[78-L] Columbia classics [FWD]

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "martha" <MLK402 at verizon.net>
> Thanks to bad management and stock manipulation (or "fraud", if you will)
> Columbia was just a shadow of its pre-1920 self.  Consider that they'd
> offered themselves to Edison, back around 1910, and that Easton had thrown
> himself off his commuter train in his shame over later poor performance.
> It's no wonder that post-1922 Victors outnumber Columbias at least 10 to 1
> in old collections, and that people like Paul Whiteman discovered too late
> that Columbia sales were abysmal.
>
> So, to finally make a point:  Columbia concentrated on making cheap
> dime-store labels after 1925, and barely had any money for fancy 
> orchestral
> recordings - especially when they could draw from European masters.
>
Columbia gradually drifted into financial failure in the early twenties; in 
fact,
they were rescued (and acquired) by their once-UK-subsidiary...which was
prospering under Sterling...so that the British operation could be sure and
license the WE electric-recording-system rights! This is why all the major
changes occurred from 1923-4 through to 1932...when the formation of
EMI in the UK put both Victor and US Columbia under the same owners
and Columbia had to be sold off because of the Sherman Anti-Trust law.
The failed company brought only $70,000.00 in a bankruptcy sale; in
fact, Herbert Berliner had hoped to buy the operation and fold it into
Compo, but couldn't raise the needed money!

1934 was NOT a good year to be selling phonograph/record companies...?!

Steven C. Barr