[78-L] Victor Scroll Labels in Canada?

[David Lennick]

Compo issued electricals before other labels, but they were from Marsh Labs. 
Tell me more about Compo doing Victor's electrical tests!
There's an interesting hybrid disc released only in Canada, purporting to be 
Jack Shilkret's Orchestra doing YOU AND I acoustically on one side (blue label) 
and electrically on the other (black label). The odd thing is that they are 
likely not the same orchestra at all, and the electrical side appears to be of 
Canadian origin but nobody's found out which orchestra did it. It sounds to me 
as if someone copied the arrangement from the acoustical side and had a local 
orchestra try and duplicate it. It also sounds as if the transcriber played the 
acoustical version at the wrong speed because the sides don't match in pitch, 
and not in an "acousticals play faster" fashion.

dl

On 4/3/2012 8:47 PM, Mike Daley wrote:
> Except that it was Emile Berliner's son Herbert that started Compo, in
> direct competition with his father.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compo_Company
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Steve Williams<jazzhunter at collector.org>  wrote:
>> Remember that this is tied in with introduction of electric recording.  In
>> Canada from the get-go electrically-recorded Victors identified the new
>> process on the label as "V.E. Process", the VE in an oblong being required
>> under the Western Electric contract to identify recordings made with their
>> patented method.  Also the labels generally switched from blue to black,
>> though continuing and reissued acoustic releases used a black label.  I have
>> seen a blue "VE Process" label on a standard 10" dance band release, but
>> that's rare.. Overall however both acoustic and Electric releases used the
>> same batwing style.
>>
>> However, in the States, to protect the backlog of Acoustic recordings
>> (though the story goes a bit deeper than that) electric releases were not
>> acknowledged in any way, except for the VE symbol embedded in the runout
>> area.  When Victor decided to admit to the superior Electric process in
>> November 1925 they did it with a bang, ads in the papers, store flyers etc.
>> and trademarked it as "Orthophonic."  At this time, to emphasise the big
>> improvement, they introduced the scroll (or Octagon) label with the "VE" at
>> the top.  Canada continued to use the batwing label except "VE Process" was
>> changed to "VE Orthophonic" and later just "Orthophonic" with a tiny VE
>> symbol above that. There was no big announcement of a change in Canadian
>> releases, therefore probably that's why there was no big change in label
>> style.
>>
>> Just by the way, The Compo Company in Montreal had North America's first
>> electric studio actually releasing product in 1924.  The earliest Victor
>> electric tests were done by Canadian Compo, which was founded by Berliner
>> after he left Victor.  So Canada has a special place in the history of
>> electric recording, along with Victor actually acknowledging Electric
>> releases before the US.  Canadian Victor was AHEAD of the US, not "Behind"
>> in doing anything...
>>
>> ..Steve Williams  ..
>>
>> Message: 9
>> Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 08:57:21 -0400
>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Victor Scroll Labels in Canada?
>> To: 78-L Mail List<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Message-ID:<BLU0-SMTP495DF80E6A0182B6A40284BD4D0 at phx.gbl>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed
>>
>>> Nope, Canada never had them. Maybe a slightly modified scroll for the
>> Program
>>> Transcriptions, but for general releases Canadian Victor stuck with Batwing
>>
>>> right through 1946. We were even a year late changing that to RCA Victor,
>> we
>>> kept Buff Bluebird into 1939 and used the Staff label for only about six
>> months
>>> as well. The first Scroll label in Canada might have been on the lp Nilsson
>>
>>> Schmilsson.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> On 4/3/2012 1:30 AM, Clifford Bolling wrote:
>>> In the U.S., Victor labels evolved from Batwing to Scroll to Ring design
>> for their labels.
>>> Did the Scroll label get skipped for Canadian pressings and go straight
>> from Batwing to Rings??
>>> I have some Canadian pressed 'HIS MASTER'S VOICE/VICTOR' label records
>> that I know
>>> were made in the 1940s that are still Batwing, but I don't recall ever
>> seeing Canadian Scroll design labels.
>>>
>>> http://PDX78s.cdbpdx.com/CanSC/
>>>
>>> Thanks!  CDB
>>
>>
>>