[78-L] Pairing artists for greater sales

[Michael Biel]

David Lennick wrote:
> By the way, the label didn't go to "RCA Victor" in Canada until 1947. And on 
> looking at Bluebird records from 1941 pressed in both countries, I notice "RCA 
> Manufacturing Company" on the American label and "RCA Victor Company Limited" 
> on the Canadian one, so it's all one.
>
> David Lennick wrote:
>   
>> Artists still referred to the label as "Victor". Dinah Shore does so on an 
>> early 50s broadcast. Pre-1946 Victor catalog numbers remained the same when 
>> they were re-pressed as RCA Victor.
>>     

What is on the label above the spindle hole: Victor, Victrola, RCA 
Victor, Bluebird, RCA Bluebird, does not matter nor have any 
significance  to what's in the grooves.   We are actually discussing 
management  policies--the decisions of who to record and with whom--and  
the major management change occurred in 1929 when RCA took over the 
Victor Talking Machine Co. and changed the name of the COMPANY to Victor 
Talking Machine Division  Radio-Victor  Corporation of America.  Within 
a year it was RCA Victor Company, Inc.  It was only around  1936 or 36 
when it became RCA Manufacturing Co. Inc. (although the 1936 catalog 
states the company name on the title page as RCA Victor Division of RCA 
Manufacturing Co. Inc.), then finally RCA Victor Division of Radio 
Corporation of America, which is the name that continued from the late 
30s into the 50s.   So, the only time in the 78 era when the COMPANY was 
called  ONLY RCA Victor Company, Inc. was from late 1929 into the 
mid-30s which covers the Program Transcription, Timely Tunes, and early 
buff Bluebird era.  The management change occurred at the point of the 
VTM Division of Radio-Victor Corp of Amer.  name. 

>> And who the hell cares anyway? By now we've established that the Victor label 
>> was as prolific as most others (except Decca which carried on the pairing 
>> tradition Jack Kapp brought over from Brunswick) in combining artists, no?
>>
>> dl
>>
>>     

True, both before and after RCA took Victor over.

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com 

>> David Weiner wrote:
>>     
>>>> Dave W.
>>>>         
>>>  But ALL of the ones you cite are RCA Victor except the one that I had 
>>> previously mentioned, Paul Robeson & Paul Whiteman.  He wants citations 
>>> of PRE-RCA pairings on Victor, and I had cited the occasional star 
>>> parings of performers not ordinarily encountered together, such as 
>>> Caruso & Mischa Elman, Alma Gluck & Efram Zimbalist (actually Mr. & 
>>> Mrs.), and Billy Murray & Jean Goldkette Orch., along with the 
>>> aforementioned Robeson and Whiteman. 
>>>
>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Oops - I was thinking of "Victor" as pre-1946, when the labels went from
>>> Victor to RCA Victor!  My bad!
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>