The Spanish Columbia 1933 shellac LPs
Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 1:23 pm
By this same year time, six years ago, I found and purchased something I never saw before, except in the spanish Columbia catalogues. A real treasure, very rare; never had seen any of these records in 45 years collecting 78s. What I found was two of the four issued Spanish shellac LPs (33 ⅓ rpm) made by our Columbia branch in 1933. These were recorded by our spanish Columbia Graphophone Company S.A.E. of San Sebastian (Basque Country), a spanish company founded in 1923 for making records with the Regal brand, using the Columbia laminated process on which they pressed spanish recordings and also USA and European Columbia matrixes, all which they could press by means of licensee agreements with both USA and UK Columbia.
From bibliography I’ve known that at least four of these 33 1/3rpm shellac records were recorded and issued early in 1933 (Regal RKY-10001 to 10004) although with little commercial success. Nevertheless, they still were in the catalogue in December 1935, when the Spanish branch of Columbia had been liquidated and then re-founded as an independent company, losing its ties with US and UK Columbia. The Spanish Columbia catalogue for 1936, made in December 1935 displayed several portable models; one was an electrical turntable which could be plugged into a radio, another was a complete radiogram, and the other three were crank portables. One of them can play either standard 78s or the new 33 ⅓ LPs. The crank portables were not very expensive, costing ⅓ of the price of the luxurious 113a (copy of the british one, probably imported from UK), even in the case of model no.14 with the two-speed feature.
These records were later relabelled and renumbered as Columbia RGLD-10000 to 10003, appearing so in the May 1942 Columbia general catalogue, but not anymore in later catalogues.
They must be very scarce, as in 40 years collecting, they are the first examples I’ve ever seen, taking into account that in Spain, it is easy to find lots of pressings of the Spanish Columbia records from all their 78rpm era (1923-1956).
These shellac LPs were developed with a clear commercial intention. The only four examples issued (first two in 1933 and the other two between 1933 and 1935) featured purposely made original recordings, not dubbed from 78s. The music pieces recorded are 15 minutes orchestral selections from the Spanish zarzuela repertoire, and carry consecutive matrix numbers from 1 on, in a new Spanish series KY-. The standard Spanish series for the Columbia recordings was K- for 10" and KX- for 12”. All them with the (W) symbol denoting electrical recording.
The orchestra is a purposely assembled team (Viva-Tonal Orchestra, Viva-Tonal Band) but the conductor was one of the frequent collaborators with Columbia in that era (Daniel Montorio). No clues about the actual dates or places of recording, as this matrix series was new, and independent from the K- series currently used. The only clues are given in rare bibliography and articles I've found, and in a published Spanish music newspaper (Musicografia no. 1, page 15; may 1933) whose first numbers features articles on recently published records. This no.1 talks about the first two LPs, labeled Regal LKY-10001 and 10002. I own numbers 10001 and 10003.
Here are images of the labels, and some other images from the catalogues where I've seen them, and the portable spring gramophone with 33 ⅓ rpm speed that can play them.
From bibliography I’ve known that at least four of these 33 1/3rpm shellac records were recorded and issued early in 1933 (Regal RKY-10001 to 10004) although with little commercial success. Nevertheless, they still were in the catalogue in December 1935, when the Spanish branch of Columbia had been liquidated and then re-founded as an independent company, losing its ties with US and UK Columbia. The Spanish Columbia catalogue for 1936, made in December 1935 displayed several portable models; one was an electrical turntable which could be plugged into a radio, another was a complete radiogram, and the other three were crank portables. One of them can play either standard 78s or the new 33 ⅓ LPs. The crank portables were not very expensive, costing ⅓ of the price of the luxurious 113a (copy of the british one, probably imported from UK), even in the case of model no.14 with the two-speed feature.
These records were later relabelled and renumbered as Columbia RGLD-10000 to 10003, appearing so in the May 1942 Columbia general catalogue, but not anymore in later catalogues.
They must be very scarce, as in 40 years collecting, they are the first examples I’ve ever seen, taking into account that in Spain, it is easy to find lots of pressings of the Spanish Columbia records from all their 78rpm era (1923-1956).
These shellac LPs were developed with a clear commercial intention. The only four examples issued (first two in 1933 and the other two between 1933 and 1935) featured purposely made original recordings, not dubbed from 78s. The music pieces recorded are 15 minutes orchestral selections from the Spanish zarzuela repertoire, and carry consecutive matrix numbers from 1 on, in a new Spanish series KY-. The standard Spanish series for the Columbia recordings was K- for 10" and KX- for 12”. All them with the (W) symbol denoting electrical recording.
The orchestra is a purposely assembled team (Viva-Tonal Orchestra, Viva-Tonal Band) but the conductor was one of the frequent collaborators with Columbia in that era (Daniel Montorio). No clues about the actual dates or places of recording, as this matrix series was new, and independent from the K- series currently used. The only clues are given in rare bibliography and articles I've found, and in a published Spanish music newspaper (Musicografia no. 1, page 15; may 1933) whose first numbers features articles on recently published records. This no.1 talks about the first two LPs, labeled Regal LKY-10001 and 10002. I own numbers 10001 and 10003.
Here are images of the labels, and some other images from the catalogues where I've seen them, and the portable spring gramophone with 33 ⅓ rpm speed that can play them.