Publix (2)

(1927-1929) Manufactured by the Columbia Phonograph Company for sale in Publix Theater lobbies at Paramount Pictures showings. Publix Theaters registered its trademark, on which its record label design was based, in 1927. Paramount Pictures first registered its trademark in 1914. There is no connection between Paramount Pictures and the New York Recording Laboratories' Paramount label. Although Publix records promoted songs from Paramount films, they were not sound track recordings. Rather, they were pressings from Columbia's budget-series masters, and they often used the same material as Harmony, Velvet Tone, and other low-priced Columbia labels. Performances were by the usual New York-area free-lance bands and vocalists (using pseudonyms in most cases), not by stars of the films that the records promoted. Both acoustically and electrically recorded issues are known. The Publix label is fairly scarce today. In some cases, Columbia's files show pressing runs of only 500 copies per record.