78 RPM - Biography Updates

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Independent Artists Recording Company

USA
Label

Small independent label out of Springfield, Illinois, active between 1952 and 1956.

More releases.

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Continental

USA
Label

Label founded by Hungarian-born record entrepreneur Don Gabor in New York City in 1942. After 1952, Gabor replaced it with the Remington Records label. Both labels were pressed at Webster Manufacturing Co. in Webster, Massachusetts.

The earliest labels (1942-43) were black, then red and featured a curved label name and song titles in front of an outline the American continent. In 1944, this label was replaced with a much simpler design, a black or red label with the label name in a straight line. Above the label name, the label said: "Manufactured by Continental Record Co., Inc., 265 W. 54th Street, New York City." In June 1945, this label also appears in yellow. The next label style, starting in ca. October 1945, introduced the CRC logo on top of CONTINENTAL in narrower, but longer letters. Labels are now black, orange (Swing Classics), light green (Sepia Swing), black (International), black, blue, and purple (Hillbilly), or blue (Hawaiian). Between December 1946 and December 1949, this is replaced by a label that still says CRC, but features the label name CONTINENTAL in a black box. Label colors are now pink or yellow. In 1950, the boxed background disappeared, and the label is now plain red with white text.

Don Gabor

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Winner

UK
Label

THE WINNER / WINNER /EDISON BELL WINNER

Brief History
Edison Bell was a British company founded in the early 1890s, importing Edison and Columbia phonographs and records. An 1898 catalogue of recordings is available at the British Library http://sounds.bl.uk/related-content/TEXTS/029I-EDIGX1898XXX-0000A0.pdf

In 1904 Edison established its own company in London, and distribution rights were lost.

In 1909, Edison Bell and its subsidiary company were purchased by J.E.Hough Ltd. Edison Bell had already established a disc and cylinder manufacturing site at Peckham, South London, and continued to issue discs under the Edison Bell name until late 1912. It also issued discs under the 'Velvet Face' label into the mid 1920s.

"The Winner" label was announced in December 1911, with the first list of records announced in January 1912, and available from 1 February. It was advertised as being owned by a syndicate, with the address given as that of J.E. Hough Ltd.

The earliest labels featured multi-coloured representations of a horse and jockey, and there are many variations. Ca. 1917, the horse and jockey image became monochrome. Around March 1920, the label became red and the logo again turned multi-coloured, except that the jockey appeared in front of a simple brown background, without grandstand.

In June 1922, the name was changed to "Winner", and the label design became simpler, a gold drawing of horse and jockey on a claret background. In March 1926 the horse and jockey label was abandoned, and the name changed to "Edison Bell Winner", which originally appeared on the records as "Edison Bell Winner Record." The only illustration was a bell on the left that said "Ring out loud and clear." Around April 1931, the label name was shortened to "Edison Bell Winner." The label color remained red, but the label name now appeared as a handwritten "Edison Bell" in front of a bell, whereas "Winner" showed up in smaller capital letters in a flourish under the "Edison Bell" name.

J. E. Hough Ltd. became a public company in May 1926, and the label was changed to show a new name: Edison Bell Limited London & Huntingdon. The first electrical recording to be released was number 4386 in April 1926, but this was from American Paramount masters. The first electrical recording from Edison Bell's own masters was number 4444 in July 1926.

By 1929 the business was making losses, and in January 1933 the company was wound up. No offers for the company were received, and most of the remaining assets were eventually taken over by Decca. Decca gained a concession in 1933 to continue to release Winner records for a short time afterwards, including a new series prefixed W, while Edison Bell itself struggled on until 1938, when it was liquidated. The last Edison Bell records were issued in January 1935.

Release Dates
Note: This list does not show a few exceptions which were released out of sequence.
2000 - 2245: 1912
2246 - 2515: 1913
2516 - 2740: 1914
2741 - 2922: 1915
2923 - 3081: 1916
3071 - 3185: 1917
3187 - 3276: 1918
3266 - 3359: 1919

3356 - 3494: 1920
3487 - 3610: 1921
3612 - 3757: 1922
3759 - 3924: 1923
3933 - 4107: 1924
4108 - 4320: 1925
4321 - 4553: 1926
4554 - 4753: 1927
4754 - 4870: 1928
4871 - 4960: 1929

4961 - 5192: 1930
5193 - 5412: 1931
5413 - 5532: 1932
5533 - 5628: 1933
5629 - 5687: 1934
5688 - 5692: 1935

Edison Bell Winner from Decca
W.1 - W.52: 1933
W.53 - W.158: 1934
W.159 - W.166: 1935

Sources
Information mainly from Edison Bell Winner Records; Karlo Adrian and Arthur Badrock; 2nd Edition 1989.

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Edison Bell

UK
Label

The Edison-Bell family of labels contains many different names, with a significant proportion revealing no connection to the company in their label design.

The Edison Bell Phonograph Corporation was founded in 1892 and acquired phonograph patents which should have given the company a 10 year UK monopoly of the Talking Machine trade. However, Edison Bell did not exploit this fully and rival companies (including James E. Hough and his London Cylinder Co.) quickly began trading.

Edison Bell tried to stop Hough, but Hough made a deal with them, the result being Hough's new company ‘Edisonia’, formed in mid 1897. The disputes between Edison Bell and Hough continued, and in 1898 Hough lost in court. Edison Bell and Edisonia were then incorporated to form the Edison Bell Consolidated Phonograph Co, but Hough managed to emerge as the General Sales Manager of this new company, which kept overall control of the cylinder market until 1902 when its patents expired.

In 1903 a manufacturing site was set up at Peckham,London to produce cylinder records and players.

In 1904, Edison established its own European arm, and Edison-Bell lost its distribution rights to Edison cylinders. By this time however, Edison Bell had become one of the three major UK cylinder record producers, along with Pathe and the National Phonograph Co.

In 1908 Edison Bell acquired the assets of the rival 'Sterling' cylinder manufacturer, and also produced their first flat discs named Bell Disc. These were slightly over 10" in their earliest form and started at No.1. They continued to be produced, along with cylinders, until 1912. Around 500 Bell Discs were issued and a partial listing may be found at Michael Thomas's site. Two styles of labels seem to have been used, with the green label appearing on later issues.

In 1909 Edison Bell went into bankruptcy. This seems to have been only technical, since the firm continued to trade and was acquired outright by Hough, acting under the name J. E. Hough. Ltd.

The "Velvet Face" label was first issued in September 1910 as an improved version of the Bell Disc. The success of the Winner label, however, caused this label to be quickly abandoned.

"The Winner" label was announced in December 1911, with the first list of records published in January 1912 to be available from 1 February. It was advertised as being owned by a syndicate, with the address given as that of J. E. Hough Ltd. The earliest labels featured coloured representations of a horse and jockey, and there are many variations.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, the Velvet Face label was revived under the control of Joe Batten. Its purpose was to provide more serious works than those in The Winner catalogue. One major milestone was Batten's organisation of the first recording of Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius" in 1923, which had previously been claimed to be un-recordable. The introduction of electric recording in 1925, however, soon put paid to this label's prestige.

In 1921 the name 'The Bell' was again used for 5½" (and later 6") children's records. The catalogue number started at 250 and had extended into the 400s by the time the label ended in 1926. A listing may be found at the same link given above for Michael Thomas's site.

Around mid-1922, "The Winner" label was renamed "Winner," and the label changed to a gold drawing of horse and jockey on a claret background.

In March 1926, Winner's horse and jockey label was abandoned, and the label name changed to "Edison Bell Winner."

J. E. Hough Ltd. became a public company in May 1926, and the Winner label was changed to show a new name: Edison Bell Limited London & Huntingdon. The first electrical recording to be released was Winner 4386 in April 1926, but this record used American Paramount masters. The first electrical recording from Edison Bell's own masters was number 4444 in July 1926.

The Electron label was introduced in 1927 to replace the acoustically recorded "Velvet Face" records. They were electric recordings and all British matrices. Because of their higher price, they did not sell well and are comparatively rare compared to Winner records. The label remained in use until 1929, with the catalogue running from 0150 to 0303. A 12" series was also produced.

The Edison Bell Radio label was introduced' in 1928 and provided 8" records to a very lucrative market, costing only 1/3d (£0.06). Former Music Hall performer Harry Hudson was musical director and provided most of the dance music under a variety of aliases. The catalogue numbers started at 800 and had reached over 1600 by the label's end, although numbers in the range 1000-1200 were not used.

In 1931, the Radio label was changed from gold on blue to black on gold; the label was abandoned in 1932.

By 1929, Edison Bell was making losses, and in January 1933 the company was wound up. No offers for the company were received, and most of the remaining assets were eventually taken over by Decca. Decca gained a concession in 1933 to continue to release Winner records for a short time afterwards, including a new series prefixed W, while Edison Bell itself struggled on until 1938 when it was liquidated. The last Edison Bell records were issued in January 1935.

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