[78-L] US Columbia in the UK

[davdieh at aol.com]

Not necessarily. Louis Sterling's intention was to form a record trust. I believe he had already acquired the Latin American arm of the Lindstrom group (Odeon/Parlophone) before he acquired the US Columbia operation. If its finances hadn't been in such disarray he would have taken it over much sooner. Okeh was acquired in late 1926 -with no immediate improvement in recording technique. 

"I wanted superior recording technology" made a much better story line than "I wanted to own every record label in the world."  EMI was not some accident of the Great Depression, it was Sterling's vision from the very start.
-David Diehl


 

-----Original Message-----









English Columbia bought US Columbia specifically so it could get at Western 
Electric's electrical process.

dl

Harold Aherne wrote:
> 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.
> Â 
> 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). 
> Â 
> 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).
> 
> Â 
> I think.
> Â 
> -Harold
> 
> 
> Â 
> 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
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
> 
> 
> 
_______________________________________________
78-L mailing list
78-L at klickitat.78online.com
http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l