[78-L] record labels - ARLD (was what a whiner!

[Steven C. Barr]

From: "Thomas Stern" <sternth at attglobal.net>
> looking through his offerings, there are some very interesting labels.
> Will the revised ARLD attempt to include ALL labels? (even if only 1 line, 
> this would
> be very useful.  If it is published as a ROM, probably even feasible to 
> include label
> scans....)
>
Any attempt to list ALL labels would most likely be humanly impossible...?!
>From about 1945-6 onward, it was possible to create and offer for sale one's
own records (and thus labels) by hiring the services of a recording studio 
and
a firm to press the resulting sound recordings as "records"...complete with
one's own labels bearing the selected name and logo...! Most of these VERY
"indie" labels issued a handful...often ONE...copy/ies of their discs. I 
would
guess there were several HUNDRED (thousand?) such labels...and in many
cases there no longer exist even single examples thereof...?!

I refer to my "Okie" disc, which credits a "record company" in East Chicago,
Indiana. Its contents are two "hillbilly" sides...and it was probably sold 
(by
the artist?!) to homesick "okies" who worked in the steel mills there. I 
have
often wondered if any other "Okie" records still survive; there is nothing
particularly memorable about the recordings (other than perhaps some
nostalgic thoughts to the owner?!).

And there must have been innumerable other such records/labels...?!
Remember that many if not most such records have been long since
discarded (by their quite possibly deceased one-owners or the heirs
thereof...?!).

Steven C. Barr