[78-L] Record Stores

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

That’s a great project! I’ll be happy to help. Issues of The Record 
Changer and Down Beat of the 1940s and ’50s carried store ads that show 
their offerings, prices, etc. The HRS Society Rag also sent out 
periodic auction lists in the 1930s which reveal the kind of stock they 
were offering for sale and minimum bids. Store “stamps” on label 
catalogs are another good source for store names. Obviously, if a store 
carried label catalogs and rubber-stamped their names on them, they 
carried the records. I even have a copy of Brunswick 2011 with a store 
stamp carefully placed around the outside of the record label. This 
record was released around January 15, 1920 among the first 15 released 
by Brunswick in the “2000” numerical series. I have record sleeves from 
the 1920s from British record stores, as I’m sure other 78-Listers do. 
Schleman’s Rhythm on Record also contains print advertising for the 
period. Concert programs may have store advertising. I have a newspaper 
clipping about Benny Goodman visiting a record store in Ft. Wayne, 
Indiana in 1939 while appearing at a local movie house for the weekly 
Camel Caravan. He was there for about a half-hour visit to autograph 
records (probably NOT Artie Shaw’s). Stores I visited in Boston while 
growing up included Boston Music Co., Jack’s Records, Symphony Records 
(part of the Boston Symphony Hall building), Book and Record Annex, and 
several others whose names I have forgotten. Of course many department 
and chain stores sold records. My mother got Harry James to autograph a 
copy of his Brunswick “Ciribiribin” at Raymond’s in Boston. Raymond’s 
also sold great macaroons.