[78-L] A SECOND question for our GG contingent...?!

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh at donnahalper.com>
> From my earlier notes, here's a few things we DO know for certain:
> The Grey Gull company was incorporated in Massachusetts on 31 
> December 1919.  The first listing for the new business appeared in 
> the 1920 Boston City Directory:  "Grey Gull Record Company, Talking 
> Machine Records, 295 Huntington Ave, rm. 207, and 81 Wareham 
> St."  The Huntington Avenue address, which was in an office building, 
> was located near hotels and music schools, while the Wareham Street 
> location, not far from a commercial district, was probably Grey 
> Gull's warehouse and manufacturing location.
> 
> By the next City Directory, owner Theodore Lyman Shaw had a new 
> address--  598 Columbia Road in the Boston neighbourhood of 
> Dorchester (not near downtown Boston at all-- probably chosen for its 
> cheaper rent and its closeness to a large theatre, the Strand, which 
> still had vaudeville and stage shows, and live performers Shaw might 
> use on his records).
> 
> Several years later, circa 1923-24, Shaw, as well as his record 
> company and his Shaw Advertising Agency (he had worked in advertising 
> since about 1914), moved again, this time to 135 Dorchester Avenue, 
> on the South Boston/Dorchester line.  There was also a Grey Gull 
> warehouse and manufacturing plant around the corner on MacAllen 
> Street.  And in addition to Grey Gull Records, there was now an 
> associated label called Radiex, whose mailing address continued to be 
> 598 Columbia Road. (Today, the Strand Theatre is still standing, but 
> all other reminders of what was once Grey Gull are long gone, having 
> been replaced by a superhighway called the Southeast Expressway.)
> 
> [Btw, Will Dodge seems to have been the only local bandleader who 
> made any recordings for GG.  I have no evidence that Joe Rines or Leo 
> Reisman did.]
> 
> The 1930 Census still lists Shaw as a manufacturer of phonograph 
> records, but that's the last time he is associated with records.
> 
> The reason 1930-31 are crucial is that Theodore Lyman Shaw came from 
> a wealthy family which seems to have finally shut off the subsidies 
> when his father Robert and brother Robert Jr died-- his brother had 
> been listed as GG's treasurer, and his father was listed as a member 
> of GG's board of directors.  The brother died in 1930, the father in 
> 1931.  GG ceases to have listings in phone books or city directories 
> after that, and the Shaw Advertising agency also vanishes from sight.    
>
Well, the actual Grey Gull matrix series seems to end just before 4100...
sometime around October 1930, As well, the 1xxx catalog numbers
cease at around 1895...so (IMO) it seems safe to assume that the
original Grey Gull operation left the recording business at that point!

However, very shortly thereafter, SOMEBODY was continuing to
press Madison (and Radiex and Van Dyke) records; these seem to
start with 5096 (Lou Gold)...and run to 6042 or so. These issues all
use old GG "B sides" as their B sides...and as well they use either
control numbers or matrices in a 3-digit new series (the last GG numbers
used were around 4100).

Madison was apparently pressed for the F. W. Woolworth chain.
There are similar physical details on these later issues and the
1930-32 Crown records (also pressed for Woolworths)...leading
me to wonder if Woolworth somehow tried to keep both labels
"alive?"

I doubt if Shaw or Grey Gull had any connection with the last six/
eight months' Madison-et-al issues...but it appears that somebody/ies kept
these previously-GG labels going...?!

Steven C. Barr