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Records

Hugophone
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Columbia manufactured these series of 12" language record courses. Produced for Charles Hugo's Language Institute of 64-66 Oxford Street, London.

Thirty different discs were made numbered F-1 to F-30, between 1926 and 1933. However, some (at least) of the courses remained available in this form until the mid or late 1950s and I have seen the German course labels with silver printing instead of gold to reflect the late pressings.

The label colour was different for each course. French was red, German black or dark blue, Italian was green, Spanish was brown and the Russian course was buff or cream. There was also an English course for foreign language speakers.

Each language set had two accompanying booklets.

Label examples of the other courses not shown on the left would be gratefully received!
French
(courtesy Bill Dean-Myatt)
Italian
(courtesy Richard Prout)
Russian
(courtesy Richard Prout)

Please e-mail me if you have any additions or corrections to this page.

Thanks to the following who have provided information for this listing:  45worlds website, Richard Prout

You will see that I sometimes show two lots of matrix numbers - I'm thinking that maybe they re-recorded the original Western Electric (WAX-prefix) sides using the Columbia (CAX- prefix) system at some point, which may account for the highish take numbers also.

Page last updated on: August 18, 2022

Cat No Matrix No Language Title
F-1      
F-2      
F-3      
F-4      
F-5      
F-6      
F-7      
F-8      
F-9      
F-10      
F-11      
F-12      
F-13 WAX-4366 / CAX-4366-4
WAX-4367 / CAX-4367-4		 Français (French) No. 1: En Voyage
No. 2: L'Hotel
F-14 WAX-4429 / CAX-4429-3
WAX-4430 / CAX-4430-3		 Français (French) No. 3: Promenade En Auto
No. 4: Promenade En Ville
F-15 WAX-4452 / CAX-4452-3
WAX-4453 / CAX-4453-3		 Français (French) No. 5: Achats
No. 6: En Visite
F-16      
F-17      
F-18      
F-19 WAX-4431
WAX-4432		 Deutsch (German) No. 1: Auf Reisen
No. 2: Das Hotel
F-20 WAX-4476
WAX-4477		 Deutsch (German) No. 3: Eine Autofahrt
No. 4: Ein Spaziergang In Der Stadt
F-21 WAX-4487
WAX-4488		 Deutsch (German) No. 5: Einkaüfe
No. 6: Ein Besuch
F-22 WAX-4499 / CAX-4499-5
WAX-4500 / CAX-4500-5		 Italiano (Italian) No. 1: In Viaggio
No. 2: L'Albergo
F-23 WAX-4536 / CAX-4536-4
WAX-4537 / CAX-4537-3		 Italiano (Italian) No. 3: Passeggiata In Automobile
No. 4: Una Passeggiata In Citta
F-24 WAX-4561 / CAX-4561-3
WAX-4562 / CAX-4562-2		 Italiano (Italian) No. 5: Compere
No. 6: In Visita
F-25 Español (Spanish)
F-26 Español (Spanish)
F-27 WAX-4538
WAX-4539 ?		 Español (Spanish) No. 5: Compras
No. 6: De Visita
F-28 CAX-6731-1
CAX-6732-1		 Pycckaя (Russian) No. 1:  B Пytи = On the Journey
No. 2:  Гocтиницa = Hotel
F-29 CAX-6764-1
CAX-6765-1		 Pycckaя (Russian) No. 3: Поездна на Автомобиле = A trip in the automobile.
No. 4: Прогулка по Городу = Walking in the city.
F-30 CAX-6795-1
CAX-6796-1		 Pycckaя (Russian) No. 5: За Покупками = Go Shopping
No. 6: Визит = Visit