The Beginning of the End?

[Marco Gilardetti]

Yes it was an Italian company (Compagnia Generale di Elettricità) which was based in Milan. It was initially affiliated with General Electric, and then later, when radio production begun, also with RCA, with which it shared patents. At a point in time the affiliation was so close that their badges had a similar design: in the ads of the previous message you can spot a circular badge with a thunder, that very closely recalls (font and all) that of RCA.

[Inigo]

That's amazing. I believed I had posted herein some photos of the record labels and a short history about my early Spanish Columbia shellac lps of 1933, but I've been incapable of finding nothing except a short mention of them... I bought them five years ago... but no trace of the original post. it could have been that I posted on 78--L, not here...

[Marco Gilardetti]

So... No possibility of finding that post elsewhere, or to have your notes rewritten here?

[Inigo]

Finally I found what happened, and it is that I was preparing a more substantial article to send to the CLPGS magazine, and I've made a draft... not yet completed

[Marco Gilardetti]

So... any possibility of reading something from this famous never completed article about early Spanish LPs?

What do we know about them? Were they pressed in shellac, or were they made with some early thermoplastic compound?

Does any of these records survive? Any possibility of ever seeing a picture of them?

Does it seem confirmed that their revolution speed was "plain" 33 and not 33 ⅓?

[Inigo]

I think I must forget about trying to write a long interesting piece... you know, sometimes I tend to complicate things more than they actually are. And I tend also to procrastinate. In search of perfection but not in the right direction... Ha, ha
I'll simply take the small bits of original sources I've found about these records, the photos of them, and post them here. I actually found two of them three which I knew existed. Was one of those rare lucky findings which make chasing for old records so exciting.
They're marked 33 ⅓ indeed.
Original recordings were made in Spain, by the Columbia Graphophone S.A.E. in San Sebastián, I believe by early 1933, under the then used Regal brand. I ignore of they were made with the assistance of the British Columbia engineers that used to come here to help making recordings. In any case, I've not found any reference of the British Columbia engineers doing something similar nor issuing similar records in UK nor USA, so probably it was a Spanish development. No more were produced, and they continued in the Columbia catalogue for nine years, last time I see them in the 1942 catalogue, then branded Columbia after the litigation with Gramófono-Odeon and the separation from EMI. Interesting story... I should write it down... I've also found adverts for the portable Columbia gramophones (spring motor) made by the Basque people with the two speeds, 33 ⅓ and 78.

[Inigo]

See viewtopic.php?p=343434#p343434

[Governor Flyball]

As I pointed out in another thread, by 1930, Columbia US had divorced itself from Columbia UK. In 1931 Columbia UK amalgamated with the Gramophone Company to form EMI. EMI was still linked to Victor US hence the Spanish 33 ⅓ rpm records are an extension of the US 33 ⅓ rpm Victor Transcription series and have nothing to do with Columbia US.
I suspect the European pressings used standard shellac to offset wear. You will find the only real difference is the speed as the grooves and needle playback is the same with standard 78 rpm discs.
And do not confuse the ill fated Victor 33 ⅓ rpm experiment with the later more sophisticated 1948 Columbia LP. The LP denoted the 33 ⅓ rpm and microgroove with permanent jewelled stylus for true long play. The Victor 33 ⅓ rpm 12" discs play for only about 12 minutes.
It is also interesting that the 33 ⅓ rpm speed derived from Western Electric's sound motion picture experiments in the mid twenties. The speed was chosen to gear link the motion picture projector to the turntable to allow the 16" disc with standard groove playback duration to match the length of one reel of film.

[Inigo]

Given the characteristics and independence of our basque Columbia 'branch' from the international Cos., I have serious doubts that ever they had anything to do with RCA Victor. The spanish Co. was not a branch in the true sense; this is what I usually say to tell it short, but it was actually a quite different thing. Founded by basque entrepeneurs as an independent business, was a private enterprise based on spanish capital only. The connections with the European and American Co. was only by means of the contracts signed between the proprietors of a former business (Sociedad Hispano Americana) and those Columbia Cos. These were signed while the Columbias were still independent from one another, in January 1923. Later these basque impresarios constituted the Columbia Graphophone S.A.E. and provided the licensee contracts as assets to the company. The recordings made in Spain were labelled REGAL (I suspect that the USA kept the rights to use the COLUMBIA label in Spain) and done by engineers that came from the UK with mobile equipment (Mr. J. Holme and a spanish assistant named Mr. Machín). Other records were pressed directly from imported matrixes from the USA Co. and UK/European Cos. By January 1933, when the first 331/3 discs were launched, the contract with the UK Co. had already finished (only 10 years duration). The contract with the USA Co I don't know when was signed and what was its duration. I suspect that the engineers that kept coming from the UK Co. learned the basque engineers to record and all the secrets, so they could develop their own recording art, quite good. Much better than the recordings of Gramófono Barcelona, although as good as the ones made in Spain by Odeon and Parlophon.
By 1935 the basque group dissolved and ended the society. One proprietor Juan Inurrieta alone re-founded a new 'Fabrica de Discos Columbia S.A.' with his only capital, and acquired all the previous spanish Regal matrixes which were acquired by him solely from the dissolved company. He also acquired from the catalans through an intermediate purchaser the rights to use the Columbia label in Spain.
A pretty intrincated and complex nightmare all this subject, yet there are obscure points in this story that are not clear.
ITOH, the Gramófono company of Barcelona was who always kept ties with UK Gramophone Co, later EMI, and through them with US Victor. But they never issued here the 331/3 records, despite having the real connections to have done this if wanted.
After the 1931 EMI amalgamation, the Barcelona Gramófono Co. acquired the rights to all European Columbia connections, and launched its own REGAL records, not connected with the basque ones.
At the light of all these facts, I suspect that the 331/3 records were developed by the spanish learned engineers of the basque Co. themselves, it was indeed as easy as lowering the speed and no more. They were also developing their own record mixtures and composition, and their records were of a quality much superior to the ones of the competitors, even later during the 40s and 50s. Technically, our Columbia Co. was far superior to Gramófono/EMI until the 70s.

[Governor Flyball]

I couldn’t find a free photo of a Columbia LP attachment so this link to one on eBay will have to do.

Columbia wasn’t a phonograph maker, so they contracted out to Philco to make these attachment players. This one of several they made. Could even be the earliest.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155719181018?h ... 24419622da

The Philco Clamshell attachment was of a different era and nothing to do with the standard groove 33 ⅓ rpm discs fro the twenties and thirties.

1948 marked the introduction of the Microgroove LP with the Philco clamshell. The only thing in common was the 33 ⅓ rpm speed which at that time had been long established and standardized from the mid twenties.