[78-L] Victor release date

[Michael Biel]

Those strange words were used exactly as Rodger indicates.  A dealer
could telegraph Cyclosis5 Majoic7 franistan9 etc and be charged only one
word each.  The words made misspellings insignificant because they
didn't use computers -- they used PEOPLE -- and the words were not easy
to mistake for the wrong record.  

While it is true, as state, that most companies distributed monthly
supplements, most had more frequent releases -- two, three, or four per
month.  The supplement covers the records issued in the PRIOR month. 
Sometimes the release numbers were public knowledge.  For example I have
some Columbia group supplements right here that give the info.  The June
1940 Vocalion supplement says "All releases to and including No. 144"
the July says 148, the August 1940 OKeh and Vocalion supplement says
152, November says 166, and December 1940 says 170.  So it looks like it
was four per month during that turnover era. In fact, that August
supplement which listed both label names and goes to and including No
152 says inside: 'Columbia Recording Corporation announces the return of
one of the grand old names of the recording industry, when with Release
No. 155 the name 'Vocalion' is changed to 'Okeh.'  For a time, releases
of many Okeh artists will be found on both on both Okeh and Vocalion
Labels.  Okeh catalog numbers will be he same as Vocalion.  All the
greatest artists until now, plus many new ones, will be on the new Okeh
Records."  Note that Release No 155 is in NEXT month's supplement, and
that all of these supplements continue to list all of the records issued
since the October 1939 catalog.  Over on the higher priced label, the
July 1940 Columbia Popular Records supplement says "Complete listing of
Columbia Popular records to and incl. Release 39, and Brunswick 75 cent
Standard Records to and incl. Release 10."  The December 1940 says
"Complete listing of Columbia Popular and Columbia Standard Records to
and including Release 61."  About 4 or 5 per month -- one per week.  The
following year they combined the Columbia and Okeh Popular  into one
supplement, and the May 1941 says "Columbia Popular Releases 80-83
inclusive; Okeh popular Releases 189 to 192 inclusive."

Randy Watts noted that although the Sophie sleeve gave a July 5, 1929
[release??] date, the Victor Discography gives an August release date. 
Actually those dates indicate the supplement where the record first
appears, which again, lists the prior month's releases.  They took the
easy way out instead of searching out the dealer lists.  As to if the
dealers were enjoined from selling before the date on the sticker, I
haven't found any rulebook yet.  john Bolig states that Victor records
were available on the 28th of the month, but I am not sure of this.  I
also remember seeing an article in Talking Machine World  that Columbia
stopped issuing monthly supplements for a few months around 1910 because
they wanted people to get out of the habit of only visiting the store
only once a month because they issued records more frequently.  

Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com  



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Victor release date
From: Rodger Holtin <rjh334578 at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, November 19, 2013 11:11 pm
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

Can anybody explain Cyclosis in the upper right hand corner of the
larger label?  From looking at some dealer pages on page 32 in the
Record Research issue # 51/52 May/June 1963 on Perfect Records, it would
appear this Cyclosis was a short-hand way for dealers to order this
disc.  They assigned words from a dictionary page to quantities of
records and another list to equate to record releases.  Kinda neat
system that was a good way to thwart typos and other miscues in using
numbers only to place orders.  I'm guessing this may have been in the
telegraph days, too, where words may have been easier, faster or cheaper
to send that strings of numbers.  Am I right about any of that?  Any
explanation how the Victor system worked?


 
Rodger

________________________________
 From: Han Enderman <jcenderman at solcon.nl>
To: 78-L <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 2:35 PM
Subject: [78-L] Victor release date
 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOPHIE-TUCKER-Doing-What-Im-Doing-for-Love-Feathering-My-Nest-Victor-21993-/271259361412?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item3f28516084&nma=true&si=u%252FpLh8ZwP%252BUcu%252FJ%252BovSAljvCJ7E%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557#ht_920wt_981

Here (# 271259361412) is shown (still visible for a few days):
SOPHIE TUCKER: Doing What I'm Doing for Love & Feathering My Nest /
Victor 21993
in its orig. dealer sleeve, which has printed date July 5, 1929.
Apparently the official release date.

Two questions:
- was it forbidden to sell the record before this date?
- how many release dates there were each month?
The major companies issued monthly catalogue supplements, but how 
did such months relate to the actual date(s) of release?

han enderman