Parlophone Odeon Series

Biography - Parlophone Odeon Series

UK

PARLOPHONE
Although gramophones bearing the Lindström-owned 'Parlophon' trade mark had appeared around 1905/6, the record label 'Parlophon' did not appear until 1910 when Lindström used it in Germany for new issues of Beka Meister 12" discs, a company it had just acquired.

By the start of WW1, Lindström owned a large number of record labels including Beka, Coliseum, Dacapo, Favorite, Fonotipia, Jumbo, Odeon, and Scala, their subsidiary labels, and the many foreign branches of those labels. They had established a manufacturing plant in England called The Mead Works in Hertford Town in 1912. But all British Lindström assets were confiscated by the British Government in 1916 under 'Trading With The Enemy' regulations.

After the end of WW1, Lindström found it difficult to trade with many countries due to anti-German attitudes and restrictions. In late 1920, therefore, Lindström established The Transoceanic Trading Company in the Netherlands to handle its remaining foreign assets. Via this Dutch company, Lindström established the 'Parlophone' label in Britain at the end of August 1923, also acquiring rights to re-use its former manufacturing premises in Hertford. Parlophone was able to release recordings from the many Lindström-owned labels, including Okeh in the USA and Odeon in Argentina.

In 1926 the British-owned Columbia Company acquired both Lindström and the Transoceanic Trading Company.

PARLOPHONE-ODEON
Many British-manufactured Parlophone-Odeon label discs were intended for export only. The main UK-issued series are detailed below, but a few 'oddments' did appear in UK catalogues.

The R/RO 20000 Series
Originally this series was called "Parlophone Royalty Records", and its first seven 12 inch releases were made in January 1925 (20000,20001) and December 1926 (20002-20006), using the plain Parlophone label (see R-20000 and R-20001). The Parlophone-Odeon label seems to have come into use first on R-20008, released in April 1927. The series mixed 12- and 10-inch discs in the same numeric series, with the 12" prefixed R, and the 10" RO. The series is dominated by recordings of the Austrian tenor Richard Tauber (1891-1948), who became a British citizen in 1940 after leaving Austria in1938 when it was annexed by Germany (his father was Jewish). Thus, many of his recordings from 1934 on were made in London (E prefix matrix numbers).

The R and RO 30000 Series
Both these series contain recordings made by the Italian 'Cetra' label that were issued in the first quarter of the 1950s. The R series are 12", and the RO are 10". They are two separate series, unlike the R-20000 mixed size series.

The PO/PXO Series
This series was used for 'historic recordings'. In Britain, only a limited set were issued in the Parlophone catalogue between September 1937 and September 1939, with 50 numbered sides from the range PO-61 to PO-141. Parlophone continued to issue this series as 'export' discs although occasional discs around PO-200 appear in post WW2 monthly supplements when for a brief period EMI companies emphasised items in their export catalogues.

The OT Series
Early discs in this series containing Argentinian Odeon 'Tango' recordings were formerly released in the Parlophone R-3000 and R100 series. This series commenced around 1932, starting at OT-101 and continued to OT-191, issued in the early years of WW2.

The SW Series
Parlophone produced disc sets for various musical societies. These were issued in an SW series.

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