[78-L] Record Stores

[Michael Biel]

I have several other pictures of the store including those that show the 
front from both the inside and outside, and there are some home movies 
on the DVD.  They all show all labels being sold.  I don't see how a 
store could stay in business only selling a catalog that never grew to 
more than 200 records.

There's another picture from the same photo session from the opposite 
angle here:
http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/commodore/

But I still have others. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 

Cary Ginell wrote:
> I wouldn't know for sure. It seems to me that the 52nd St. outlet, the one that Milt ran, sold just records. The 42nd St. store might have still stocked appliances plus records at the time you were there, but Julius had been ordering 78s from Victor, Columbia, Decca, et. al. since the '20s. so I would guess that both outlets carried other labels in addition to Commodore and UHCA.
>
>  
>
> Cary Ginell
>  
>   
>> From: hhoffmst at charter.net
>>
>>
>> Gary, that looks like the 52nd st. store, which I was in once while 
>> clubbing. Any chance, 42nd st only Commodore, 52nd st other labels also?
>> I definitely remember the counter in the 42nd st store as being on the right 
>> as you walked in.
>>
>> Howard H.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
>> Here's a link to the image:
>>
>> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?gottlieb:2:./temp/~ammem_rMhs::displayType=1:m856sd=gottlieb:m856sf=10631:@@@
>>
>> Cary Ginell
>>
>>     
>>> From: soundthink at live.com
>>>
>>> I don't mean to challenge your memory about Commodore, but there is a 
>>> photograph of the interior of the Commodore Shop taken in 1947 that shows 
>>> a whole array of different records. You can even see a customer purchasing 
>>> the Kid Ory Columbia 78 album with the Jim Flora art cover. They never 
>>> would have been able to stay in business selling only new Commodore 
>>> records. Gabler was too smart a businessman to restrict his customers to 
>>> just buying his own stuff.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Commodore did have two storefronts at one time, though; Milt opened his 
>>> own shop in 1938 at 46 W. 52nd St. (the original shop was at 144 E. 42nd 
>>> St.). Not being old enough to have visited either shop, I don't know what 
>>> the differences were between the two locations.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In 1926, Julius Gabler (Milt's father) contacted all the major record 
>>> companies and had them send him the latest jazz releases. As far as I 
>>> know, the store stocked all new jazz records from then on, and augmented 
>>> the stock with the Commodore and UHCA releases as they came out.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cary Ginell
>>>
>>>       
>>>> From: hhoffmst at charter.net
>>>>
>>>> As I recall my weekly visits in the forties, Commodore only sold 
>>>> Commodore
>>>> records, and only new.
>>>>
>>>> Howard H.
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>> From: "Steven C. Barr" <stevenc at interlinks.net>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>>> From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Cary Ginell wrote:
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> It's too bad Milt Gabler never did the autobiography everyone asked 
>>>>>> him
>>>>>> to do, but all the ads are there, and Billy Crystal has his uncles's 
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> his father's stuff. His father managed the store when Milt went to
>>>>>> Decca. Again I mention the interesting DVD Billy did a few years ago
>>>>>> about his Uncle Milt.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>             
>>>>> But Commodore even started and ran their own label! Did they also sell
>>>>> new records on other labels...and, if so, more than one label or group
>>>>> thereof? That is the change in record sales that I'm trying to 
>>>>> date...?!
>>>>>
>>>>> Steven C. Barr
>>>>>
>>>>> ____________________