[78-L] US Columbia in the UK

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Aherne" <leotolstoy_75 at yahoo.com>
>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.
Correct up to here...! Grigsby-Grunow went broke in 1934, as the market for
high-class radios failed to survive the "First Depression!" ARC then bought 
Columbia
for $70,000...and used it primarily to issue classical product on 
"Masterworks"
album sets...!

<snip> ...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).
CBS, being "The Columbia Broadcasting System" (apparently Columbia records
had a hand in setting up the radio network IIRC?!) probably bought the 
record
company with full intent of restoring the label to pop-music prominence...?! 
What
I DON'T know is why red-label Columbias started their catalog-number
sequence at 35200?! Anyone know?!

> 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.
>
"Columbia" records were pressed and sold under that name for MANY years...

...stevenc