The South American Connection: Efraín Band’s Early Record Piracy Operation

The South American Connection: Efraín Band’s
Early Record Piracy Operation

 

The following translated excerpt from Efraín Band y los Inicios de la Fonografía en Chile, by Francisco Garrido Escobar and Renato D. Menare Rowe, exposes an early record-pirating operation in Santiago, Chile.

Band, who was also a legitimate record producer, obtained his pirated masters by electroplating other companies’ commercial pressings. Although the records he pressed from these masters are not known to have been marketed in the United States (where similar operations had been shut down earlier, by court order), they sometimes turn up here, usually to the bafflement of American collectors.

Our thanks to Renato D. Menare Rowe for permission to quote from this fascinating work. Read the complete article.

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Efraín Band employed a very simple method of illegally copying other companies’ records. It consisted of electroplating a regular commercial pressing to obtain a negative metal stamper from the disc, which could be used to press numerous shellac copies. While the resulting copies lacked the same quality as the originals, the advantage for Band was that he didn’t need to hire artists, and could sell these records at a much lower price than the imported records from which they were copied. In addition, Bain placed popular selections on each side, rather than coupling a popular selection with another that was not so well known, as the major companies used to do.

Among other examples of discs pirated by Efraín Band, it is worth highlighting Fonotipia Nos. 39046 and 39056, which coupled Charles Gounod’s “Ave Maria” Charles Gounod and “The Holy Book,” respectively, both by Giannina Rus. These appeared on a record which on one side has a World Records label 2805, and on the other corresponds to an Eagle Disc No. 2804, without indication of composers or artists. The fact that this record has both labels allows us to directly connect both labels with the same manufacturer.

Because this activity bordered on the illegal, the artists and composers usually were not shown on the labels, which were limited to indicating the rhythm or nature of the musical piece. It was not unusual that a “Tenor” turned out to be a great baritone, or that a “Tiple” was actually an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano. As can be seen, Band’s phonographic production was not limited to Chilean  repertoire, but covered all type of music.

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Band left tell-tale original markings clearly visible in his early pirated copies. These examples are from electroplated copies of Victor (top and center) and Gramophone Company (bottom) commercial pressings. In later years, however, he effaced the original markings.

 

In those years the main commercial house of Efraín Band was located in Calle Estado No. 359. However, the pirated discs were mostly marketed through traveling salespeople, who worked on commission. They toured provincial towns with a briefcase with “the latest news.” As one of those salespeople recalls, “I I sold him a lot of records and he paid me a good commission. I went out for a walk with a special briefcase. Once my briefcase was opened I sold all the records.”

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The Águila discs co-existed with another label created by Efraín Band, called Mundial Record. He then created the Mignon label, which was very short-lived. Later, these records were replaced by a new label called Royal Record, which bore a red label with gold lettering and a cat figure.

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The Royal Record labels boasted of international awards. The last to appear were Radio-Tone records, whose labels and envelopes claimed they were electrically recorded. Radio-Tone records remained in production for a long period, finally concluding in 1936 with the death of Efraín Band.

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On the oldest specimens of these discs, today called “pirates,” it is possible to distinguish in the wax the catalog numbers (and in some cases, even the matrix numbers) of the original recordings, which has allowed us to identify them fully. However, in later productions, like Radio-Tone, these numbers were carefully erased, along with any other evidence that would allow their later identification.

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Early Records Pirated by Efraín Band:
A Representative Listing

Compiled by Renato D. Menare Rowe
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Editor’s Note: Titles and descriptions are shown verbatim and unedited. All pressings are double-sided, with reverse-side numbers indicated, “Rev.” The records were issued in Chile on the following labels:

AG = Disco Águila
FA = Fonografía Artística
MI = Mignon Record
MU = Mundial Record

Discographical information (catalog and matrix numbers, and recording dates) has been supplemented in some instances with data from Alan Kelly and John R. Bolig.

 

 

2802   (FA)    Rev.: 2803

Tosca – E lucean le stelle – Tenor con acompañamiento de orquesta.

Enrico Caruso, con orquesta

   Victor 87044 (Mx. B-8346) — Nov 6, 1909

 

2803   (FA)    Rev.: 2803

Manon – Il sogno – Tenor con acompañamiento de orquesta.

Enrico Caruso, con piano

   Victor 81031 (Mx. B-1001) — Feb 1, 1904

 

2834   (AG)   Rev.: 2835

Rigoletto – Questa o quella – Tenor

Enrico Caruso, ac. Piano

   Victor 81025 (Mx. B-994) — Feb 1, 1904

 

2835   (AG)   Rev.: 2834

Rigoletto – La donna è mobile – Tenor

Enrico Caruso, ac. Orquesta

   Victor 87017 (Mx. B-6033) — Mar 16, 1908

 

2839   (MU)    Rev.: 2840

Mignon (Thomas) Ah, non credevi tu

Fernando de Lucia 

   Gramophone 2-52518 (Mx. 8054b) — May 1906

 

2840   (MU)   Rev.: 2839

Mignon (Thomas) La tua bell’alma

Fernando de Lucia

   Gramophone 2-52475 (Mx. 7342b) — 1905

 

2842   (AG)   Rev.: 2872

El Guaraní (Gomes) Sento una forza indomita

Giannina Russ – Gino Martínez-Patti.

   Fonotipia 39797

 

2844   (AG)   Rev.: 2845

Madama Butterfly [Tu, tu piccolo iddio]

Geraldine Farrar

   Victor 87030 (Mx. B-8270) — Oct 2, 1909

 

2845   (AG)   Rev.: 2844

Cavallería rusticana – Siciliana

Enrico Caruso

   Gramophone 53418-XIV (2876b) — Nov 30, 1902

 

2846   (AG)   Rev.: 2848

Cavallería rusticana – Brindis

Enrico Caruso

   Gramophone 52193-VII (Victor Mx. B-2344, as A2344) —
Feb 27, 1905

 

2848   (AG)– Rev.: 2846

Mefistofele – Giunto sul passo

Enrico Caruso

   Gramophone 52347-X (Mx. 1787) — Apr 11, 1902

 

2855   (AG)   Rev.: 2870

Aida – Celeste Aida – Tenor

Alessandro Bonci

   Fonotipia 39695 (Mx. Xph-1985) – 1905

 

2870   (AG)   Rev.: 2855

Fausto – Serenata – Bajo

Tu che fai l’adormentata

Adamo Didur

   Fonotipia 39486 – Feb 23, 1906

 

2872   (AG)   Rev.: 2842

Mefistofele (Boito) – Ave Signor

Nazareno De Angelis.

   Fonotipia 62176

 

2920   (MI)   Rev.: 2923

Il trovatore – Miserere

Enrico Caruso

   Victor 89030

 

2923   (MI)   Rev.: 2920

I pescatori di perle – Del tempio al limitar

Caruso y Ancona

   Victor 89007 (Mx. C-4327) — Mar 24, 1907

 

3425   (AG)   Rev.: 3424

La Casta Susana – Vals

Banda Rodríguez, Cond Walter B. Rogers

   Victor 65326-B — 1913

 

3439   (AG)   Rev.: 3823

Mariette

Victor Military Band

   Victor 17281-A (Mx. B-12854) — Jan 27, 1913

 

3620   (MU)    Rev.: 3622

Vieni sul mar – Tenor – Rep. Italiano – Orquesta.

Enrico Caruso, con orquesta

   Victor Mx. B-23139 – Sep 8, 1919

 

3622   (MU)    Rev.: 3620

Manon – Il sogno – Rep. Italiano – Orquesta.

Tito Schipa, con orquesta

   Victor Mx. B-26140 – May 2, 1922

 

3624   (MU)   Rev.: 3625

Granadinas – Canción

Tito Schipa

   Victor 66039 (Mx. B-26108) — Feb 3, 1922

 

3625   (MU)    Rev.: 3624

A la Orilla de un Palmar – Canción

Tito Schipa

   Victor 992 (Mx. B-27599) — Mar 12, 1923

 

3627   (MU)    Rev.: 3630

Rimpianto (Toselli)

Beniamino Gigli

   Victor 66102 (Mx. B-26167) — Sep 25, 1922

 

3630   (MU)    Rev.: 3627

Padre nuestro – Tango

Carlos Gardel

   Odeon 18078-A (Mx. 1485) 

 

3823   (AG)   Rev.: 3439

Whispering

Paul Whiteman Ambasador [sic] Orch

   Victor 18690-A (Mx. B-24393) – Aug 23, 1920

 

3836   (AG)   Rev.: 3837

Apple Blossoms – One step

Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra

   Victor 18646-A (Mx. B-23396) – Dec 26, 1919

 

3837   (AG)   Rev.: 3836

Arrah Goon [sic: Go On] – One step

Victor Military Band

   Victor 18082-B (Mx. B-17818) – Jun 8, 1916

 

3849   (AG)   Rev.: 3855
3849   (MU)   Rev.: 3855

My Man – Fox trot

Orquesta (Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra)

   Victor 18758 (Mx. B-25028) – Apr 4, 1921

 

3855   (MU)   Rev.: 3849

Cuentos de Hoffmann

Orquesta Rep. Dancing. Solo de violín

   Victor — 1916

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Renato D. Menare Rowe is a genealogist and a researcher and collector of historical recordings living in Santiago, Chile.

Francisco J. Garrido Escobar is an archaeologist and graduate in social anthropology (Universidad de Chile) and curatorial advisor of the Museum of Science and Science and Technology of Santiago.

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