78 RPM - Biography Updates

Artist Biographies Label Biographies

Phil Reed
Artist

https://forgottenrollerrinksofthepast.com/Phil%20Reed.html

» Latest edits by cyeaman SUBS : Biography Credits

The O.K. Rhythm Kings
Artist

Another pseudonym for the Casa Loma Orchestra.

» Latest edits by WaxRhapsodic ● : Biography Credits

Roy Carroll And His Sands Point Orch.
Artist

A pseudonym for Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. [Per Milt Gabler in Mosaic Commodore box set, p. 5]

» Latest edits by WaxRhapsodic ● : Biography Credits

Bullet

USA
Label

Label Story

Jim Bulleit's first ad in Billboard, April 27 1946, announced the new Bullet label in Nashville and his first three releases as No 100 in the Sacred series...No 600 in the Hillbilly Series and No 251 in the Sepia series and reviews of all three discs appeared in the May 04 edition of Billboard
By July he was signing as many of the Opry Artists as possible and by November had recorded a young Chester Atkins.
In February 1949 Bulleit announced that he had sold his interest in the label,to C.V. Hitchcock, Orville Zickler and Jordan Stokes - all of whom were already involved with the company's running. Bulleit gave no reason for his decision nor any plans for his future.
By April 1949 Bulleit Enterprises opens in Nashville as a distributor and reactivating his own, Village and Delta labels.

» Latest edits by KeithS SUBS ● : Biography Credits

Brillant Sonderklasse

Germany
Label

Sublabel of Schallplattenindustrie Otto Stahmann – Brillant AG together with the labels Brillant and Brillant-Special.
Founded in 1933 for releases of classical recordings with large orchestra and vocal recordings acc. by orchestra.
Using the format 12" / 30 cm currently 33 releases are known.
Issued in a special label sleeve with a list of the releases cat# 1 to 24 printed on the back side.
Artiphon and Tri-Ergon matrixes were used after these companies went bankrupt
and Otto Stahmann bought some matrixes for the start of his Brillant labels.

Discographie

» Latest edits by cherkazoo : Biography Credits

RCA

Germany
Label

RCA Germany.
RCA Germany was launched in the year 1956 through the Teldec-recorcompany. Earlier RCA-Victor recordings from the USA were pressed through Electrola recordcompany in Germany. In 1956 two German record-companies, the Electrola and the Teldec companies changed some copyright and manufacturing rights to each other. RCA-Victor recordings came from Electrola to Teldec, and the rights for the US-Capitol-recordings went from Teldec to the Electrola company.The black-silver RCA-recordlabel was released in Germany in 1956 for the first time.

» Latest edits by 78rpm-maniac : Biography Credits

Hickory

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