US Columbia company. For the UK company (1917-1965) please go to Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd.
The manufacturing and marketing/sales companies responsible for records bearing the Columbia label (and various affiliated and client labels) is complex.
Although their names were almost identical, the "Columbia Graphophone Company", the "Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company" and the "Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd." were all distinct companies. Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd. was a British affiliate of the Columbia Graphophone/Phonograph Company, and is not the correct record company responsible for manufacturing Columbia products in the U.S. during the early 20th century.
All Columbia discs produced between 1902-1916 were manufactured by the American Graphophone Company, and discs of this era credit the Columbia Phonograph Co., which was the marketing/sales arm of the Columbia Phonograph Company Gen'l.
The record company known as "Columbia Phonograph Company, Gen'l" was renamed the "Columbia Graphophone Company" at the end of January, 1913, and this name appears on discs produced in the U.S. between 1913-1923.
The manufacturing arm of this company, the "American Graphophone Company" was reorganized in early 1916 as the "Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company". In 1922, the Columbia Graphophone Company sold its stock in the British affiliate, and the American parent was reorganized as the "Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc."
In March 1925, the British affiliate took control of U.S. Columbia. Discs produced between 1924-1932 credit the "Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc.", but technically the "Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd." was the parent company during much of the time between 1925 and 1931.
In 1931 the U.S. company was separated again from the British one (which formed part of EMI). American Columbia ownership passed to the Grigsby-Grunow Company in late 1931, and to the American Record Corporation (ARC) in 1934. Consolidated Film Industries, which owned ARC, sold the conglomerate (including Columbia) to Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938.
