[78-L] HMV catalog/archive?

[Malcolm Rockwell]

Thanks, Benno.
I'd love to go on a field trip to England, if I could get someone to pay 
for it!
I have lots of collector/historian/discographer friends there I've never 
met.
What I really need are song title/matrix & issue number lists of B, BD 
and EA issue series recordings produced in 1920s-1930s. Perhaps the 
CLPGS may have these. I'm checking.
Mal

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On 7/5/2010 10:01 AM, goldenbough at arcor.de wrote:
> Malcolm,
> there are indeed plenty of catalogs around listing what was issued, but there is no catalog
> of what they actually have in their archive.
>
> You would think that they have everything they issued, but this is not the case. For example,
> the HMV AX series of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian material:  they only have about
> 60% (my guess).
> On the other hand, they have also runs of, say, Turkish Columbia RT series (with which they
> legally had nothing to do). Or records which the HMV Dum Dum plant in Calcutta (now: Kolkata)
> pressed. I suppose that these series were sent them as a courtesy. And even in all these series
> 40% seems to be missing.
>
> I have a photo of the Victor 38.000 Blues series there (at the old premises), where these $5000
> records were leaning at a 45 degrees angle in the shelves!
>
> In short: they have most of what they issued, plus some from other companies.
>
> Same is true for paperwork. Binders with correspondnce are there, but were obviously not
> systematically kept.  1904 may be well documented, and then maybe 1905, for an unknown
> reason, is not.
>
> As a matter of fact, they don't even know what they have. You'd have to make an appointment
> with them and check on the spot.
>
> Benno
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