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Re: [ARSCLIST] Columbia, 1946
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Ross" <johnross@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> The 1946 Columbia Record Catalog shows most popular records at fifty
> cents, with a few at seventy-five cents. The catalog does not specify
> sizes, so I assume that the 10-inch discs were .50 and the 12-inch were
.75.
>
> I believe the catalog was issued at the beginning of the year. I
> don't have a 1947 catalog; the 1948 book no longer shows prices.
>
Canadian or US of A catalog (I have several of both...!)...?!
In 1946, the standard selling price for Columbia discs was $0.50...in BOTH
countries. Okeh records were then $0.35...although they DID jump to $0.50
just before their issue was (as it turned out) suspended. (RCA)Victor discs
were $0.75...and Decca dropped their blue-label $0.35 series around that
time to concentrate sales efforts on the 50-cent 18xxx series (Decca(C)
issued most 18K records on their 50-cent 10xxx series...while their few
18xxx issues were 75 cents...!)
I have no idea as to WHY...but the price of phonorecords jumped
dramatically in the post-war era...! The chain stores (Sears, Monkey
Wards, usw.) dropped their heavily-discounted labels...and the
"bargain" labels (Bluebird, Okeh...?) disappeared, with a brief
reappearance c.1949 at $0.50 each...! By the time I was buying
phonorecords (c.1957 onward), their standard price was a buck
apiece...which is why I started frequenting various emporia who
sold ex-jukebox records at four or five discs for a buck...!
Oddly enough, when one looks at new-record prices in terms of
hours of work per disc purchased, we are getting REALLY great
deals nowadays...! In 1958, when the minimum wage was $1/hour,
it took an hour's labour to buy a record containing TWO songs!
To-day, with the minimum wage running around $9/hour (at
least in Canada), a CD containing ten to twenty (or more)
songs can cost from $2 (I've bought many!) up to $15...!
Worse yet, when Victor first issued its Red Seal sextets(usw.),
a one-sided phonorecord might cost up to $10...and most
folks were earning $1 a DAY (or less...?!)!
Steven C. Barr