Odeon - Biography

Biography - Odeon

Germany

Label introduced by The International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany, in 1903.

The trademark "Odeon" was first registered on October 17, 1903. It was re-registered on February 4, 1904 under no. 66576. The The Odeon logo (a round domed temple building supported by columns) was trademarked only on December 31, 1904 under No. 75446. As early as Spring 1904, the company produced double-sided records.

The company recorded internationally. It pressed records and built phonographs for all of Europe at Oranienstraße 117-118 in Berlin Weißensee; records for the British market were pressed in Hartford.

A handy list of matrix prefixes and numbers is available at http://discography.phonomuseum.at/odeonmx.htm.

The first Odeon labels show International Talking Machine Co.m.b.H. above the label name Odeon Record, separated by the golden Odeon dome. Around 1906(?), the company name is replaced by Odeon-Werke.

In 1908, Odeon acquires the Jumbo Record Factory in Frankfurt/Oder.

In 1911, the Carl Lindström A.-G. acquires the Odeon label; not much later, Beka, Parlophone and Fonotipia join the Lindström family of labels.

Around 1912, a new label design shows a dancing woman, with musical instruments on the left and the Odeon temple on the right.

Around 1917, a new Odeon-Werke label design features a lyre-playing woman looking across a body of water to the Odeon temple.

In May 1919, a simpler design features a more compact Odeon temple in front of a white background, standing on a base that says Odeon in a script font.

In 1926, the Lindström Co. itself was taken over by the British Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd., which in 1931 merged with the Gramophone Co. to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI).

The new ownership is reflected in a new label design introduced in 1927, a simple dark-blue label on which a golden Odeon temple stands on a base with the word Odeon in a block script.

From 1930, boxes listing B.I.E.M. or L (for Lindström) feature the rights holders on the left side of the label.
From 1932, labels bear the identical text "Radiosendung / ohne Genehmi- / gung verboten" to the left and right of the name ODEON.

Post-World War II pressings between early 1946 and Sept. 20, 1949 bear the note, "Hergestellt unter der Zulassung Nr. B-503 der Nachrichtenkontrolle der Militärregierung." B-503 was issued by the British military authorities in Hanover (LIC. 91 APO 407 would have been the Americans in Munich). Between 1949 and 1952, Odeon had a plant in Nuremberg. In 1951, the company changed its name from Carl Lindström A.-G. to Carl Lindström GmbH. In 1952, it moved to Cologne, sharing the same address (Maarweg 149 in Köln-Braunsfeld) with the Electrola GmbH. 78rpm production ended ca. 1957.

Lindström restarted record production only in 1946 (source), and licensing of all media by the Allied Military Government ended on Sept. 21, 1949.(source)

Dates of the xxBo series, recorded in Berlin
xxBo ? - 6750 = 1914
xxBo 6751 - 6950 = 1915/16
xxBo 6951 - 7050 = 1917
xxBo 7051 - 7130 = 1919
xxBo 7131 - 7269 = 1920
xxBo 7270 - 7469 = 1921
xxBo 7470 - 7770 = 1922
xxBo 7771 - 8060 = 1923
xxBo 8061 - 8459 = 1924
xxBo 8460 - 8680 = 1925
xxBo 8681 - 8806 = 1926

Discography of Odeon recordings 1946-Jan. 6, 1950:
https://grammophon-platten.de/page.php?566

« Discography

Edit This Biography : Biography Credits