[78-L] Record Stores

[Michael Biel]

When  I get started on the project (after this one is over)  I'll want 
to look at the company paperwork Geoffrey mentions.  There are also a 
lot of details about the early exclusive distributorships and franchises 
in Edison and Victor dealer publications, and as Steve Barr noted  Gray 
Gull had an interesting distributing situation, and this has been well 
researched and documented by Donna Halper.  All of the early independent 
labels have stories to add to the history.  I'm going to look thru these 
listings of dealers, the American Record Guide's listings and ads, trade 
press, newspaper ads, and phone & business directories.  As I mentioned, 
the story is there in the original documentation and publications.  Most 
of the vinyl-era writers are not delving back thru these sources and 
spread folk tales.  I'll also want store photos -- I'm already using a 
bunch in the pre-Steinweiss project.  But hold off on this now till the 
Summer, unless you have some photos of stores displaying illustrated 
album covers before April 1940.  I already have some, but could use 
more.  (Since I'm home and not limited by web mail box size, scans are 
welcome.)

And those of you in other countries, you could also embark on a project 
concerning the stores in your countries.  And here in the states and 
Canada, researching the individual cities you live in would also be a 
good project because you have access to our own newspapers and phone 
books. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 

Geoffrey Wheeler wrote:
> 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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