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OUT WEST: California Record Labels and
Studios in the 1920s

By Allan Sutton
Label photos adapted from Kurt Nauck's American Record Label Image CD-ROM

For the first three decades of its existence, the American recording industry was largely concentrated in the New York–Philadelphia area. The Bacigalupis' Edison agency in San Francisco had produced some cylinders in the brown-wax era, but otherwise Californians had been largely dependent on recordings made in, and shipped from, the East.

(Left) Nordskog's original issue of Kid Ory's 1922 sides; (Right) The same record
relabeled for sale by the Spike Brothers' Los Angeles store.

That situation finally changed in the early 1920s, with the advent of several small California labels. Andrae Nordskog, an opera singer-turned-entrepreneur, became the first independent producer to issue disc records commercially on the West Coast. Nordskog became general manager of the Hollywood Bowl in 1920.¹ In the same year, he opened the first commercial recording studio on the West Coast, initially intending to record some of the celebrities appearing at the Bowl, although little seems to have come of that early effort. He billed his Nordskog discs as “The Golden-Voiced Records—First on the Pacific Coast.”

Legend holds that early recording sessions were held in Nordskog’s living room, but by the time the Nordskog Phonograph Recording Company was officially incorporated in May 1922,² the company was operating a studio in Santa Monica. Although Nordskog’s recording equipment was clearly cobbled together from a standard phonograph reproducer and other scavenged parts, ³ he managed to produce masters of passable quality.

Nordskog is remembered primarily as the first company to record pioneer jazz trombonist Kid Ory and the only company to issue a record by vaudeville sensation Eva Tanguay. Several Los Angeles–area dance bands also made their first records for Nordskog, including those of Abe Lyman and Herb Wiedoeft. A Gold Seal series, devoted to light classical fare, offered tenor solos by Nordskog himself. However, distribution seems to have been spotty, and the company apparently generated much of its revenue from the production of personal and custom-label recordings.

With no pressing plants yet operating on the West Coast, Nordskog shipped his wax masters east, to the Arto plant in Orange, New Jersey, reportedly losing some to desert heat along the way. By the time Nordskog announced plans to open his own pressing plant in late 1922, Arto was on the verge bankruptcy. Unable to recover his masters during Arto’s bankruptcy proceedings in early 1923, ^3a Nordskog closed his record operation and turned to other interests, reinventing himself as a civic crusader and publishing The Gridiron, a Los Angeles weekly specializing in exposés of governmental waste and corruption.

Nordskog soon found himself involved in the first race record venture on the West Coast. In Los Angeles, the center of black popular music was the music store and publishing house run by John and Benjamin “Reb” Spikes at 1203 Central Avenue. The store’s opening, as “Spikes Bros. & Carter—The ‘So Different Music House,’” was announced in the California Eagle on December 13, 1919. ⁴ With business flourishing, the Spikes brothers wanted to produce their own records locally, and they contracted recording and production to Nordskog. Reb Spikes selected two local blues singers, Ruth Lee and Roberta Dudley, along with Kid Ory’s band from the Creole Cafe in Oakland. ⁵ According to Reb Spikes, the records were to have carried the Spikes Brothers’ custom Sunshine label, but when the pressings arrived from the Arto plant, they bore Nordskog’s own labels and catalog numbers. Spikes later claimed that Nordskog “had no business doing this—they were our property! We contracted for 5,000 pressings that should have had our Sunshine label. We had to paste our label over the Nordskog label.” ⁶ The Spikes brothers advertised their relabeled records in the Chicago Defender, but sales apparently were meager, and the mislabeling situation caused a rift with Nordskog.

Reb Spikes later admitted that Sunshine had been “a lot of trouble, a lot of work and expense afterwards.” ⁷ Any hope that the label might continue was dashed by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where Nordskog obtained a judgment against the Spikes brothers for failure to pay for the pressings. ⁸ There would not be another independent race-record label on the West Coast until 1939, with the founding of Bronze records.

A second California studio opened shortly after Nordskog’s incorporation. The Golden Record Company of Los Angeles was launched by Theophilus Fitz, who claimed that the city was “peculiarly suitable for the manufacture of phonograph records on account of atmospheric conditions.” Like Nordskog, Fitz was an affluent businessman and something of a dilettante. He fancied himself a champion of the fine arts, later penning a complete operetta to celebrate the 1936 Texas sesquicentennial.

(Left) One of several label variants used by Golden; (Right) An apparently private
issue under the Hollywood label.

Announcement of Golden’s founding came on December 6, 1922, in a press release stating incorrectly that Fitz’s was the first recording studio on the West Coast. ⁹ Fitz also lacked a pressing plant, but he made a better decision than Nordskog in choosing the more stable Starr Piano Company plant in Richmond, Indiana. Although Fitz’s South Hope Street studio produced recordings of surprisingly good quality, and seems to have done a good business in personal recordings (including custom issues on the short-lived California brand), the Golden concern disappeared toward the end of 1924.

Golden’s demise coincided roughly with the appearance of two more independent California ventures. The Hollywood Record Company and Sunset Record Company were affiliated to some degree and apparently evolved from the Harris Record Company. Harris, an obscure Los Angeles company that seems to have begun in 1923, briefly marketed Triumph records, using a mixture of locally recorded material and masters leased from the Plaza Music Company (Banner) and possibly other East Coast producers. Among the local recordings are two exceedingly rare solos by jazz pianist Sonny Clay.

(Left) The elusive Triumph label, in this case using New York masters obtained from the Plaza Music Company; (Right) California, an obscure brand produced by Golden.

By 1925, Los Angeles directories show Hollywood operating at the Harris Record Company’s former address on Santa Monica Boulevard, with Sunset occupying a separate address. However, there was considerable sharing of masters between the two companies, and it seems possible that the Sunset operation was simply a marketing arm of the Hollywood Record Company.

The Hollywood/Sunset acoustic recordings were of excellent quality, and their producer survived long enough to implement a reasonably good electrical recording system. While the more expensive Hollywood label suffered from poor distribution, 35¢ Sunset discs sold well through the S. H. Kress dime stores. Sonny Clay surfaces again on Sunset, this time leading his band from the Plantation Cafe, along with the hot dance bands of Fred Elizalde, Carlyle Stevens, Eddie Frazier, and other locals. Reflecting California’s ethnic mix were substantial Hawaiian and Spanish listings in the main catalog, along with a separate series of Japanese records. ¹⁰ The Hollywood Record Company also offered personal recording services and for a short time produced Silver Screen, a subsidiary label intended for sale in theater lobbies and touted as “Made in Movieland.”

(Left) Sunset was sold in S. H. Kress dime-stores until Kress dropped it for Romeo;
(Right) Silver Screen was sold in theater lobbies.

Sunset’s end came in June 1926, when Kress switched to the Cameo Record Corporation’s cheaply produced Romeo brand. The Hollywood label continued for a time, but with increasing competition for West Coast performers from the major labels, and without steady income from the Kress account, the venture soon faded. The last mention of the Hollywood Record Company is a listing in the 1927 Los Angeles phone directory. Its passing marked the end of independent record production in California during the 1920s.

While independent ventures came and went, the major labels were slow to express much interest in California. Columbia made its first visit in early 1921, following the success of its early releases by Art Hick man’s Orchestra. When Hickman was unable to come to New York for additional sessions, Columbia dispatched recording engineer A. L. Hausmann to San Francisco, along with company vice-president E. N. Burns. Hausmann set up a temporary studio in the Borgia Room of the St. Francis Hotel, where Burns hosted a special recording demonstration for the city’s mayor, chief of police, and other dignitaries ¹¹ before the actual recording sessions began on February 21. ¹²

The Columbia team stayed in San Francisco for a month, recording the Ted Lewis band and saxophonist Clyde Doerr in addition to cutting twenty-three titles by Hickman. On the return trip, Hausmann made a brief stop in Kansas City, where on March 30 and April 1 he recorded several sides by a local favorite, the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra. ¹³ Columbia would not return to California until the autumn of 1926. ¹⁴

Brunswick hinted in early 1923 that it might soon open a West Coast studio, but when the the company made its first California recordings in July 1923, it was with portable equipment in a temporary Los Angeles studio. ¹⁵ The Brunswick team recorded from July 26 through August 8, concentrating on Abe Lyman’s California Ambassador Orchestra but also recording a series of Spanish vocals, before moving on to San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. By September, when Brunswick announced its plans to open a Los Angeles pressing plant, sales manager A. J. Kendrick was already hinting of a West Coast studio, noting, “the time is rapidly approaching when it will be found more economical to make our own records here than to defray the expenses of orchestras and artists in bringing them East for recording purposes.” Brunswick would record in Los Angeles regularly for the next several years, but in temporary studios. The company finally opened a permanent Los Angeles studio in December 1927, in the company’s warehouse at 2481 Porter Street.

While Columbia and Brunswick hesitated in establishing permanent West Coast facilities, Victor was pushing ahead with plans to open a California pressing plant and studio. A site was selected on Seventy-Eighth Avenue in Oakland, and Victor vice-president Edward Shumaker closed on the property in June 1923. Construction began in October 1923 on a two-story, 24,000-square-foot structure — a modest undertaking by Camden standards, where work was under way on a 275,000-square-foot pressing plant. ¹⁶ By the spring of 1924 it was decided to turn management of the Oakland facility over to George Hall, a veteran of the Camden office. ¹⁷

The first record to be come off the press at Oakland, on May 6, 1924—Coon-Sanders’ “Oriental Love Dreams” (Victor 19325) ¹⁸ — was clearly distinguished from the Camden product by a small “O” above Nipper’s head, as well as a nonstandard type face that was quickly vetoed by the home office. Work on the Oakland studio lagged, however. Regular Victor recording sessions commenced in California on June, ¹⁹ but for the first nine days they were held in temporary quarters at the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, under the direction of New York artist and repertoire director Eddie King. The Oakland studio finally opened on June 18, with a session by Art Landry’s Orchestra.

King lost little time in signing some of California’s choicest talent. By October, Victor was boasting that the Oakland studio had been visited by Alfred Hertz and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the dance orchestras of Vincent Rose, Art Hickman, Henry Halstead, Max Dolin, and Art Landry. Touring bands like Glen Oswald's Serenaders and George Olsen’s Music were dropping by as well. Although Victor initially concentrated its recruiting efforts in the San Francisco area, it would soon start dispatching field units to other Western cities, even reaching Butte, Montana in 1927, where it recorded several fine sides by the Ernest Loomis orchestra. Victor's highly publicized plunge into California’s musical scene must have caused some anxiety for the fledgling Hollywood Record Company, which could not hope to compete with Victor’s pay rates, prestigious name, and superior distribution network.

Columbia, which had last visited the West Coast in 1921, announced the opening of its California pressing plant in the summer of 1926, also in Oakland. Although press releases claimed the new plant on Fifty-Seventh Avenue was equipped with a studio, ²⁰ Columbia’s files show only sporadic recording activity in Los Angeles through the late 1920s, and then usually in conjunction with trips to San Francisco, Seattle, and Spokane.

REFERENCES

¹ Nordskog, Andrae Arne. "The Earliest Musical History in the Hollywood Bowl: 1920 and 1921.” Unpublished typescript, 1957.
² The California incorporation papers show capital stock of $100,000.
³ Nordskog’s home-made recording equipment is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
^3a Apparently, the metal parts were later returned. At least some reportedly survive in the possession of a Nordskog family member.
⁴ “Big Opening” (ad), California Eagle, December 13, 1919, p. 4.
⁵ Controversy has swirled for years around the date and location of the Sunshine session, with several accounts making colorful but unsubstantiated claims that the recordings were made in Nordskog’s living room in 1921. The consensus among careful researchers, however, is that the sides were cut in Nordskog’s Santa Monica studio in or around June 1922.
⁶ Quoted in Levin, Floyd: "Kid Ory's Legendary Nordskog/Sunshine Recordings," Jazz Journal International 46:7, 6–10 (July, 1993).
⁷ Spikes, Benjamin “Reb.” Interview by Patricia Willard, May 1980. Jazz Oral History Project, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.
⁸ Nordskog, Andrae. Letter to Don Brown, quoted in Kendziora, Carl. “Behind the Cobwebs: Norskog,” Record Research 91 (July 1968), p. 6
⁹ “Golden Record Co. Enters Field.” Talking Machine World, December 15, 1922.
¹⁰ In 1925, Sunset also filed a trademark on the Geisha label, apparently intended for Japanese issues, but it does not seem to have been sold in the U.S., if it was put into production at all. (U.S Patent Office: Trademark application, filed 1/5/1925).
¹¹ “Will Make Records on Coast.” Talking Machine World, March 15, 1921, p. 67.
¹² According to the Columbia files, the first master recorded was 79666, “Siren of a Southern Sea,” by Art Hickman’s Orchestra, issued on Columbia A3387.
¹³ Of the four Coon-Sanders titles recorded in Kansas City, only “Some Little Bird” (Columbia A3403) was issued.
¹⁴ Columbia Record Recording and Release Dates. Mainspring Reference Guides, No. 1 Denver: Mainspring Press, 2004, p. 35.
¹⁵ Brunswick’s first Los Angeles recording, “Honey Babe” by Abe Lyman’s California Ambassador Orchestra, was recorded on July 26, 1923, and issued on Brunswick 2563.
¹⁶ “Progress on New Victor Plant.” Talking Machine World, November 15, 1923, p. 177. “Annual Report of Victor Co. Shows Substantial Progress Made Last Year.” Talking Machine World, May 15, 1924, p. 54.
¹⁷ “To Open Victor Plant on Coast,” Talking Machine World, March 15, 1924, p. 1. This is not the band leader George Hall, but an accountant and business manager who was first employed by Victor in Camden, NJ, in 1907.
¹⁸ The recording was made in Chicago, Oakland’s studio now yet being operational.
¹⁹ Nicolson, William J. “Victor in the West: The Oakland Pressing Plant.” Vintage Jazz Mart, Winter 1997–98, p. 8. Brian Rust, in both his Jazz Records and American Dance Band Discography, attributes the first June 1924 California sessions to the Oakland studio. However, John Bolig's research of the original Victor files reveals that they do not list a city for these sessions. Evidence in TWM, and documents discovered in the 1990s by researcher Bruce Vermazen, clearly establish Los Angeles as the correct location of the initial June sessions.
²⁰ “Columbia Pacific Coast Plant Starts Production.” Talking Machine World, November 15, 1926, p. 19.