[78-L] Record Stores

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

Early on, phonograph records were sold through designated retailers on 
an “exclusive” basis. I have a Columbia Phonograph contract that spells 
out the relationship between Columbia’s distribution arm and its 
“exclusive” retailers in the New York City area. I have seen Victor 
recording logs that some regional sales managers could refer to 
regarding new or upcoming releases. Records, of course, were sold in 
music stores, department and furniture stores (phonographs were 
regarded as “furniture” and as early as the teens, stores sold 
phonographs on a “time” basis—so much down and so many months to pay), 
general stores (I have Wisconsin Chair shipping receipts from the 
1920s), newsstands, theatre lobbies, and porters on Chicago trains 
bound for the American South carried Paramount and other “black” labels 
for sale at stops along the way. Commodore began carrying records 
around 1933 and started issuing its own white-label-black-type 
Commodore Music Shop custom-pressed reissues (100-113) by 1934. It then 
began issuing its UHCA label (100-113, and 1-86) in 1936. By 1938, the 
Hot Record Society had become Steve Smith’s HRS Record Shop. Liberty, 
Schirmer, The Gramophone Shop, and Marconi Bros. all had record stores 
in New York City. Listening booths were common in record and music 
stores. They were the audio equivalent of “fitting” rooms. When I began 
buying 78s on a regular basis in the mid-1940s, I always had the option 
of listening to them first. Even in the early 1950s after the 
introduction of LPs, some stores continued to have listening booths.