[78-L] Advent of Electrical Recording

[David Lennick]

This W actually refers to World, which did the recording for Columbia for a 
while in the early CBS period. I don't think Columbia was using Western 
Electric after the early 30s.

dl

Royal Pemberton wrote:
> Did Sacro also continue the payment of patent license royalties to WE after
> its takeover of Columbia, and if so, for how long?  None of the Columbias I
> have from the Sacro era (wouldn't that be technically a more accurate name
> for the post-Grigsby-Grunow/pre-CBS period?) have the W in the dead wax
> (though I've seen labels of some I don't have, that showed the matrix number
> as something like 'CO-W-1xxxx' or 'W-CO-1xxxx' that I presume did have the W
> in their dead wax areas).
> 
> I wonder why the W symbol reappears on some mid-1940s Columbias?  I don't
> mean repressings of, or even dubbed reissues, of previously released
> electrical sides recorded by Columbia between 1925 and 1934 or so, but
> mid-40s recordings.
> 
> Here's a pair of examples of what I'm asking about:  17409-D, one side is
> CO.35354-1, the other is CO.37025-2; 37351, matrices HCO.2138-1 and
> HCO.2139-1 (37351 being 'Moten swing' by Harry James).  On these records the
> old W appears at the 3 o'clock position relative to the matrix numbers which
> appear at the traditional 6 o'clock position.
> 
> For how long were Victor and Columbia required to pay patent royalties to
> WE?  Only until the patents concerned ran out (and when did they do so)?
>