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Mainspring Label Gallery / Photos adapted from ARLIE


Double-sided BUSY BEE
(circa 1908 - 1909)

Double-sided Busy Bee 78, made by Leeds and Catlin

For most of its short life, the Busy Bee was a single-sided record. But in late 1908 or early 1909, Leeds & Catlin produced a double-sided Busy Bee disc that (along with a short-lived 12" series) is the rarest variant of this label. Lacking a blank side on which to affix its condition-of-sales stickers, Leeds moved the information to a wide white ring surrounding the original label design. Leeds also produced several other double-sided brands before suspending operations in late 1909, including D&R (red label), National, and Peerless.

The O'Neill-James Company of Chicago was founded in 1904 and introduced its Busy Bee line of phonographs and records in 1906; the brand was a play on the name of O'Neill-James executive Sherwin Bisbee. The Busy Bee disc had a large rectangular slot cut through the lower label area to accept a lug on the Busy Bee turntable, a ploy designed to ensure steady sales of discs to fit the nonstandard Busy Bee machines. Several suppliers were used, including Leeds & Catlin, the American Record Company, Hawthorne & Sheble, Columbia, and Universal (Zon-O-Phone).

© 2000 by Mainspring Press. Label photo © 2000 by Kurt R. Nauck III. All rights reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced without prior written consent of the copyright holder(s).

 

 

 

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