[78-L] Glad you guys are back and Radiex Question

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh at donnahalper.com>
> And Steven-
>>The ONE thing that has NEVER been detailed, AFAIK, is...exactly WHO
>>took over the "mortal remains" of GG after its demise...and continued
>>several of the labels, but NOT GG, until the spring of 1931...?!
> Well, his father Robert died in 1931 and that was undoubtedly the end 
> of Theo's access to the family money, there is no reason to believe 
> Theo himself didn't try to keep the silly thing going.  He was still 
> running newspaper ads in 1928-9, and still had a listing in the phone 
> book (under Shaw Advertising Company) till about 1930; maybe when the 
> Depression hit, he gradually folded up everything.  It took till 1934 
> or 1935 (can't find my old notes) for the GG company to formally go 
> out of business, according to the file cards at the Dept. that 
> licenses corporations in Massachusetts.
> 
Well, here is what I know:

1) The Grey Gull (Record) Company closed down around October, 1930;
their last dance-band release seems to have been 1896.

2) HOWEVER...Madison, Radiex and Van Dyke records continued into
early 1931...using catalog numbers in the Madison sequence. Although I
have ONE Grey Gull record which MAY be from this later period, I
can't specifically verify that, as the disc is in one of the GG sequences
and NOT in the Madison one.

3) The above labels also issued an 800/900 series; these were pairings
of slightly earlier GG B-sides.

Now, my guess is (and I have encountered disagreement on this)...that
the GG labels...PARTICULARLY Madison, which was pressed for
F. W. Woolworth...were picked up by Crown (also a Woolworth
client label!) and pressed/sold for a few more months. The physical
appearance of the post-9/30 GG-label discs is the same as Crown
discs of the period,,,?!

...stevenc