[78-L] US Columbia in the UK

[Harold Aherne]

I don't know exactly when Columbia Graphophone set up the UK branch (1900, I
think I remember seeing), but from that point until 1951-52, US and UK Columbia
were closely linked. Nonetheless, the corporate relationship did not remain the
same during those 50-odd years. Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of
these rather fine points.
 
Until about 1922, UK Columbia was a subsidiary of US Columbia. The American 
branch went through some financial turmoil in 1922-1923 and sold the British firm,
which by 1925 bought the American branch (so *that* was now technically the subsidiary). 
That arrangement continued until the EMI merger in 1931. American Columbia (and OKeh)
could not be included because of US anti-trust laws (e.g., EMI would own Columbia and 
have a large stake in Victor because of the HMV connection), so US Columbia was sold
to the Grisby-Grunow company, makers of Majestic radios. They sold it to ARC in 1934, 
which was in turn bought by CBS in late 1938. They revived the Columbia label several
months later; all through this time and up to the early 50s US Columbia releases generally
appeared on UK Columbia (AFAIK). 
 
After the CBS-EMI relationship ended, Columbia releases appeared on Phillips until 1961
and then, of course, on CBS (because EMI owned the rights to the Columbia name in most
of the eastern hemisphere). EMI retired its Columbia label in 1972 (at least in Britain, I don’t
know about the rest of Europe or India) and in the early 1990s relinquished its rights to the 
Columbia name back to Sony (by now the owner of the American Columbia catalogue).

 
I think.
 
-Harold


 
From: agp <agp2176 at verizon.net>
Subject: [78-L] US Columbia in the UK
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2009, 10:57 AM

The discussion of about Jonathan and Darlene got me to thinking about 
the fortunes of US Columbia in the UK prior to the birth of the CBS 
label there.

I am not sure what happened with US Columbia releases in the 40s --- 
did they end up on HMV?

But - as my main interest is the 50s (what I'll call the US Columbia 
lp era, knowing that it started in th late 40s) and beyond, I wonder 
about the cross pollination cross the Atlantic. Are these facts correct:

1950s (lp era) US Columbia (and Okeh) releases ended up on Philips
Later 50s US Columbia releases were on Philips, Epic releases (and 
some Okeh) where on Fontana.
Likewise, UK Philips and Fontana domestic releases came out on 
Columbia and Epic in the USA.

Is this mostly true

Tony


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