[78-L] Over There to Over Here

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
>> Does anyone know if there were many price-cutter retailers for the
>> big labels during the worst of the Depression? Or did the big guys
>> make their sellers stick to the regular price structure?  Taylor
> Many of their "sellers" were out of business, so I have seen cut prices
> of major label stuff show up in Steers and Monkey Wart catalogs in
> addition to their own labels.  From earlier decades I've always wondered
> about those round yellow "Retired Record" stickers occasionally seen on
> acoustical gold band labels covering the circular Note the Notes
> trademark.  Those are about the only "cut-outs" I've heard of in the
> pre-LP era.
>
1) IIRC, during the earlier part of the depression, records were sold by
dealers who sold only the records offered by the particular firm for whom
they were "Dealers"...thus if you wanted a Victor (or, probably, a Bluebird)
record, you patronized the local "Victor dealer" who also sold Victor
machines. IIRC, there was a court case here in Canada which involved
a dealer who was losing his "dealership" for selling records under the
official list price; as a result the whole "list price" arrangement was 
ordered
out of existence...?!

2) I have fliers from a Toronto "record store" from c.1940 in which they
offer records from all the important labels...suggesting that this marked
the start of "record stores" as we now know them...?! What seems to
have inspired this was the change in the tastes of record buyers; back
in the twenties/early thirties, virtually all labels offered all the current
hit songs. Once the swing era started, the younger record buyers
wanted not just current hits...they wanted the recording made by a
particular favourite band. This meant record dealers had to offer just
about all the important labels in order to offer the "hits!"

3) I have a few Columbia "Retired Records" which also have 59-cent
price tags stuck to their labels; since Columbias sold for 75 cents
or more, this would have been a saving.

Steven C. Barr