The BLUE PAGES

© David Diehl 1999.

ALLEGRO ROYALE 1200-1799 SERIES 12" LP's produced by ELI OBERSTEIN c. 1951-1957

Royale 12-inch LP's probably hit the market for the holiday season in 1951. They are roughly contemporaneous with the Varsity 6900 ten-inch series. The American Federation of Musicians refused to sign a contract with Oberstein, who routinely used recordings by low-paid European instrumentalists to back up American performers for his new releases. The Allegro label was originally started by Paul Puner to bring less-recorded works to the then-new LP market. He also licensed material from Oriole in the U. K. and Disco France. When the venture foundered, Eli Oberstein stepped in and merged it with his low-budget Royale label. At first the Allegro name continued in a 3000 series which recycled Puner's material supplemented by popular items from Oberstein's other holdings. Royale, Allegro-Royale, finally Ultraphonic incorporated some of Puner's material and pirated tapes from German and Italian radio along with masters from the old Black & White, Sonora, Majestic and Musicraft labels. Oberstein also had an agreement with the Standard Transcription Co. in Hollywood and considerable classical material was co-released by both concerns. Oberstein also released some earlier Standard pop material. Pseudonymns for some German recordings have been researched by Ernst Lumpe and links to his identifications are provided.

The label first appeared as Royale and the address offered to the trade was 27 Nelson Ave., Jersey City, N.J. The 12-inch Allegro-Royale catalog consists of some five hundred releases from 1201 to (at least) 1749 with later numbers often recombining previously released material or substituting different performances for some titles. Some numbers were re-used, typically those from multi-record sets of dubious origin. These are indicated by an asterisk (*). One copy of Royale 1260 has been found with a FRF Family Record Foundation label instead of the expected Royale. All of this material was later sold to Pickwick International and the surviving tapes were last in the possession of Simitar Entertainment.

The Allegro Royale list still lacks information on 1453 and a small block of issues above 1494, a scattering of numbers above 1615 and most of the 1700's. Any help with these releases is welcome. Thanks to Alec Williams and Ray Wile for big assists.