[78-L] Rex Hollywood

[David Lennick]

Fascinating stuff..this reads like a Rocky and Bullwinkle serial. A crook 
screws another crook (leave us not forget, gentlemen, that Boris Morros was no 
Holy Joe to begin with, he said in his best Ed Gardner voice).

Rem/Rex also produced at least one LP, Ferde Grofe's Aviation Suite. This shows 
its 78 origins by displaying the original sequential matrix numbers on either 
the labels or the land (don't have the disc beside me). And Maurice presumably 
bought the original 33RPM lacquers, not just stampers..the SPELLBOUND 
soundtrack is re-transferred and is in superior sound (and my set has half Rem 
and half Rex labels).

dl

Glenn Longwell wrote:
> Having read that Maurice Rapoport, the owner of Rex Records record store and the Metro/Rex/Rem labels, didn't pay royalties to the artists then skipped off to Mexico I was wondering if these Tatum sides on Rex/Rem were bootlegs or legitimate reissues. So I did a little searching in Billboard.
> 
> It turns out he paid for the masters with a bogus check on a closed account then didn't show up on the court date (3/8/47).  Cited with contempt of court he must have eventually paid.  An article a year later (5/15/48) about MGM stopping him from using the Metro name says that was pressing numerous disks from purchased ARA masters.  This article says he received a 30 day jail sentence and fined for not adhering to an injunction to stop selling Metro records after a certain date.  This guy just couldn't be trusted could he?
> 
> Glenn
> 
> --- On Fri, 2/26/10, Geoffrey Wheeler <dialjazz at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> From: Geoffrey Wheeler <dialjazz at verizon.net>
> Subject: [78-L]  Rex Hollywood
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Friday, February 26, 2010, 6:16 AM
> 
> Regarding an Art Tatum album issued on ARA, David Lennick says: “It's 
> listed in the Tatum Discography as on ARA, Rex or Rem (I forget and 
> don't
> have the book handy), plus the 9766 LP issues on labels like Black 
> Lion.”
> 
> I think this exchange on Rex Hollywood and sister labels has been most 
> helpful because it brings forth evidence in a public forum of a direct 
> link between ARA and Rex/REM/Metro Hollywood that is more than Rex et 
> al simply licensing ARA product for reissue. I have the Wingy Manone 
> sides on ARA, Rex, and Metro, the Tatum album on ARA, plus most of the 
> jazz content on ARA singles.
>