Canadian record labels

[eighteenbelow]

Though I live in the US, I sometimes come across Canadian records when I buy big lots of 78s. Aside from Victor Canada, the most common labels I have found are Starr and Apex. Recently, though, I found two brown discs on the Crown label. Since I only keep records from before 1940 (I give away or donate the rest), these Starr and Apex discs -- and there are a lot of them at this point -- have been sitting in a kind of limbo, as I haven't been able to date them. Can anyone tell me when, approximately, records with labels that look like these were made? As for the Crown (these are the only two I have ever seen), I assume they are earlier than 1940, though I would love to know approximately when they were made, too. If anyone can help with some information, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

[drh]

Well, "The Singing Fool" was released in 1928 and "Broadway Melody" was released in 1929; it seems safe to guess that the Crown records would be at least roughly contemporary.

[epigramophone]

The Compo Company Ltd was founded in 1918 by Herbert Berliner, the eldest son of Emile Berliner.
It was created to press records for several independent American companies who wanted to distribute their records in Canada.
Compo introduced their own Apex and Sun labels in the early 1920's.

[eighteenbelow]

Can someone please give me a more specific date for the Apex and Starr labels? If you can confirm that they are pre-1940 (or post-1940), that would be sufficient. Thanks.

[gramophone-georg]

No lead- in groove means pre 1936, so there's that.

[OrthoFan]

Can someone please give me a more specific date for the Apex and Starr labels? If you can confirm that they are pre-1940 (or post-1940), that would be sufficient. Thanks.

Here are the recording dates:

Apex 26291 -- 1947 -- https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... Apex_26291

Starr 16305 -- 1939 -- https://tunearch.org/wiki/Reel_de_Capland

Crown 81026 -- 1929 -- https://www.discogs.com/release/1203136 ... Play-House

Crown 81046 -- 1929 -- https://www.discogs.com/release/1406782 ... ome-Nights

[Lah Ca]

Stepehen C Barr's book can sometimes be of help with Canadian records.

https://archive.org/details/almostcompl ... r/mode/2up

https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/ti ... m-records/

The Campo 8100 to 81200 series (over a variety of labels, including Crown) starts in 4/29, according to Barr.

The Campo Apex series, beginning with 26291, your record above, dates to 4/47.

But note that these dates are only when these Canadian records were pressed. The music can sometimes have been released on other labels much earlier. And there are always the problems where you can find multiple records on different labels on either side of the border of what is obviously the same musicians playing the same music, perhaps even the same take numbers, but with different artist names on the labels. Sometimes they are Canadian releases initially--studio musicians from Montreal for example. Sometimes they are American releases initially. You can identify when the records were released sometimes but not when they were recorded.
There may have been some cross border piracy.

[JerryVan]

All pressed in Lachine, Montreal. Were all these labels pressed in the same factory, or was Lachine a "hotbed" of Canadian record production, with many different companies pressing records?

[Lah Ca]

All pressed in Lachine, Montreal. Were all these labels pressed in the same factory, or was Lachine a "hotbed" of Canadian record production, with many different companies pressing records?

I don't know enough to provide an absolutely definitive answer here. I suspect the Compo factory was the only record pressing plant in Lachine, which does not exclude Lachine as hotbed of Canadian record production. Compo had another plant elsewhere, as well. And I believe there were other manufacturing companies, too.

As for Compo, you might get a more compolete picture by browsing through the links below:

https://www.capsnews.org/barrcom.htm

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ ... ny-ltd-emc

https://cmrmc.ca/2021/07/10/history-of- ... in-canada/

https://ca.billboard.com/fyi/canadas-fi ... entury-ago

https://arcmtl.org/en/soundark/compo-co ... ject-pt-1/

[Dischoard]

Being in VT I also come across many Canadian Starr and Apex records. I'm a huge fan of Quebecois music so if you're looking to part with them they'd have a good home