>>> [email protected] 11/23/03 10:53PM >>> Since the OKeh question has already been answered, I will mention that particularly "hot" jazz (Louis Armstron, Joe Venuti, Fred Hall, etc.) as well as country/string bands and blues/race are pretty desirable.
Vocalion started in 1918 from Aeolian Vocalion, which also made player pianos and instruments. It wasn't until 1920 that the name was changed to VOCALION and did pressings in red/orange/brown (they even had the advertising slogan "Red Records Are Better.") It was sold to Brunswick-Balke-Collender in 1924, and also switching to black shellac instead of 'red' since it was more in favor. Warner Brothers Pictures owned them, as well as the American Record Corporation in the 1930's. It was discontinued around 1940. Emerson is a pretty interesting label. They also used the same recordings on minor labels that they produced (Regal, Medallion, Melodisc, Symphonola, Clover, Dandy) as well as being part of the Grey Gull chain of labels in the mid 1920's. The labels changed quite a bit from 1915 to 1927, producing records in 5", 6", 7", 9", 10" and extremely rare 12" sizes. Victor Emerson started the label after he left his position as the general manager of Columbia's recording department (he was also involved with Little Wonder records Columbia produced). Believe it or not, I think the Emerson Company is still around, manufacturing TV's and VCR's (the logo's look alike) but I'm not sure. Grey Gull, I must admit in my opinion, was one of the slopiest labels of the 1920's. It was Arthur Hall that described the company as "A cheap outfit. They still owe me money!" (and this was the 1950's when he said this.) The shellac was made of bad material, and their early electrical recordings sounded distorted (they sound like they were recorded in someone's basement with the sound bouncing off the walls). Even if the records are in nice shape, they still had bad sound quality (although I have a few late Madison's that sound good, I guess they improved later on). They also produced several other labels, including Radiex, Supreme, Globe, Nadsco, Madison, Youngster (for children), Van Dyke, etc. etc. They relied heavily on studio singers and musicians, who recorded either under pseudonyms or anonymously. They even pressed records with label errors (I have a "Jack Kaufman" record that's really Arthur Fields, and an "Arthur Fields" that's really Al Bernard). Messy, messy company that still needs a lot of research. Oriole was part of the Scranton Button company chain of labels, such as Banner, Oriole, Regal, Domino, Jewel, Conqueror, Broadway, etc. etc. and issued the same recordings that were on these labels. Like Grey Gull, Scranton was also a cheap manufacturer of records. They manufactured buttons at first, but later figured out how to do records as well. Orioles were sold by McCrory's, and continued until 1938 when the American Record Corporation owned them. One of the best books on record labels is Allan Sutton's "American Record Labels And Companies," with a CD-rom of images by Kurt Nauck. -Ryan _________________________________________________________________ Share holiday photos without swamping your Inbox. Get MSN Extra Storage now! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es _______________________________________________ Phono-l mailing list [email protected] http://t2.cwihosting.com/mailman/listinfo/phono-l_oldcrank.com
