[78-L] Quality of Columbia Recordings

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

Letter from Louis Sterling, Monday, March 6, 1939
Letter to E. Wallerstein of American Record Corporation from Louis 
Sterling, Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, England. 
[Note: Although this letter is brief, it is important for what it 
suggests about the relationship between American Record Corp., Columbia 
Phonograph, CBS, and the English company, Columbia Graphophone.]

Dear Mr. Wallerstein,
I have your letter of February 24th, and take this opportunity of 
extending to you my heartiest congratulations on becoming President of 
the American Record Corporation and its subsidiaries, [emphasis added] 
and I wish you every success in your new job. As you know, we have been 
very disappointed in the past with the recordings we have had from the 
Columbia Phonograph Co. Inc., and I sincerely hope that with the new 
management under yourself and the parent Broadcasting Company [emphasis 
added], the Columbia Mark will get a much bigger share of the important 
artists recording than it has had in the past.

We shall, of course, as in the past do our best to co–operate with the 
American Company in every way. I have sent you today a cable as per 
attached confirmation, in accordance with the request contained in your 
letter, which I hope will be satisfactory.

Kind regards, yours sincerely (Louis Sterling)

Note: Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd.’s registered office was 98 to 
108 Clerkenwell Road, London, E.C.1 The company letterhead identifies 
the company as manufacturer of Columbia Grafonolas, Columbia New 
Process Records, Columbia Radio, Columbia Radio-Graphophones. Also 
listed on the mast head are the following directors: The Rt. Hon. Lord 
Marks, Alfred Clark, William Forse, J. Gray, H. L. H. Hill, Sir Arthur 
Cornelius Roberts, Edward De Stein, Sir Louis Sterling.