Brunswick
records was started by Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, which
had been manufacturing products ranging from pianos to sporting
equipment since 1845. In January 1920, a new line of Brunswick
Records were introduced in the US and Canada that employed the
lateral cut system that was then becoming the default cut for
78 RPM disc records. The parent company marketed them extensively,
and within a few years Brunswick became one of the USA's Big
Three record companies, along with Victor and Columbia Records.
In April 1930, Brunswick-Balke-Collender sold Brunswick Records
to Warner Brothers, who leased Brunswick to the American Record
Corporation (ARC) in December 1931.
In 1939, ARC was bought by the Columbia Broadcasting System
for $750,000, which discontinued the label in 1940. This violated
the Warner lease agreement, resulting in the Brunswick trademark
being transferred to American Decca. In 1944, Decca revived
the Brunswick label, mostly for reissues of recordings from
earlier decades (80000 series). From 1957 and into the 1960s,
it was primarily used for African-American acts with Jackie
Wilson its only major recording star. |