THE RECORD NEWS - Hindi Movies / Films Songs

Valabhdas Runchordas travelled to Europe and managed to acquire the
stampers of discs that had previously been issued as the ‘Singer Record’ which
had originally been manufactured by The Wellington Cycle and Motor Co.,
Bombay and later by Schallplatten-Fabrik Favorite, G.m.b.H., of Hanover-Linden,
Germany [Kinnear 1994].
In 1909, Schallplatten-Fabrik Favorite, G.m.b.H., took over the pressing work of
‘Singer Record’ on behalf of Singer Phono & Record Agency, Bombay. In
November 1912, Schallplatten-Fabrik Favorite, G.m.b.H., was organized as
Favorite Record, A.G. and in October 1913, this company was acquired by Carl
Lindström, A.G., thus placing the ‘Singer record’ masters under the same
ownership as the ‘Beka Record’ and ‘Odeon record’ repertoires, for which
Valabhdas Runchordas was the distributing agent of India. By late 1914,
Valabhdas Runchordas had opened a factory in Bombay in the name of ‘The
Viel-o-phone Co.,’ Ltd., but this venture failed. In 1926, in association with Edison
Bell, Ltd., London, he rebuilt and refurbished the factory. Equipped with new disc
record presses, ‘The Viel-o-phone Co. Ltd.,’ produced an Indian repertoire of
‘Viel-o-phone’ discs along with the ‘Phon-o-phone’ label. These issues were
catalogued to an orange label G-series. This series included Gujrathi, Hindustani,
Punjabi and Sindhi repertoire. The full details of releases on this label are not
known, however, the label remained in circulation until 1930. The most
successful recordings issued on the ‘Viel-o-phone’ label in various label styles
were a series of ‘Koran’ recitations and the ‘call to prayer’ discs which were used
extensively in the mosques.
Valabhdas Runchordas tried to acquire the matrices of Indian repertoire of the
‘Beka’ and ‘Odeon Record’ for which he had been the representative in India,
since 1905. Carl Lindström A.G. Berlin declined his offer and in 1929, started the
process of establishing their-own agencies in India. By 1933, The Viel-o-phone
Co. Ltd. had run into both financial and technical problems. During the mid-
1940’s, the assets of Valbhdas Runchordas, including the factory at Mahim, are
believed to have been sold off.
Today, few records of Viel-o-phone and Phon-o-phone are found with the record
collectors. The ‘Viel-o-phone’ label is printed in a variety of colors with minor
variations of the label style. It has a picture of open right palm in a circle printed
in the top half of the label. Some pressings have ‘Viel-o-phone’ printed on one
side and ‘Viel-o-phone Record’ printed on the reverse side. ‘Phon-o-phone label
has a pair of crossed swords as the trademark. The quality of printing on these
labels is of very low standard. Recorded sound is too noisy and not of very good
quality.
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