[78-L] Charlie & His Orchestra

[Birgit Lotz Verlag]

The thread:
(1) A copy of the Charlie and his Orchestra Nazi propaganda record of 
"You're Driving Me Crazy" just came into my possession, and I noticed 
that the label includes a prominent Francis Day "London - Paris - 
Berlin" copyright stamp.  Other "Charlie" records also carried these 
insigniae.  Am I to understand that during and after the London Blitz, 
the Germans submitted royalty payments along with their bombs?   -Brad Kay
(2) Yes.  They were very efficient. - Mike Biel
(3) I suspect they were imported into the UK after the war and had the 
copyright stamp put on then. It was probably illegal to import them 
otherwise.- Julian Vein

Brad and Mike are right, Julian is wrong. The WWII propaganda war was 
indeed weird:

(1)	In the UK and the US German composers lost their rights and 
Anglo-Americans could put their own names under works by German 
composers. Perhaps best known is the case of Lili Marleen, published and 
distributed in the US by Chappell & Co "in the Public Interest with the 
consent of the Alien Property Custodian under License No. E-80" -- Mack 
David obtained such a licence (as did 50 others) -- and it cost them only 
15 dollars. I am not sure how much Phil Park had to pay (if anything at 
all) for publishing this song in the UK under his name. The Germans 
(music: Schultze, lyrics: Leip) never saw a cent/penny, not even after 
the war. (cf. Lili Marleen an allen Fronten: Bear Family)
(2)	The Charlie records were also distributed to radio stations outside 
Germany (i.e. neutral countries and occupied countries). Although the 
records had no label or company name in order to obscure their origins, 
the broadcasters would have to pay royalties to the original 
Anglo-American composers, lyricists and publishers. That's why the discs 
normally show the royalty details imprinted on the labels (no stickers 
or stamps). So, yes, the Germans delivered both their bombs AND the 
royalties, even though the tampered propaganda versions were obviously 
not authorised. Unless I am mistaken, this was done by way of neutral 
Switzerland. The authors of the English language propaganda lyrics 
remained anonymous (one exception being Norman Baillie-Stewart), and no 
royalties were paid to them. (cf. Hitler's Airwaves: Yale University Press)
(3)	Of course the records were never officially exported to England, not 
during and not after the war. John R. T. Davies told me that he found 
some as a young soldier when stationed in occupied Vienna, and that he 
was told that the Russian brothers-in-arms threatened a death penalty on 
the possession of such discs. (I can't believe it, but that's what he 
remembered).
(4)	An American unit searched the Hanover pressing plant of Deutsche 
Grammophon on 10 April 1945. All they found were Charlie labels as the 
German workers had hastily destroyed most of the remaining stock of 
discs. The Americans then danced to Brunswick pressings of American jazz 
records which had been banned by the Nazis but kept hidden by the 
workers. Later the factory was visited by British units specialized in 
confiscating patents and equipment (some members of this particular unit 
were actually employees of HMV). Another British unit DID find press 
shells or metals and ordered the Germans to press discs of all the 
propaganda records they could find while being guarded by Military 
Police. An officer then listened through the entire batch and prepared a 
report about his findings. This report, unfortunately, seems to have 
been lost (cf 100 Jahre Schallplatte catalog: Historisches Museum Hannover)

Rainer



-- 
Dr. Rainer E. Lotz
Birgit Lotz Verlag
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