[78-L] fwd: re Your Mother's Son In Law

[David Lennick]

 From dialjazz at frontier.com

“Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” Columbia 2856-D by Benny Goodman & His Orch. 
seems to be a greatly sought-after recording by Goodman, Holiday, blue-wax 
fans, or all three. Some copies have sold on E-bay for over $200. To my 
knowledge Columbia Phonograph never issued it on black shellac with a blue 
label, as were some recordings of the same period (see Norvo issues from 1935), 
or Columbia red label. According to Russ Connor’s several discographies on 
Goodman, the recording was made [Monday] November 27, 1933 and was issued as 
take three. Strangely, the vocalist on the two other tunes recorded on that 
date are by Ethel Waters. Also strange is that Holiday, who was presumably a 
complete unknown at the time except to a few musicians and John Hammond, is 
listed by name on the label, rather than as “Vocal Chorus.” I do not own a 
copy of Co 2856-D but do have the recording issued on (E) Co CB786, and on 
Special Editions SE-5009. “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” was also released on 
(E) Co FB 2826. Neither (E) Columbia issue is listed in the 1940 (E) Columbia 
Catalogue, of which I have a copy. The Special Editions label has “American 
Record Corporation” at the bottom but makes no reference to Columbia Records 
as the source. The irony here is CBS changed the name of “American Record 
Corporation” May 22, 1939 to Columbia Recording Corporation, and then to 
Columbia Records Inc. March 5, 1947. At the time the Special Editions records 
were issued, ARC no longer existed as a corporate name. None of the Special 
Editions records are listed in the Columbia catalogs for 1948, the year SE 
records were issued over a three-month period.

Hammond set up a number of recording dates with American jazz players for 
English Columbia and (E) Parlophone. (E) Columbia put up the money and the 
recordings were made in various stateside studios. One of the provisions in the 
contract agreement with (American) Columbia Phonograph was that it could lease 
recordings from (English) Columbia for release in the United States on the 
Columbia Phonograph label. I have a copy of the letter from (E) Columbia 
stipulating this provision. The vast majority of record collectors think 
Columbia Phonograph is the label of “first issue,” but in a number of cases 
it is (E) Columbia. I choose to collect these (E) Columbia and (E) Parlophone 
recordings because they are (A) “firsts,” and because (B) they are much 
cheaper than American blue-wax/blue-label Columbias, thank you!

An interesting point about the November 27, 1933 recording date of “Your 
Mother’s Son-in-Law” is that on November 24, 1933 Columbia Phonograph’s 
parent company, radio and appliance manufacturer, Grigsby-Grunow, was put into 
equity receivership. This included Columbia Phonograph, which was also declared 
involuntarily bankrupt, in part because it owed money to its parent company. 
Once this legal step was taken, the trustees for the receivership governed 
every business decision, every penny spent by Columbia Phonograph. If only 300 
copies of “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” were pressed and issued, this would 
likely be why. It would also explain why the record wasn’t a good seller: 300 
copies isn’t a lot to sell.

At this time, this was generally an irreversible process that would end in 
dissolution and dispersal of assets. Before the new Bankruptcy law of summer 
1934 superceded the then current bankruptcy law, this was standard federal 
bankruptcy court procedure. All bankruptcies were handled through federal 
courts. Since Grigsby-Grunow was based in Chicago, this was assigned to the 
federal bankruptcy court in Chicago. I have documents covering every step of 
the way from the bankruptcy filing through the liquidation of assets and their 
transfer to a new corporation called Sacro Enterprises, which was incorporated 
in New York State. Sacro was a corporation on paper but not on an office door. 
Intended as a “shell” corporation, Sacro never filed any required papers or 
paid any federal or New York State taxes. In his August 12, 1940 report to the 
federal court in Chicago regarding the completion of his duties as trustee, 
Frank M. McKey failed to mention Sacro Enterprises or anything else regarding 
the disposition of Columbia Phonograph other than it was liquidated. Thus, no 
question was raised at the time regarding whether New York State had removed 
the name “Columbia Phonograph” as a chartered corporation from its books. 
The documentation I have clearly shows that Consolidated Film Industries 
indirectly controlled Columbia Phonograph’s name and assets through its 
subsidiary, American Record Corporation.

Goodman also made another recording of “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” and 
other tunes he had recorded at that time for Columbia. These 24 tunes were done 
under the name “Bill Dodge & His Orchestra” in February and/or March 1934 
for World Broadcasting. They were later dubbed in the 1960s and issued on the 
Melodeon label in two 12-inch LP albums: “Swinging ’34 Vol. 1” (Melodeon 
7328) and “Swinging ’34 Vol. 2”  (Melodeon 7329). “Your Mother’s 
Son-in-Law” is on Vol. 2, track 4. This version has no vocal. I have both LPs 
but haven’t listened to either in many years, so I can’t say whether the 
same arrangement was used. Melodeon was started by Dick Spottswood, who then 
sold it to Arnold S. Caplin of Biograph and Historical Records.  Caplin also 
reissued under different names some of the albums originally issued on the 
1950s Dawn label. Among them are the Zoot Sims “Modern Art of Jazz” 
retitled as “One to Blow On,” Lucky Thompson, and Paul Quinichette [“Kid 
from Denver”]. Two Dawn/Biograph albums were later reissued on excellent 180 
gm. audiophile vinyl pressings by Sundazed Music on the Euphoria label: Al Cohn 
[“Cohn on the Saxophone” ELP 196], and Jimmy Raney [“Jimmy Raney Visits 
Paris” ELP 198].

The Internet has separate discographies for Biograph, Historical Records, and 
Melodeon. Some Biograph issues are not shown, especially Bunny Berigan 
BLP-C-10. From Warren Hicks, I bought some of the Vocalion one-offs used by 
Caplin in mastering the Berigan album. The sound is marvelous! Under Historical 
Records, HLP 24 “Territory Bands 1929-1933” is mentioned but the orchestras 
of Zack Whyte and Alphonse Trent are not. This is the LP that has Trent’s 
“Clementine” and “I Found a New Baby” (Side 2, tracks 4 and 5). The 
late Ken Crawford, record collector, producer, and founding member of the 
International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, bought a copy of 
“Clementine” years ago for $1600 at a record show in New Jersey. I walked 
into the event just as he bought it.

Question: Is being the son-in-law of one’s own mother sort of like being 
one’s own grandpa, per that colossal, all-time classic song of the 1940s?
Geoffrey