Editing Gennett Records (section)

==History==
Gennett Records was founded in [[Richmond, Indiana]], by the [[Starr Piano Company]] in 1917. By the late 1930s, the label had produced more than 16,000 [[Master recordings|masters]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Seubert |first=David |title=DAHR to Include Gennett Records |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/459 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}</ref> The company had produced early recordings under the green or blue [[Starr Records]] label as early as 1915.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Barnett |first=Kyle |title=Record cultures: the transformation of the U.S. recording industry |date=2020 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-12431-2 |location=Ann Arbor, [Michigan] |pages=41–6}}</ref> The new Gennett label was named after Harry, Fred, and Clarence Gennett, brothers and joint managers,<ref name="UCLA">{{cite web |title=Finding Aid for the Gennett Collection |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt700026k4&developer=local&style=oac4&s=1&query=randolph&servlet=view&x=20&y=8 |access-date=19 October 2010 |publisher=Online Archive of California}}</ref> and was an attempt to distinguish the label from its parent company and widen distribution beyond Starr piano stores. Early record pressings were outsourced but by October 1917, Starr Valley - home to the Starr Piano manufacturing campus along the Whitewater River - had a six-story phonograph and manufacturing and record-pressing facility.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition=Revised and expanded |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=21–24}}</ref> The early issues were [[vertical cut recording|vertically cut]] in the [[phonograph record]] grooves, using the hill-and-dale method of a U-shaped groove and sapphire ball stylus, but they switched to the lateral cut method in April 1919.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":13" /> Gennett Records rarely paid artists upfront. Some were paid a flat fee, from $15–50 per session, while Black artists received even less. Most artists signed royalty contracts that promised one penny for each copy or side sold.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackwood |first=Scott |title=The rise and fall of Paramount Records: a great migration story, 1917-1932 |date=2023 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=978-0-8071-7914-7 |edition=First printing |location=Baton Rouge |pages=50}}</ref>

Gennett first set up a [[recording studio]] in [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]. Throughout the 1920s, the Manhattan studio saw artists such as Bailey's Lucky Seven, the [[Original Memphis Five]] under the pseudonym Ladd's Black Aces, and in November 1924, [[Louis Armstrong]] and the [[Red Onion Jazz Babies]].<ref name=":5" /> In 1921, the label set up a second studio on the grounds of the piano factory in Richmond under the supervision of Ezra C.A. Wickemeyer, who would manage the studio from August 1921 to mid-1927.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition=Revised and expanded |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=28–31}}</ref> The bulk of the label's productions came out of the Richmond studio, which was {{convert|125|ft}} long and {{convert|30|ft}} wide with a control room separated by a double pane of glass. For sound proofing, a Mohawk rug was placed on the floor and drapes and towels were hung on the wall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brothers |first=Thomas |title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-393-06582-4 |location=New York, NY |pages=61}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Gennett was one of the few companies to have a recording facility outside of New York, a move which allowed the label to capture Midwestern and Southern artists.<ref name=":6" /> Their location also led to their recordings being appealing to Black individuals and other rural peoples who were largely neglected by the leading New York labels.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Rick |title=Little labels, big sound: small record companies and the rise of American music |last2=McNutt |first2=Randy |date=1999 |publisher=Indiana university press |isbn=978-0-253-33548-7 |location=Bloomington, (Ind.) Indianapolis, (Ind.) |pages=2–19}}</ref> Some have called the Richmond studio the "cradle of recorded jazz."<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Painter |first=Alex |title=Blackball in the Hoosier Heartland: Unearthing the Negro Leagues Baseball History of Richmond, Indiana |publisher=Lulu Publishing |isbn=9781678166717 |location=Morrisville, North Carolina |publication-date=2020 |pages=100–101}}</ref>

Gennett recorded early [[jazz]] musicians [[Jelly Roll Morton]], [[Bix Beiderbecke]], The [[New Orleans Rhythm Kings]],<ref name="UCLA" /> [[King Oliver]]'s band with [[Louis Armstrong]], Lois Deppe's Serenaders with [[Earl Hines]],<ref>Tom Lord's ''The Jazz Discography'' says Hines' first recording was here with Deppe on 13 October 1923</ref> [[Hoagy Carmichael]], [[Duke Ellington]], The [[Red Onion Jazz Babies]], The State Street Ramblers, [[Zack Whyte]] and his Chocolate Beau Brummels, [[Alphonse Trent]] and his Orchestra and many others. Many of these jazz artists, such as Morton, the Rhythm Kings, and Oliver's band were popular at the [[Lincoln Gardens]] and the [[Friar's Inn]] nightclubs and had been sent by train to rural [[Richmond, Indiana|Richmond]] by [[Chicago]] Starr Piano store manager and talent scout Fred Wiggins.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Dahan |first=Charlie B. |date=May 3, 2016 |title=The Music Never Stopped: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Gennett Records |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FeFo8vM736kqG6MxEzatnCGgwim52t7nAOfmTUAwYMc/edit |access-date=Feb 11, 2024}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Kay |first=George W. |date=1953 |title=Those Fabulous Gennett's! The Life Story of a Remarkable Label |journal=The Record Changer |pages=4–13}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Egan |first=Timothy |title=A fever in the heartland: the Ku Klux Klan's plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them |date=2023 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-7352-2526-8 |location=New York, NY |pages=67–72}}</ref><ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Allan |title=Race Records and the American Recording Industry, 1919-1945: An Illustrated History |year=2016 |isbn=9780997333305 |pages=101–5, 110}}</ref> Gennett notably was among the first to record people of color as well as racially integrated sessions,<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":14" /> despite over twenty percent of [[Wayne County, Indiana|Wayne County]]'s white male population being members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name=":2" /> Other estimates suggest forty to fifty percent of non-[[Catholic Church|Catholic]] white men were members of the Richmond klavern.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Leonard J. |title=Citizen klansmen: the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921 - 1928 |date=2005 |publisher=Univ. of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-1981-4 |edition=3. [print] |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref>

Throughout the 1920s, Gennett pressed vanity records for the [[Ku Klux Klan]] with red labels and gold KKK lettering, often listing performers such as the "100 percent Americans." Klan members politicized hymns with new lyrics, such as "Onward Christian Klansman" for "Onward Christian Soldiers" as well as custom songs such as "Daddy Swiped Our Last Clean Sheet and Joined the Ku Klux Klan."<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=38–41}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dahan |first=Charlie |date=2014-05-28 |title=May 28th in Gennett History, 1924: The 100% American Orchestra Recorded “Daddy Swiped Our Last Clean Sheet And Joined The KKK” |url=https://gennett.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/may-28th-in-gennett-history-1924-the-1/ |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=Gennett Records Discography |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":10" /> These private pressings never appeared in Gennett catalogs and were shipped directly to the Klan headquarters in Indianapolis after the Klan paid for the records.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":10" /> Some of [[D. C. Stephenson|D.C. Stephenson]]'s speeches were recorded by the label.<ref name=":10" /> Ironically, Richmond held a large gathering of Ku Klux Klan members in Glen Miller Park followed by a parade on October 5, 1923, the same day King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with Louis Armstrong, recorded a second series of discs at the Richmond studio.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":10" /> Approximately 30,000 people gathered with Richmond residents to view over 6,000 Klan members participate in a parade.<ref name=":11" /> Although the Gennett family was not involved in the Richmond [[klavern]], historian Leonard Moore estimates one of every three native-born white Protestant males in Richmond was a member during this time.<ref name=":7" />

Gennett also recorded early [[blues]] and [[gospel music]] artists such as [[Thomas A. Dorsey]], [[Sam Collins (musician)|Sam Collins]], [[Jaybird Coleman]], as well as early [[hillbilly]] and [[country music]] performers such as [[Vernon Dalhart]], [[Bradley Kincaid]], [[Ernest Stoneman]], [[Fiddlin' Doc Roberts]], and [[Gene Autry]]. Blues artists from [[Chicago]], such as [[Thomas A. Dorsey|Georgia Tom Dorsey]], [[Big Bill Broonzy]], and [[Scrapper Blackwell]], recorded in Richmond.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition=Revised and expanded |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=34–38}}</ref> The label preserved several rare varieties of traditional Kentucky music thanks to the work of talent scouts Dennis Taylor and, eventually, one of Taylor's recruits the [[Fiddlin' Doc Roberts]], recording more Kentucky musicians than any other state.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Charles K. |title=Kentucky country: folk and country music of Kentucky |date=1982 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-0879-7 |edition=1st |location=Lexington, Ky |pages=26–9}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Taylor brought hundreds of Kentucky musicians to Richmond between 1925 and 1931, including [[Asa Martin]], Marion Underwood, and Charlie Taylor.<ref name=":12" />

Many early religious recordings were made by [[Homer Rodeheaver]], early [[shape note]] singers and others.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mungons|first=Kevin and Douglas Yeo|title=Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel Music Industry|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2021|isbn=978-0-252-08583-3|location=Urbana, Illinois|pages=118, 176–77}}</ref> Classical ensembles around the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], such as the [[Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra]], traveled to Richmond to record. Gennett also recorded groups such as Gonzalez's Mexican Band, the Hawaiian Guitars, the National Marimba Orchestra, and the Italian Degli Arditi Orchestra.<ref name=":3" />
[[File:StarrRecord.jpg|left|frame|Starr record label]]Temporary recording studios were sometimes set up in various Starr Piano Company stores or other buildings. Their downtown [[Cincinnati]] store recorded West Virginian singer David Miller for a time.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=180}}</ref> The [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]] store, in July and August 1927 under the direction of recording engineer Gordon Soule, which attracted many Southern country blues artists such as [[Jaybird Coleman]] and Johnny Watson under the name [[Daddy Stovepipe|Daddy Stove Pipe]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn= |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=207–9}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> The Birmingham studio also recorded William Harris, an early Mississippi Delta blues player.<ref name=":15" /> From September to November 1927, portable sound equipment was set up in the Hotel Lowry in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] where primarily Swedish, German, and Polish folk music was recorded.<ref name=":5" /> Temporary studios were set up in [[Chicago]] from November–December 1927 and February–April 1928.<ref name=":5" />

By the late 1920s, Gennett was pressing records for more than 25 labels worldwide, including budget disks for the [[Sears]] catalog.<ref name=":12" /> In 1926, Fred Gennett created [[Champion Records (1925)|Champion Records]] as a budget label for tunes previously released on Gennett.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Rick |url=https://archive.org/details/jellyrollbixhoag0000kenn |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1994 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jellyrollbixhoag0000kenn/page/141 141] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Many of the recording artists used [[pseudonym]]s, such as the Seven Champions for Bailey's Lucky Seven, Skillet Dick and His Frying Pans for Syd Valentine and His Patent Leather Kids - a Black Indiana jazz trio, and the Hill Top Inn Orchestra for [[Guy Lombardo]] and His Royal Canadians. Some Champion artists were not informed that their recordings were reissued under pseudonyms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=168–9}}</ref>

Gennett issued a few early electrically recorded masters recorded in the [[Autograph Records|Autograph]] studios in Chicago in 1925. These recordings were exceptionally crude, and like many other Autograph issues can be easily mistaken for acoustic masters. Gennett began serious electrical recording in March 1926, using a process licensed from [[General Electric]] which was found to be unsatisfactory. Although the quality of the recordings taken by the General Electric process was quite good, there were many customer complaints about poor wear characteristics of the electric process records. The composition of the Gennett biscuit (record material) was of insufficient hardness to withstand the increased wear that resulted when the new recordings with their greatly increased frequency range were played on obsolete phonographs with mica diaphragm reproducers. The company discontinued recording by this process in August 1926, and did not return to electric recording until February 1927, after signing a new agreement to license the [[RCA Photophone]] recording process. The company also introduced an improved record biscuit which was adequate to the demands imposed by the electric recording process. The improved records were identified by a newly designed black label touting the "New Electrobeam" process.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=172–4}}</ref>

Recordings were not limited to music. In 1923, orator and statesman [[William Jennings Bryan]] traveled to Richmond to record portions of his 1896 [[Cross of Gold speech|Cross of Gold]] speech, which was released in 1924.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":9" /> In the 1930s, Harry Gennett, Jr. became involved in the recording business and roamed the country in the Gennett recording truck producing sound effects. The Gennett catalog of sound recordings would be sold by mail to radio stations and filmmakers.<ref name=":4" />

The label was hit severely by the [[Great Depression]] in 1930. It cut back on recording and production and only maintained the budget Champion label until halting activities altogether in 1934.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Starr-Gennett Foundation |url=https://www.starrgennettfoundation.org/s-g-history |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Starr-Gennett Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> Throughout the 1930s, Fred Wiggins sold thousands of metal discs, which would be worth millions after Gennett's rise to fame, for scrap money, likely to make payroll for Starr Piano employees.<ref name=":15" /> At this time, the only product Gennett Records produced under its own name was a series of recorded sound effects for use by radio stations. In 1935, the Starr Piano Company sold some Gennett masters, and the Gennett and [[Champion Records (Richmond, Indiana)|Champion]] trademarks to [[Decca Records]].<ref name=":5" /> Jack Kapp of Decca was primarily interested in jazz, blues and old time music items in the Gennett catalog which he thought would add depth to the selections offered by the newly organized Decca. Kapp attempted to revive the Gennett and Champion labels between 1935 and 1937, specializing in bargain pressings of [[race music|race]] and old-time music with but little success.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=237–8}}</ref>

The Starr record plant soldiered on under the supervision of Harry Gennett through the remainder of the decade by offering contract pressing services. For a time the Starr Piano Company was the principal manufacturer of Decca records, but much of this business dried up after Decca purchased its own pressing plant in 1938 (the [[Newaygo, Michigan|Newaygo]] plant that formerly had pressed Brunswick and Vocalion records). In the years remaining before [[World War II]], Gennett did contract pressing for New York-based jazz and folk music labels, including [[Joe Davis (music publisher)|Joe Davis]], who briefly produced records on Gennett, Beacon, and Joe Davis labels that were pressed in Starr Valley.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Rick |title=Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the rise of America's musical grassroots |last2=Gioia |first2=Ted |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00747-6 |edition= |location=Bloomington Indianapolis |pages=245}}</ref>

With the coming of the Second World War, the [[War Production Board]] in March 1942 declared [[shellac]] a [[rationing|rationed]] commodity, limiting record manufacturers to 70% of their 1939 shellac usage. Newly organized record labels were forced to purchase their shellac from existing companies.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4QNGAAAAIBAJ&pg=7397,1256612&dq=martin+block&hl=en|title=Patti Helps Re-Create War Years|date=13 February 1971| last=Thomas |first= Bob|work= [[The Portsmouth Times]]|access-date=30 October 2010}}</ref> [[Joe Davis (music publisher)|Joe Davis]] purchased the Gennett shellac allocation, some of which he used for his own labels, and some of which he sold to the newly formed [[Capitol Records]]. Harry Gennett intended to use the funds from the sale of his shellac ration to modernize this pressing plant after Victory, but there is no indication that he did so. Gennett sold decreasing numbers of special purpose records (mostly sound effects, skating rink, and church tower chimes) until 1947 or 1948, and the business then faded away.

[[Brunswick Records]] acquired the old Gennett pressing plant for Decca. After Decca opened a new pressing plant in [[Pinckneyville, Illinois]], in 1956, the old Gennett plant in Richmond, Indiana, was sold to [[Mercury Records]] in 1958.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9woEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22rca+custom%22&pg=PA66|title=Billboard|work=google.com|date=5 May 1958|access-date=26 February 2015}}</ref> Mercury operated the historic plant until 1969 when it moved to a nearby modern plant later operated by [[Cinram]].<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.starrgennett.org/stories/history/6.htm | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080723191740/http://www.starrgennett.org/stories/history/6.htm| website= StarrGennett.org | archive-date= 23 July 2008 | url-status= dead| title= After the Starr Piano Company| page= 6}}</ref>