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19. On and Off Broadway
- University of Illinois Press
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19 chapter On and Off Broadway Cast of Characters Donn Fileti, Relic Records Doug Moody, Herald-Ember and Clock Records Jeffrey Kruger, Ember International Records Maxine Brown, Nomar, ABC-Paramount, and ScepterWand Records artist also featuring Al Silver, Herald-Ember Records; and Florence Greenburg, Scepter-Wand Records Back in late 1956, with the rock ’n’ roll age approaching full bloom, young teen Donn Fileti harangued his father into taking him on a selective tour of the offices of the independent labels in New York. His memories of the trip provide a unique firsthand account of the indie environment of the time from the perspective of a record collector , record researcher, and future record man. It is fair to say that most original record men did not understand the collectors’ sensibility toward the music business and the romantic aura surrounding it. After all, business is business, and business conquered all. What did label listings, discographies, artist biographies, and matrix numbers mean to them? Fileti grew up near Newark, New Jersey (the domain of Herman Lubinsky’s Savoy Records and the Cohen family’s Essex Record Distributors ), and from an early age dreamed his dreams of becoming a record man. He turned his back on a career in law to do just that. In partnership with Eddie Gries, he ran Relic Records in Hackensack, New Jersey, for some thirty-five years, specializing in vocal group reissues mainly from the plethora of indie labels that flourished and foundered in the New York area. Many important recordings were preserved. i-xvi_1-592_Brov.indd 358 11/19/09 10:44:57 AM on and off broadway 359 “I started listening seriously to records in ’55,” recalled Donn Fileti. I had been an avid reader courtesy of my father picking up Billboard and Cash Box on the newsstand in Newark for two years previously. I was fascinated with the small independent labels. So my father, bless his heart, decided that as an advance Christmas present, he would take my sister, who was twelve—I was fourteen—around to the various record companies in Manhattan. Of course, I really wanted to see what they looked like, because that was the absolute fascination to me, their day-to-day operation. I had read about these legendary names in Billboard and Cash Box such as Al Silver, Morty Craft, Hy Weiss, and Jerry Winston. And I really wanted to see what these guys looked like, also. So our ploy was to ask for photos of the various recording artists, because I figured that would be a good way to get inside the companies. I think we had a bunch of startled people that day in 1956, because most of them said, “Well, how did you find out where we were?” I remember Jerry Winston at Onyx Records, which was supporting local hits by the Velours and the Pearls at that time; he was in the offices of Malverne distributors on West Forty-ninth. He came down and was very amenable, but he asked, “Why do you want a photo of the Chordells?” whose record had just bombed for him. And then I was very arrogant. The Pearls had a local hit with “Let’s You and I Go Steady,” and it was very popular on the Alan Freed show [and with] Dr. Jive and Jocko [Henderson], all the local R&B dee-jays. Then Winston followed it up with a ballad, the standard called “Tree in the Meadow,” and I heard that. I said, “This is a bomb.” I told him it wasn’t going to sell, and he looked at me like, “Who is this young jerk?” or whatever. But he was nice enough to give us an 8–by-10 photo of the Pearls and was extremely cordial. Of course, I was right: “Tree in the Meadow” didn’t sell! But that day I remember we got a very curt “No” from Morty Craft, who was too busy to even look at us; that was Melba at 1650 Broadway. A lot of these offices then consisted of a small front room, where you might have a secretary and a desk and a piano; in the back there might be some record boxes. I think the rent was $150 a month for a two-room little suite in 1650 Broadway. The thing is, you could walk down the halls, and you could hear different groups auditioning or rehearsing. At one point we came down the elevator, and there was Cirino of...