THE HOLLYWOOD RECORD COMPANY STORY
The Hollywood of today serves as the world’s largest center for the movie, television and the recording industries, its name synonymous with entertainment. This, of course, was not always the case. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Southern California was
still con sidered on the frontier, a distant city, not having yet secured an adequate water supply to support a large population base.
This soon changed as the water supply dilemma was solved and people flocked to the area to take advantage of the opportunities the west had to offer. Between the years 1910 to 1920 the population of southern California tripled. It would double again by 1930.
The motion picture industry was also becoming firmly established in Hollywood, a city directly adjacent to Los Angeles. Movie companies were drawn by the ample sunlight, cheap property, varying exotic locales, and cooperative business / real estate interests. By 1920 the majority of film production in the US took place in and around Hollywood.
The recording industry, however, was slow to take hold on the west coast. Part of the reason lies in the geographic distance between the west coast and the large recording companies located in the east. Another reason has to do with the structure of the recording industry itself.
For the first three decades of the recording industry the market was dominated by 3 major companies, The Victor Talking Machine Company, The Columbia Phonograph
Company and the Edison Phonograph Company. In 1922 Victor lost a patent lawsuit, thereby ending theirs, Columbia’s and Edison’s monopoly of the market. As a result of this a number of smaller phonograph record manufacturers entered the market challenging the major companies.
The immediate effects of this competition were twofold: First, the proliferation of smaller labels expanded the repertoire of the types of music recorded. Labels began to specialize more in Jazz, blues, country and various forms of ethnic music. Secondly, record companies began to take root beyond the major metropolitan cities of the east Coast.
The first of these companies to operate in California was the Nordskog Phonograph Recording Company, who in 1922 opened a studio in Santa Monica. Nordskog’s main claim to fame is having recorded New Orleans jazz musician, Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band. In addition Nordskog recorded vaudeville great Eva Tanguay, and the popular orchestras of Abe Lyman and Herb Weidorf.
After Nordskog’s demise in 1923, a second company, The Golden Record Company of Los Angeles began operation. Before Golden closed it's operation in 1924 they specialized in custom recordings and also recorded several popular local dance bands.
A third enterprise, The Harris Record Company, began producing the very obscure Triumph Records in 1923. Triumph Records relied upon both locally recorded artists as
well as leasing masters from the east coast based Plaza Music Company. The Harris Record Company too was not long for this world and by 1924 yet another company occupied their address.
The new occupants were The Hollywood Record Company. The origins of The Hollywood Phonograph Record Company are unknown and a matter of conjecture. There is no evidence as to whether they are an offshoot of the Harris Company, or if they merely bought Harris out. It is clear though that once The Hollywood Phonograph Record Company was operating the focus of their musical talent was to take a different direction than Harris.
The Hollywood Record Company appeared not to have any affiliation with the larger east coast companies and only recorded local artists. By all appearances they operated their own recording studio and pressing plant. Hollywood records do not seem to have been distributed beyond the immediate Los Angeles area.
Looking at the catalog of The Hollywood Record Company provides a glimpse as to the musical landscape of the Los Angeles area in the mid-twenties. The Hollywood Record Company recorded jazz and dance bands, popular vocalists, blues singers, Mexican and Hawaiian artists. The USC marching band even cut a record. In addition, there are a number of advertising records that appear on the Hollywood label for local businesses.
By late 1924 another label, Sunset, appeared. Sunset sported a large red/maroon label depicting the sun setting in the west. Sunset was most likely an offshoot of The
Hollywood Phonograph Record Company. There are a number of records that were issued under both labels, as well as using the same array of artists.
One thing that is known was that Sunset sold their records exclusively through Kress department stores in the Los Angeles area. While still only local artists were recorded there seems more of a tendency towards the popular music of the day than the Hollywood label. Sunset records also appear to have sold quite well, despite only being distributed in the Los Angeles area, as today they are much more common then their Hollywood counterparts.
A third label manufactured by The Hollywood Record Company was Silver Screen Records. It's thought that this extremely rare label was sold in Los Angeles area movie theaters. The few records surviving today either have titles issued contemporaneously on the Sunset label, or as advertising for local businesses. Silver Screen Records were issued in 1925 and the label states that they were manufactured by the Hollywood Phonograph Record Company.
Sunset’s fate was sealed in 1926 when Kress opted to contract instead with the New York produced Romeo records. The demise of The Hollywood Phonograph Record Company was not far off as the last records on the Hollywood and Sunset labels were both issued in 1926.Throughout the twenties the major labels stepped up their recording activity on the west coast, eventually opening up studios in Los Angeles and to the north in Oakland. By the time Hollywood records closed shop the recording industry was firmly established on the west coast, albeit in the absence of the smaller independent companies. There would not again be a notable presence of independently owned record companies in California until after World War II.
Links:
Hollywood Record Company discography (incomplete)
Kress Department store ad from 1925 (page 1)
Kress Department store ad from 1925 (page 2)
