[78-L] Bessie Smith album

[Michael Biel]

xFrom the record numbers in particular series, you can see that the
albums were not issued in the order of these retroactive numberings.  

C-1  Tango Album No. 1   342-M - 347-M
C-2  Tango Album No. 2   373-M - 378-M
C-3  Rumba and Congo Album 351-M - 356-M
C-4  the first issue of Air Raid, which no living person has ever seen
C-5  the second issue of Air Raid  69353-D - S 69356-D
C-6  Merchant of Venice  ME-1  - ME-12
C-7  Twelfth Night       ME-13 - ME-22
C-8  Bessie Smith     3171-D - 3176-D  November 1937
C-9  European Dance Album 310-M - 315-M
C-10 Julius Caesar       ME-24 - ME-34

By the way, ME-23 is Excerpts From Merchant of Venice/Excerpts from
Twelfth Night.  Does anybody have it or even seen it?  

Mercury Theater's abridged Julius Caesar is Masterworks Set 325 11117-D
- 11121-D issued May 1938.
Macbeth was C-33  ME-35 - ME-43 December 1940.

Air Raid was broadcast Oct 17, 1938.  War of the Worlds was broadcast
Oct 30, 1938.  CBS bought ARC/Columbia/Brunswick/Vocalion in December
38, just at the time when Air Raid was probably being released.  As I've
been reading stories in the magazines of the time wondering how this
would change things, I realized that if they issued War of the Worlds
they would have had a HUGE HIT on their hands!!!

The four foreign dance albums are an enigma.  Have any of you ever seen
any of them?  I'm still looking for issue dates since the monthly
Columbia new release supplements on the films at R&H end at Dec 36 and
resume only with that Sept 39 cumulative supplement and the 1940s
numericals.    I recall a posting that was linked from either here or
the ARSCList about a South American archive looking for the unissued
sides.  Something like 40 songs were recorded in ONE NIGHT aboard a ship
in a harbor where local bands were invited on board to play and be
recorded.  The sets are so rare that they didn't even know about the
second Tango album till a dub was given them, and some of the surviving
performers don't remember ever being notified of the releases.  Does
this sound familiar to anyone?  I should also ask on Arsclist.  By late
1940 all the pre-C11 albums other than the Mercury Theater were gone. 
(I'm hoping they will let me go thru the shelves at R&H next week and
they might be there.  There's a new regime there and I don't know the
new higher-ups, and am getting my intros to them via Seth.)

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  




This would put the Bessie Smith album in 1938, unless it WAS issued
earlier 
without a number (as was the case with Victor's Bix Beiderbecke Memorial

Album). From the October 1940 catalog (designed by Steinweiss, by the
way).

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> If I wake up in time (I gotta start getting to bed earlier) Leah and I
> are going to R&H to look at some catalogs and magazines and I will be
> looking to see the issue date.  I do think the album was sold with the
> specific records and I think that George Blacker and I did figure out an
> album catalog number decades ago, but it wasn't easy.  If I can't come
> up with a copy to photograph myself, I NEED a color scan or photo of
> it!!!  Is the photo a glued-on glossy photo?
> 
> By the way, on Friday in less than three hours, Leah and I BLEW THE
> STEINWEISS LEGEND OUT OF THE WATER with some of the evidence we found at
> another branch of NYPL in journals unrelated directly to records that I
> bet nobody has ever thought to use.  No further hints about this stuff
> -- you will have to go to ARSC in New Orleans to find out.  It helps to
> know where to find things.
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  
> 
>       
> 
>   -------- Original Message --------
>  Subject: [78-L] Bessie Smith album
>  From: "Philip Fukuda" <pfukuda at att.net>
>  Date: Mon, January 11, 2010 2:23 am
>  To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>  
>  
>  
>  I'm just catching up on reading my emails after my vacation, so forgive
> me if this has been discussed before.
>  
>  I've been following the Alex Steinweiss thread with interest, but
> didn't have anything to add to the discussion until today. Imagine my
> surprise at finding the c1937 (Driggs and Lewine's "Black Beauty, White
> Heat" say 1938, but I think the label was defunct by then) Bessie Smith
> Album at the 78 swap meet today. It has a brown cover with a photo of
> Bessie with the names of the accompanying musicians. I tend to believe
> the 1937 date since there is no mention of Bessie's death. Did it come
> with a booklet (mine doesn't have one)?
>  
>  There is no text on the inside front or back covers. The album itself
> doesn't have a number, so doesn't look like part of a series.
> Unfortunately, I only have 4 of the 6 records. Also, I get the feeling
> the records were sold individually, but the album was a "freebie" if the
> customer bought all six records. Of course, they are the last six
> records in the -D series.
>  
>  Does anyone have a 1937 or 1938 Columbia catalog or monthly supplements
> to back up any of my wild guesses? 
>  
>  By the way, Happy New Year to all,
>  Philip
> 
> _______________________________
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