[78-L] Blue wax Columbia date??

[Royal Pemberton]

Forgive me, I wasn't totally awake when I typed the above.  I got the
matrix numbers for Columbia 2948-D wrong.  They're CO.15541-B and
CO.15542-B.  My oopsie....

On 6/17/09, Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Royal Pemberton" <ampex354 at gmail.com>
>> On 6/16/09, Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net> wrote:
>>> Well, Columbia basically went broke in mid-1934, and was picked up by ARC
>>> for
>>> $70,000...matrices, rights and all! The company had been picked up by
>>> Grigsby-
>>> Grunow, the makers of Majestic radios...but there was a VERY limited
>>> market
>>> for both records and upscale radios in mid-depression times...!
>>> AFAIK, Columbia "died" in the late summer of 1934, and their 15####
>>> matrix
>>> series stopped dead; ARC switched to the series started by Plaza at 5001,
>>> which was at around 15xxx. I suspect DL can give us more detail, since he
>>> owns the "Columbia Master Book" (which I can't afford...?!).
>>> I also have a 1934 Columbia catalog (or THINK I do?!)...
>>> ...stevenc
>> The recording sessions seem to have stopped for about a month in the
>> early summer of 1934.  In an interesting coincidence, the last four
>> W.15XXXX matrices on Columbia were released on two consecutive
>> catalogue numbers, and the last four on Okeh (the 'final four', if you
>> will of the W.15XXXX series), on two consecutive catalogue numbers as
>> well.
>> Ben Selvin and his orchestra, 28 June 1934:
>> W.152765-2  'Rollin' home'  2935-D
>> W.152766  'I only have eyes for you'  2936-D
>> W.152767-2  'The prize waltz'  2935-D
>> W.152768  'Born to be kissed'  2936-D
>> Then, Chick Webb and his orchestra, 6 July 1934:
>> W.152769  'Blue minor'  Okeh 41572
>> W.152770  'True'  Okeh 41571
>> W.152771  'Lonesome moments'  Okeh 41572
>> W.152772  'If it ain't love'  Okeh 41571
>> As for the Columbia ARC series, the first issue to have any of them is
>> 2940-D, two titles from STUDENT TOUR as played by Johnny Green's
>> orchestra, 'A new moon is over my shoulder' (CO.15620) and 'By the Taj
>> mahal' (CO.15621), recorded 13 August 1934.
>> The lowest numbers in this ARC Columbia series appear on 2948-D, Phil
>> Regan singing the same two numbers:  '....Taj Mahal' is CO.15541-A and
>> 'A new moon....' is CO.15542-A, recorded 7 August 1934.
>> Strange....instead of numerical take suffices in the Columbia manner,
>> these sides have alphabetical suffices a la Brunswick or Okeh.  Also
>> weird, the leadout grooves end in a concentric groove on my copy (like
>> unto a 1932 or 1933 Columbia disc), and not the eccentric groove
>> they'd started using apparently in early 1934.
>> I wonder how many records that alphabetical practice lasted before
>> they went back to numerical suffices?
>>
> Columbia may have been a bit confused? They used the ARC numbers on
> Brunswick, with "letter takes" (and had since 1932); as well, Okeh (the
> 40xxxx numbers) used "letter takes....?!"
>
> ...stevenc
>
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