Zonophone records had been set up in Germany, Zonophon remained the sole German distributor. In March 1903, Zonophon lost this concession, and by June International Zonophone had been acquired by the British-based Gramophone & Typewriter Company (HMV).

Beka records were announced in the press in March 1904, with a catalogue of around 250 20.5cm (8”) single-sided discs. In October, a Beka Records GmbH was formed to handle foreign distribution and appointed agents for Austro-Hungary, France, and Switzerland. By January 1905, records were also being sold in Denmark and Italy.

In May 1905, a Beka International Record catalogue was published as a result of recordings made in Europe, North Africa and the Near East during a tour made between July 1904 and March 1905. By July, around 3000 different records were available, in addition to 10” Beka Grand and 11” Beka Symphonie discs. Beka also announced in July that it would start recording British material. A fuller account of Beka in Britain is given in the UK label biography UK label biography. In August, the Beka trademark – a flamingo looking into a gramophone horn – was first published.

In January 1906, the Odeon records patent for double-sided records was overturned in Austria, and by April Beka discs were being pressed as both single- and double-sided in 7-, 8-, 10- and 11-inch sizes. 12-inch Beka Meister discs became available shortly thereafter.

Around mid-1907, Beka adopted a new numbering system in which the old face numbers (a simple increasing number sequence) were replaced by blocks of numbers allocated to each different country (see here). By autumn 1908, many discs were also being issued with a single catalogue number, rather than a face number for each side.

In August 1910 Beka was taken over by Carl Lindström AG (est. 1904), which had formerly only produced cylinder records. The 7-, 8-, and 11-inch discs were immediately dropped from the catalogue, and no new additions were announced to the Beka Meister series, which was renamed to Parlophon in March 1911.

In December 1912, Lindström's new factory in Hertfordshire, England, began to press discs, including those of the newly acquired Fonotipia group of labels. Lindström eventually had over 10 factories throughout Europe. Many were acquired by takeovers of other companies.

During 1913 and 1914 increasing competition from other disc companies in Germany and the UK forced record prices to fall.

During the 1914-18 War, Beka continued to produce discs in Germany, but the UK factory was put under the control of a holding company, The Hertford Record Company Ltd.

Beka records continued in Germany after the end of the war, but all exports were handled by the Trans-Oceanic Trading Company in Holland, which Lindström set up after the war. Eventually the 10" records were released under the Parlophon brand, just as the 12" Meisters earlier.

The British factory was transferred to the ownership of Columbia records, but by 1923 was owned by UK Parlophone, part of the Lindström group via Trans-Oceanic.

Source: Frank Andrews and Bill Dean Myatt; "Beka Records"; Reference Series 11, CLPGS 2011.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Carle Hodson
Artist

Karle Hodsin or "Carle Hodson" (born 1918 in Edmonton – died 1993) was a music teacher, band leader, songwriter, business man, arranger, alto saxophonist, accordionist, and the founder of Sharrell Music Publishers, Ltd, a music publishing company in West Minister, British Columbia, Canada.

Carle used many pseudonyms. One was "Karl Olson," which he used to record on the Canadian label, "Aragon" and also to publish sheet music with his company, Sharrell Music Publishers & Empire Music Publishers.

Carle had multiple bands. His main band, "The Royal Ambassadors,” performed at venues in the Greater Vancouver area.

Many thanks to Carle's grandson, Andrew Danneffel, for some info on his grandfather.

» Latest edits by Muglee2222 : Biography Credits

Puritan

USA
Label

U.S. record company, active between 1918-1927.

Introduced in early 1918 by the United Phonographs Corporation of Sheboygan, Wisconsin (a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company), the first Puritan records were vertical-cut (hill & dale) 9-inch and 10-inch disks and reissued matrices in Paramount's 2000/30000 series. The top of the labels showed a cameo of a young Pilgrim woman listening to a gramophone in a nicely furnished living room, above the brand logo "Puritan Records and Phonographs."

In late 1919, Puritan, like its supplier, Paramount, moved to producing lateral-cut records. The labels were now much more ornate. They continued to show the living room scene, now in brown, but most of the design was now taken up by a floral pattern in gold and brown, and the brand name now appeared simply as "Puritan" in front of a black background. Around August 1920, the living room scene was replaced by the slogan "America's Best Record." In late 1920, the label design was further simplified to a plain blue label surrounded by a floral frame in gold, still featuring the phrase "America's Best Record."

In 1922, United Phonographs Corporation left the record business. The label was now jointly produced by The New York Recording Laboratories (another Wisconsin Chair subsidiary) and the Bridgeport Die & Machine Company (B. D. & M. Company) of Bridgeport, Connecticut. NYRL label were blue, whereas BDMC used black.

In March 1922, the B. D. & M. Company began producing a separate series of Puritan records for regional distribution in the Northeast U.S. They introduced a a new label that showed a male pilgrim's head in an oval at the top.

Both NYRL and BDMC issues derived their couplings and catalog numbers from Paramount's.

By 1924, though, B. D. & M. Company began to obtain most of its masters from the Emerson Recording Laboratories and severed its business relationship with The New York Recording Laboratories.

Between 1924 and 1927, Puritan was produced exclusively by The New York Recording Laboratories. In 1927, after NYRL had closed its New York studio, Puritan releases reissued recordings made by Regal Record Company, Inc.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits

Pathé Actuelle

USA
Label

Pathé issued lateral or "needle-cut" records from 1920. Until 1922, this line was called Actuelle. Starting in 1923, it was called Pathé Actuelle. Up to 1926, the needle-cut discs have a 0-prefix to distinguish them from Pathé's vertical or diamond-cut discs, which used the same catalog numbers without the 0-prefix.

» Latest edits by xiphophilos : Biography Credits