[78-L] Record Stores

[Cary Ginell]

I'm finishing up my book on Hollywood's Jazz Man Record Shop, and in the first chapter, I discuss the Commodore Shop. My research shows that they started selling records as early as 1926, not 1933. 

 

Cary Ginell
 
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> From: dialjazz at verizon.net
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:27:51 -0500
> Subject: [78-L] Record Stores
> 
> 
> 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.
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