[ARSCLIST] Aeolian-Vocalian-Brunswick

[James L Wolf <jwol@xxxxxxx>]

Hello again,

   I've got one of those tricky ownership questions again. I'm told
that one ARSC member has suggested that when Brunswick-Balke-Collender
acquired the Vocalion label from Aeolian (on November 29, 1924), that
Brunswick did NOT acquire the rights to recordings which had been
released up to that point by Vocalion.
   The biggest argument against this comes from the 4-volume
discography of Brunswick by Ross Laird. In Volume 3, pp. 1423-25, there
is a short list of "Aeolian-Vocalion Masters Re-Released by Brunswick."
It's a weird assortment of country and Spanish-language songs and a
couple march numbers. My question is, why just these few? Were these
specially acquired or was this all they wanted to re-issue?
   Barring hard evidence to the contrary, it looks like Brunswick did
acquire the Vocalion back catalog. Does anyone have or know of that hard
evidence? Thanks, everybody.

James Wolf