American Record Corporation (ARC),[4] also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation,[5] or ARC Records,[6][7] was an American record company in operation from 1929 to 1938, and again from 1978 to 1982.[8]
ARC was created in January 1929 by Louis G. Sylvester, president of Scranton Button Works ('Scranton'), founded 1885. Scranton owned a pressing plant that manufactured disks for many companies, including Columbia labels and Emerson Records, the latter which it also owned. It then purchased Cameo Record Corporation, which owned the Cameo, Lincoln and Romeo labels), and six labels owned by the Plaza Music Company (Conqueror, Banner, Domino, Jewel, Oriole, and Regal).[8] for $1 each, including liabilities. Pathé-Perfect Phonograph and Radio Corporation, which owned Actuelle, Pathé, and Perfect, was also purchased. 'American Record Corporation' was incorporated in Delaware on July 25, 1929, as a subsidiary of Consolidated Film Industries, Inc. ("CFI"). Louis G. Sylvester became the president of the new company, located at 1776 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City.[1]
Columbia Phonograph Company US ownership
In March 1925, Louis Sterling, managing director of the UK Columbia Graphophone Company, backed by J.P. Morgan & Co., acquired a controlling interest in the parent company, Columbia Phonograph Company (U.S.), for $2.5 million, in order to purchase the license for new Western Electric patents that Columbia US could not afford.[9] The British firm controlled US operations from 1925 until 1931. Sterling, originally from New York, became chairman.
The repercussions of the stock market Crash of 1929 led to huge losses in the recording industry and, in March 1931, J.P Morgan, the major shareholder, steered the Columbia Graphophone Company (along with Odeon records and Parlophone, which it had owned since 1926) into a merger with the Gramophone Company ( ("His Master's Voice") to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI).[10][11][12] Since the Gramophone Company (HMV) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Victor, and Columbia in America was a subsidiary of UK Columbia, Victor now technically owned its largest rival in the US.[10] To avoid antitrust legislation, EMI had to sell off its US Columbia operation, which continued to release pressings of matrices made in the UK.[10]
In December, 1931, the U.S. Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc. was sold to the Grigsby-Grunow Company, the manufacturers of Majestic radios and refrigerators. When Grigsby-Grunow was declared bankrupt in November 1933, Columbia was placed in receivership, and in June 1934, the company was sold to Sacro Enterprises Inc. ("Sacro") for $70,000. Sacro was incorporated a few days before the sale in New York. Public documents do not contain any names. Many suspect that it was a shell corporation set up by ARC's parent, Consolidated Films Industries, Inc. to hold the Columbia stock. This assumption grew out of the ease which CFI later exhibited in selling Columbia in 1938.[13]
Brunswick Radio Corporation purchased by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.
On April 9, 1930, the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company sold its Brunswick and Vocalion trademarks, patents, master recordings, inventory of unsold records, recording studio leases, radio/phonograph manufacturing plants and record pressing plants to Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. (WB), which named its new division the "Brunswick Radio Corporation." The price was $10,000,000.
According to a book co-authored by Jack Warner, Jr., Warner Bros. Pictures "bought the radio, record and phonograph divisions of Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company for the company's patents, its record factory, and its 16mm home talkie projector".[14] Before they came to their senses, it was all moved across the country to WB's Sunset studio. WB soon realized it was a terrible mistake; it lost $8 million on the Brunswick deal.
Melotone, a subsidiary label of the Brunswick Radio Corporation, was introduced late in 1930. "Brunswick is the first of the big-three disc companies to go into the market shortly with a double-faced disc to sell at 25 cents. Plate is called the Melotone," reported Variety. "Policy of Melotone will be the biggest song, to be delivered as cheaply as possible. No literature or advertising campaigns; cheap nut, quantity is the goal."[15]
WB wanted to withdraw from the record business, but economic conditions had deteriorated to the point where no buyer would offer anything close to the $10,000,000 they'd paid for Brunswick just the year before. Unwilling to take a huge loss, an agreement was entered into with Consolidated Film Industries, the parent company of ARC, on December 3, 1931, whereby the record company's artist and staff employment contracts were transferred, and the Brunswick, Vocalion and Melotone trademarks and catalog of master recordings were loaned, to the "Brunswick Record Corporation," a newly-formed holding company controlled by ARC.
While WB was to be paid a fee on sales of records pressed from Brunswick, Vocalion and Melotone masters recorded prior to December 3, 1931, ARC was permitted to release its own master recordings on the Brunswick, Vocalion and Melotone labels free of charge. The agreement effectively fixed the minimum retail price of a 10-inch Brunswick record at 75 cents, but allowed ARC free rein to set prices for Vocalion and Melotone (The price of Melotone nonetheless stayed at 25 cents.) In the event that fewer than 250,000 Brunswick records were pressed and sold in the U.S. and Canada during any one-year period, the agreement provided that control of the trademarks and catalog of Brunswick, Vocalion and Melotone masters recorded through December 2, 1931 would revert to WB. Brunswick would become ARC's premium label.
Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. acquires American Record Corporation
On December 17, 1938, American Record Corporation was purchased for $700,000 by the Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS).[3] Edward Wallerstein was named president on January 3, 1939. On April 4, 1939 CBS filed an amendment in New York for Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc.
Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc., has been chartered to conduct a business in the recording of voices, sounds, etc., in New York, with Frank K. White and Adrian Murphy (employees of CBS), among the directors. Attorney Ralph F. CoUn, 165 Broadway, is third director. White owns four shares; the others three apiece. Capitol stock is $10;000, $10 par value. Rosenberg, Goldmlark & Colin, are filing attorneys.[This quote needs a citation]
Above incorporation represents the formal change of name of CBS' phonograph subsidiary. The American Record Co. tag is discarded and instead of three corporations embracing the ARC'S various operations there will be one, the Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc. The latter label was taken over by Herbert J. Yates, former head of the American Record Co. several years ago and made file insignia of the combine's classical catelog. The indications are that the Columbia label will be returned to the popular field, replacing Brunswick as the company's fee popular record.[This quote needs a citation]
On May 22, 1939, Columbia Recording Corporation, Inc., was incorporated with the State of Delaware,[1] and became the CBS phonograph subsidiary. The New York Department of State shows a later incorporation date of April 4, 1947. This corporation changed its name to Columbia Records, Inc. on October 11, 1954, and reverted to CRC on January 2, 1962.
Columbia Recording Corporation
In February 1939, "American Record Co., now the child of the Columbia Broadcasting System, will shortly' move its recording division from its present location on upper-Broadway, New York, to a site conveniently near the Madison avenue home of its new parent".[This quote needs a citation] Studios were established at 799 7th Avenue, New York City, along with corporate offices at 1473 Barnum Avenue, Bridgeport, CT. Also in February, John Hammond was hired by Wallerstein as Associate Director Popular Recording. Another executive from ARC, Art Satherley, was not expected to transition over as easily. "It is understood that CBS and the Levys are not interested in retaining American Record's hillbilly department, and that Art Satherly, who has been running this section for many years, will take it out of the company with him".[This quote needs a citation] Fortunately, to the delight of many, this did not happen, and Art went on to many more successful years.
Hammond hired Benny Goodman away from Victor to record for the Columbia label. Then came an announcement August 30, 1939, "Columbia drops its Brunswick label at 75c in favor of a 50c platter tagged Columbia, with the issuing of the first of the platters cut by Benny Goodman Sept 3".[16] Brunswick was gradually phased out, the final issue being Brunswick 8520, in April 1940. On December 27, "Columbia Records expects to shift quite a list of artists from its current $.35 Vocalion label to the recently created $.50 Columbia...reason for the shift is that the Columbia label is selling so much faster than the Vocalion."[This quote needs a citation]
As sales of Brunswick records declined, a minimum threshold required by the 1931 Warner Bros. lease agreement was going unmet, which obliged Columbia to also discontinue Vocalion. The final Vocalion issued under Columbia's aegis, number 5621, was released July 5, 1940. It was priced at 35 cents, as was the next record in the series, OKeh 05622. Okeh Records was revived in June 1940, acquired in the same 1934 bankruptcy sale whereby ARC obtained its Columbia trademarks. By July, it was releasing new Hillbilly platters by Gene Autry and Bob Wills, and re-issuing past Vocalion discs, using the same catalogue numbers with a leading zero added. Okeh was extremely successful until it was merged into the parent label in 1945. When a January 1941 audit found that not more than 150,000 Brunswick records had sold during the period from December 1, 1939 through December 31, 1940, control of the loaned trademarks and catalog of master recordings made prior to December 3, 1931 reverted to Warner Bros. Pictures
Brunswick and Vocalion purchased by Decca Records, Inc.
On May 2, 1941, Decca Executive Milton Rackmil bought Brunswick Radio Corporation from Warner Brothers for $350,000,[17] which included Brunswick, Vocalion and Melotone masters from label inception to December 1931. Decca reactivated the labels for limited purposes from time to time, but it was the valuable catalogues it really wanted. Brunswick masters included Isham Jones, Al Jolson, early Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Marion Harris, but it was obscure Jacques Rennard and His Orchestra that had recorded "As Time Goes By" in 1931. Decca re-released it in 1943, to capitalize on 'Casablanca's' (1942) theme music. Because of the AFM's studio recording ban, the only recordings the major labels could find were the Rennard, and a July 1931 rendition by Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees, released by Victor. Both finished in the top 25 of 1943, with Renard's version selling over 250,000 copies, making Decca management so happy, they gave him a $1,000 bonus, even though he hadn't recorded for years. His record's sales more than paid for the Brunswick Radio Corporation purchase. Rackmil was also promoted and named to the Decca board of directors.[18]
Shamrock Stores – (client label for the Shamrock Stores)
Supertone +1930 to circa 1931 (client label for Sears whose short-lived series made by Brunswick after the Gennett period ended. This rare series probably hails from right before the ARC takeover of Brunswick)
U.H.C.A. – (client label specializing in reissues for United Hot Clubs of America through Commodore)
Variety 1937
Vocalion +1932–1938 (under lease agreement from Warner Bros. Pictures)
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its US label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president too. In 1937, anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, and the link between the UK and US Decca label was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre.
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 22, 1889, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI's Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels: Epic Records, and former longtime rivals, RCA Records and Arista Records as the latter two were originally owned by BMG before its 2008 relaunch after Sony's acquisition alongside other BMG labels.
Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916.
Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader, and composer.
Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
Banner Records was an American record company and label in the 1920s and 1930s. It was created primarily for the S.S. Kresge Company, though it was employed as a budget label in other discount stores.
Vocalion Records is an American record label, originally founded by the Aeolian Company, a piano and organ manufacturer before being bought out by Brunswick in 1924.
Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City whose labels had a picture of a metronome. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952. Cadence also launched a short-lived jazz subsidiary, Candid Records.
Warner Records Inc. is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros.
Odeon Records is a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris.
Herbert John Yates, a Hollywood mini-mogul, was the founder and President of Republic Pictures. With his contract, he had launched the film careers of such Western stars as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne. Between 1935 and 1959, under the supervising leadership of Yates, Republic has produced 956 feature films and 66 multi-chapter cliffhanger serials, some of which are today considered classics, later broadcast on television and then released on home video.
The Scranton Button Company was a U.S. corporation that was founded in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1885.
Irving Harold Mills was an American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz promoter. He often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.
Melotone Records was an American record label founded in 1930. Warner/Brunswick Records introduced the Melotone label in the U.S. and Canada as a budget subsidiary issuing 78 rpm disc records. It then became part of the American Record Corporation collection of labels in 1932. The original price was 50 cents, but was reduced to 35 cents or 3 for a $1.00 by 1932. The label was disestablished in 1938. In 2010, Melotone Records was refounded as a division of Melotone Music LLC.
Dominic Nicholas Anthony Lucanese, better known by his stage name Nick Lucas, was an American jazz singer and guitarist. He was the first jazz guitarist to record as a soloist. His popularity during his lifetime came from his reputation as a singer. His signature song was "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".
"Back in the Saddle Again" was the signature song of American cowboy entertainer Gene Autry. It was co-written by Autry with Ray Whitley and first released in 1939. The song was associated with Autry throughout his career and was used as the name of Autry's autobiography in 1976. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as fifth of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1934.
"Mexicali Rose" is a popular song composed by bandleader and pianist Jack Breckenridge Tenney in the early 1920s, when he and his seven piece orchestra played the hotels and clubs of the Calexico and Mexicali border. The song became a hit in the mid-1930s, thanks to Gene Autry and Bing Crosby, around the same time that Tenney became a lawyer and was elected to the California State Assembly. Tenney was later appointed to head of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities.
Crown Records was a record company and dime-store label that existed from 1930 to 1933 in New York City. Its catalogue included music by Eubie Blake and Fletcher Henderson. Known as the label offering "Two Hits for Two Bits" proudly printed on their sleeves, Crown's discs sold for 25 cents.
Boogie Woogie is a compilation album containing four 10-inch, 78 rpm records of boogie-woogie music. The songs on the album were recorded over a period of three years from 1936 to 1939, then released in 1941 on this compilation album by Columbia Records (C44). Artists featured on the album include Harry James, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and the three prominent boogie-woogie pianists of the time, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis.
1 2 Rye, Howard (2002). Barry Kernfeld (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 1 (2nded.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p.49. ISBN1561592846.
↑ Walworth, Julia (2005). "Sir Louis Sterling and his library". Jewish Historical Studies. 40. Jewish Historical Society of England: 161. JSTOR24027031.
↑ Sperling, Cass Warner; Milner, Cork Milner; Warner, Jack Jr. (1998). Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. Prima Publishing. ISBN0-8131-0958-2.
↑ "Melotone". Variety. December 17, 1930. p.57. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
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