Columbia - Biography

Biography - Columbia

UK

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.

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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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