My mother worked for Brunswick from 1925-1930 and watched Valentino's
funeral procession from a window facing Seventh Avenue. (And no, she had no
stories to tell except to report that she rode in an elevator with Harry
Richman and bought a Vocalion test pressing, among others stacked on billiard
tables, for ten cents.)
I a bit of spent time there for a while in the early 1960s, doing various
things at the request of someone in A&R and poking around the files while
AFR Lawrence was archivist.
Paul Charosh
In a message dated 11/19/10 1:53:33 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
From the booklet for the 3-CD set "Early Ellington: The Complete Brunswick
and Vocalion Recordings
of Duke Ellington, 1926-1931" (p.10):
"All of the sessions were recorded at Brunswick's New York studio at 799
Seventh Avenue. The studio,
which first opened in 1924, had a remarkable history: after Brunswick
Records moved out at the end
of 1931, it was used as a transcription studio (1932-4), then by Decca
Records (1934-35), Columbia
Records (1940-65) and finally A&R Studios (1966-84). It holds the
distinction of being the only
studio location in America and possibly the world to have been active from
the acoustical to the
digital recording eras. Ellington recorded there on various occasions in
the 1920s, '30s, '40s, '50s
and '60s."
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