[78-L] Decca???

[soundthink at aol.com]

That's all well and good, but the key question that remains unanswered is: where did the name "Decca" come from? I've never found anything but theories:

a) It represents a five-note sequence, D-E-C-C-A from a Beethoven composition Edward Lewis was fond of (Beethoven's bust can be found on England Decca labels)
b) Named for the Deccan plateau in India, where shellac came from
c) Named for Dacca, a city in Pakistan
d) Something else?

Cary Ginell


-----Original Message-----
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 7:34 pm
Subject: Re: [78-L] An American Decca query



The Brunswick facilities were still being used to record custom material, radio 
ranscriptions and the like after ARC had acquired the catalog. When Decca was 
ormed, they bought the facilities and continued using the same old crappy 
quipment and master numbers. I posted an interesting link a few weeks 
go..let's see if I can find it again:
http://www.vjm.biz/new_page_11.htm
Fascinating stuff, and you'll find the Decca foundation about 2/3 down. Or 
ight here, if you can't wait:
Herbert J. Yates was, in an oblique way, largely responsible for the creation 
f American Decca. Yates was the head of Consolidated Film Industries, a film 
rocessing lab which had acquired a substantial interest in ARC circa October 
930. When in 1934 Yates promised Edward R. Lewis, the head of Decca Records 
td. of London since its 1929 founding, that ARC and Decca could jointly buy 

he financially distressed Columbia Phonograph Company, Lewis crossed the 
tlantic to ink the deal. (The deal was for American Columbia, which marketed 
olumbia in the U.S., its territories and Canada; a separate company, E.M.I., 
ontrolled Columbia everywhere else and was not part of the sale.) On his 
rrival in New York in July 1934, Lewis was shocked to learn that Yates had 
eneged on his promise. While he’d been at sea, ARC had bought Columbia for a 
rice reported at $75,500, a pittance considering that the sale included the 
atalogs of two active labels, American Columbia and OKeh, plus a number of 
iscontinued ones including Harmony, Diva, Velvetone, Clarion, American Odeon 
nd American Parlophone, also the company’s trademark rights, patents and a 
on-union pressing plant at Bridgeport, Connecticut that was especially 
ttractive to the union-loathing Yates. Decca had been left out of the deal, 
ut Lewis soon found a way to even the score with Yates and ARC.
Because Decca Records Ltd. of London also managed British Brunswick under 
uthority of Warner Bros. Pictures, Lewis was acquainted with Jack Kapp, Milton 
ackmil and E.F. Stevens, three of U.S. Brunswick’s top managers, as well as 
ermann Starr of Warners. Negotiations soon began with the goal of starting a 
.S. Decca label in competition to ARC and its labels. Showing great 
rescience, Kapp had placed an escape clause in the contracts of many of 
runswick’s recording artists whereby the contracts could be ended i
f he ever 
eft the company. Thus, when Kapp quit Brunswick for Decca Records Inc., as the 
ew company was called, he was able to bring with him some of Brunswick’s 
est-selling artists, including Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, the Mills Brothers 
nd the Casa Loma Orchestra.

hile the key founders of Decca Records Inc. are generally cited as Lewis, 
app, Rackmil and Stevens, the contributions of Warner Bros. Pictures were no 
ess essential. As Lewis later recalled in his autobiography ("No C.I.C.," 
niversal Royalties Ltd., London, 1956, page 55): "Negotiations took place with 
ermann Starr, head of the Brunswick Radio Corporation, Warner’s subsidiary and 
ow in charge of their extensive music publishing interests. Within a few days 
e had entered into an agreement under which the plant and recording equipment 
ere purchased, and leases were entered into for both the factory and the 
ffices at 619 West 54th Street and the offices and recording studios at 799 
eventh Avenue. The consideration for the purchase was 5,000 out of 25,000 
ommon Shares of $1 each in the new company to be formed as Decca Records Inc., 
nd $60,000 in a series of promissory notes. The plant at that time would not 
ave fetched more than $20,000 or so in a sale, yet for our purposes it had a 
pecial value in that it made it possible for the business to start operations 
mmediately; indeed without this factory plant and office space and equipment 
t is doubtful whether the company could have been st
arted at all."
dl
Royal Pemberton wrote:
 I understand that the pre-ARC Brunswick New York matrix series ends at
 E 37525 in December 1931 whilst Decca's New York series begins at
 38290 in August 1934.
 
 Then there's Brunswick's Chicago series that got as high as C 8851 (9
 December 1932) that picks up at C 9295 (15 August 1934).
 
 It's interesting that there appears to be a one-year difference
 between when New York changed from the E 3XXXX series (end December
 1931) to the ARC series (January 1932) c. 11086, and Chicago's
 changing from C 8851 to an ARC series starting at C 501 (12 January
 1933).
 
 As Jack Kapp is the common link between these two numerical series,
 pre-ARC Brunswick to Decca, I wonder what was recorded, when and for
 whom, in the interim range of numbers?  Did he simply operate as an
 independent recording facility with studios in NYC and Chicago, until
 the Decca offer came along?
 
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