Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

JOHN K. MACKENZIE
COLLECTION, 1887-1976

Collection #
M 0428
OM 0133

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Biographical Sketch
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder List
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Sally Carr Childs-Helton
March 1986

COLLECTION INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

John Kenneth MacKenzie (1932-1982) was raised in Portland, Oregon. He took a business degree from Oregon State University in 1954, with minors in engineering and broadcasting, and a masters degree in broadcasting from Syracuse University in 1960. MacKenzie worked for the state of Oregon's radio and television network, and later in a pioneering closed-circuit educational television station in Anaheim, California. He returned to Oregon where he was an assistant professor of broadcasting at Portland State University. MacKenzie began The Cascade Group, Inc., an advertising company, in 1972, and ran it until his death in 1982.

MacKenzie was a collector of stamps, post cards, ragtime sheet music and piano rolls, and jazz records. He began collecting 78 rpm jazz discs while in high school, which lead to an interest in identifying the artists on these early recordings. Gennett Record Company first gained his research attention because the company recorded many early black jazz artists, and distributed its records widely in the Pacific Northwest. MacKenzie extended his research into the company when he discovered that relatives of the local distributer had worked for the Gennett family in Indiana in the 1920s, and he was able to interview Harold Soule, a past employee. His research and interest in the company continued throughout his life.

Much of MacKenzie's research was aimed at unraveling the complex relationship between the Gennett Record Company and its affiliated labels. Planning on using his extensive research for a book to be entitled Gennettics, he gave the following description of his work in a 1967 or 1968 issue of the 78 Quarterly:

"It has been my intent, and still is, to chronicle the activities of the magnetic Gennett label and its stable of associated labels during their electrical recording period (roughly from 1925 to 1939). The work will contain, among other things: the complete master ledgers comprising over 10,000 recordings; cross-indexed numericals of the approximately 70 labels that, at one time and another, have borne the product of Gennett's recording efforts in New York, Richmond, Chicago, Birmingham, etc.; the history of the parent firm, the Starr Piano Company, and those firms that did business with the Starr during the fifteen-year electrical span; photographs of all labels and label variants involved; reproductions of important documents, supplements, advertisements, and other ephemera; a discussion of recording methods, manufacturing techniques, A&R policies, and business attitudes practiced by the parent firm; together with a cross-index of all artists and the pseudonyms used to cloak their identities."

Unfortunately, MacKenzie died before the book was finished, but parts of it were published in jazz journals.

Source: Information in collection.
Biographical Sketch written by Joyce MacKenzie.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The Starr Piano Company and The Gennett Record Company

In 1872, a number of prominent Richmond, Indiana businessmen, headed by James M. Starr, organized a company to manufacture pianos. The Starr Piano Company, as it came to be known, was the first piano company west of the Alleghany Mountains. The company grew steadily and incorporated in 1893 under the direction of Benjamin Starr, John Lumsden, and Lumsden's son-in-law Henry Gennett. Gennett served as president of the company, and over the years his three sons were officers: Harry as vice-president and general manager; Fred as secretary; and Clarence as treasurer.

By 1912, the company was said to be the largest manufacturer of pianos in the world. With all factory facilities in Richmond, outlet stores were located in Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Portland, and San Francisco. The floor space in the factory covered more than twelve acres, and 600 employees were on the payroll. An average of forty pianos a day were built. All parts and cases were manufactured in-house for grand, upright and player pianos, and the instruments received numerous awards for tone quality, case design, and construction.

In 1915, Starr entered the recording field with obsolete recording equipment and old master discs from a bankrupt firm in Boston. From 1915 to 1918, records were issued under the Starr label, but the company found that some independent dealers refused to carry the records because the name Starr was already strongly associated with pianos and phonographs. The label name was changed to Gennett in 1918 at the suggestion of Fred Gennett.

The following year, 1919, was the most profitable in the history of the Starr Piano Company and its subsidiary, the Gennett Record Company. The Gennett catalog was expanded in both classical and popular music discs, and Fred Gennett signed recording contracts with concert artists, speakers and popular figures. These early acoustically recorded discs contained items as diverse as speeches by William Jennings Bryan and members of the Ku Klux Klan; symphonic, band and sacred music; and physical culture exercises.

By 1921, the company had recording studios in Richmond and New York City, and pressings were done at the Richmond plant and by H.S. Berliner in Montreal. During the early 1920s the entire line of Starr products increased to an annual production of 15,000 pianos, 35,000 spring-driven phonographs, and 3,000,000 records.

The Gennett Record Company is acknowledged as a pioneer and leader in supplying records to chain stores and mail order houses. Sears and Roebuck carried the Silvertone, Supertone, Conqueror and Challenge labels, and Gennett supplied the Montgomery Ward chain as well. Gennett masters were released under more than 70 labels, including Bell, Black Patti, Champion, Decca, Gold Seal, Herwin, QRS, and Varsity. In 1916, Harry Gennett's business trip to England resulted in Gennett masters appearing on many English labels, including Winner, Guardsman, Coliseum, and Vocalion; Australian labels also used Gennett masters. Gennett masters also were leased or sold to Paramount, Vocalion, and OKeh.

The company entered the jazz market largely due to the efforts of Fred Wiggins, the manager of a Starr music store in Chicago. He scouted for artists to record for Gennett, "discovering" musicians like Gene Autry and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. In 1923 jazz pioneers, including the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver and his Creole Band, and Jelly Roll Morton came to Richmond to record, and helped to establish Gennett as a major jazz label. Younger, and at that time less established, jazz artists who made acoustical recordings at the Richmond studio included Bix Beiderbecke, Tommy Dorsey, and Hoagy Carmichael. In the New York studio, Louis Armstrong and the Red Onion Jazz Babies and numerous blues musicians recorded, along with other popular dance bands of the day.

Gennett was possibly the first commercial record company to release ethnic music discs. In 1926, Fred Gennett arranged with resort chain owner Fred Harvey to make records of the Hopi Indians for the tourist trade. Gennett arranged for Dr. J. Walter Fewkes to record the Hopi discs at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon, where elders of the tribe were invited to come record their traditional songs. Fewkes, Chief of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian, was the first ethnologist to make phonograph recordings in the field when he made cylinder recordings of the music of the Passamaquody Indians in 1889. Even though the Hopi discs were not commercially successful, the recordings did preserve valuable and rare music; they were the last known acoustic recordings made by the company. After the company switched to electrical recording techniques, Gennett maintained its interest in ethnic recordings, as shown by its Maloof (Middle-Eastern) and Rayo Electrico (Hispanic) labels, as well as discs in Hebrew.

In 1926, all the major phonograph producers, including Starr, introduced a new line with improved speakers and electric motors; improvements in sound recording soon followed. Microphones, invented by Emile Berliner, replaced the old acoustic horns. Gennett's first electrically processed record was released early in 1926, and a few months later the Electrobeam label was introduced. Most jazz Electrobeams were recorded at the Richmond studio, as was Gennett's "Race Series," which drew black musicians from the Chicago area. Very little jazz and very few black artists were recorded at the New York City studio after 1926.

Gennett Electrobeams were also recorded in Chicago, Birmingham, and St. Paul. The Birmingham Starr music store housed a temporary recording studio in August and September of 1927, where Southern blues and jazz musicians were recorded. Swedish, German and Polish folk music was recorded in St. Paul in September-November of the same year. Two recording trips were made to Chicago in November and December, 1927, and in February-April, 1928.

Even though Gennet released an extensive and varied catalog of musical genres on a variety of labels, sales declined from 1926 on. The Starr Piano Company operated the Gennett Record Company at a loss for a number of years. In December 1930, the Gennett Electrobeam label was withdrawn due to the financial pressures of the Depression. However, the Champion and Superior labels were continued. These were made from Gennett masters with pseudonyms replacing the artists' names, and were sold at three-for-a-dollar in chain stores. In 1932, Starr was forced to drop the Superior label, with the Champion label continuing until 1934, its catalog largely made up of hillbilly, old time, and Tin Pan Alley tunes. In 1935, Starr sold the Champion trademark to Decca, and terminated its active studio recording. Decca continued to press the old Champion masters, selling them in the U.S., and in England on the Brunswick label.

Even though the Gennett Company had left the recording field, it continued to press records through the late 1940s. Joe Davis attempted to revive the Gennett label in 1944, but failed financially due to the poor quality of jazz that was released.

In 1928, the company entered the sound effects field; it proved to be its longest-lived line of recordings. Recorded on the Gennett, Speedy Q and Syncro labels, the sound effects discs were first purchased by the Hollywood film industry for the early non-synchronous "talking" pictures. When the film industry moved to synchronous sound on film, Gennett survived many of its rival sound effects companies by supplying sound effects for radio. Fred and Harry Gennett recorded many of the effects themselves, and Harry Jr. was still conducting a mail order sound effects business in 1952. Along with sound effects, Gennett produced specialized discs for skating rinks, and the Chapel series provided music for funeral homes.

In 1952 the long association between the Gennett family and the Starr Piano Company came to an end. The pressing equipment was sold to Decca, and continued to be used for a number of years by Decca and Mercury. Harry Gennett, Sr., long president and general manager, died in 1952, as did Clarence, the treasurer. In 1981 many of the Starr and Gennett buildings were either torn down or gutted. Jazz buffs still visit the site, and a brick from the building where many early jazz greats recorded is highly prized.

The Gennett Record Company is important in the history of recorded sound in that many early jazz records were made by the company. Gennett was among the first to actively seek out and record black musicians and groups at a time when most studios still had a policy of "whites only," and to record "hillbilly" and "old time" music. The company is also important in the variety of genres it recorded and pressed, including jazz, blues, gospel, "old time," "hillbilly," "race," ethnic, classical, band, comedy, spoken word, skating and funeral music, and sound effects.

Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1899.

Fox, Henry Clay, Ed. Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond, Indiana, Vols. 1 and 2. Madison, WI: Western Historical Association, 1912.

Joslin, Gene(?). "Gennett Records: Two Impressions." Joslin's Jazz Journal, February 1982: 2; 8.

Kay, George W. "Those Fabulous Gennetts! The Life Story of a Remarkable Label." The Record Changer, June 1953: 4-13.

Kennedy, Rick. "Memories Fade as Starr Goes Down." Joslin's Jazz Journal, November 1984: 4.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection reflects MacKenzie's interests as a jazz collector and represents his years of research on the Gennett Record Company. His work was to have resulted in a book entitled Gennettics. MacKenzie envisioned the book to be in two volumes of 750 pages each, containing the company's history, an artist cross-index, the master ledgers, and a label numericals section.

The collection is divided into nine parts: 1. correspondence and interviews, 1957-1976; 2. research files, 1877-1975; 3. periodicals, newsletters, clippings and catalogs, 1917-1974; 4. master number and numericals ledgers, notebooks, lists and indexes, 1921-1942; 5. recording information cards, 1927-1929; 6. card file catalog by record label, ND; 7. interviews on cassette tapes, 1970; 8. thermofax and photocopies; and 9. items transferred to other collections in the library.

Much of the collection is in the form of loose research notes, but there are typewritten sections of what would have been his book. Since the collection was largely arranged by MacKenzie, it has been kept in his order and under his headings as much as possible. This means, for example, that all correspondence will not be located in the correspondence section, but is scattered throughout the collection. The same is true for master and other numericals lists, clippings, articles, legal documents, etc. To aid in the location of materials, they have been put in alphabetical or chronological order where appropriate within MacKenzie's arrangement.

Part 1 of the collection is made up of correspondence and interviews, 1957-1976, and is contained in boxes 1-2. The correspondence (1957-1976) includes items concerning MacKenzie's research on the Gennett Record Company, and correspondence to and from fellow collectors, hobbyists, and jazz scholars. It is arranged alphabetically by correspondent name and chronologically within each folder. The correspondence contains master and numerical lists, collectors' want lists, and correspondence with major jazz scholars, including George W. Kay and Brian Rust. The bulk of the correspondence dates from 1960 to 1965, and comes from around the U.S., England, Australia, South Wales, Denmark, Holland, and Japan.

The interviews (1961-1970), in box 2, are transcripts of interviews done mostly by phone, and are arranged alphabetically by name. Also included with the interviews are correspondence, lists of questions to be asked, and questionnaires to be completed by mail. All interviews are with Gennett family members or employees of the Gennett Record Company.

Part 2 of the collection holds MacKenzie's research files (1887-1975). These files are the bulk of MacKenzie's research for his book text on the company's history. Boxes 2 and 3 contain his research on various record labels affiliated with Gennett, and includes notes, clippings, legal papers, annual reports, correspondence, and master and numerical lists. Research about the Starr Piano Company and the Gennett family is in box 3, and includes early business and family correspondence, legal documents,and clippings and articles. Miscellaneous research files begin in box 3 and continue in box 4. Included are cylinder and disc machine catalogs and a phonograph instruction booklet, information on the Gennett company in Australia, law cases, royalties, notes on the Gennett ledgers and associated labels, articles, lists of Gennett employees, a scrapbook, and notes and diagrams for the book. In box 4 is the typed book text, much still in draft form. It has been assembled here from other parts of the collection in xeroxed copies; the originals have been kept in their original location as placed by the collector. The text is obviously incomplete, and represent the work done on the book at the time of MacKenzie's death.

Part 3 is made up of periodicals, newsletters, clippings and catalogs, 1917-1974. Boxes 4 and 5 contain periodicals and newsletters, some with articles about the Gennett Company or affiliated labels, photographs of labels, advertisements, and record lists. Others are of general musical interest. In box 5 are advance record bulletins and clippings from the Talking Machine World concerning Gennett and related labels. Boxes 5 & 6 hold miscellaneous clippings and catalogs. The clippings include "Gennettics" articles by MacKenzie, and miscellaneous clippings about the company. Catalog holdings include catalogs and pages from Montgomery Ward and Sears; record catalogs come from Gennett and affiliated labels.

Part 4 boxes 6-10 of the collection is made up of master number and numericals ledgers, notebooks, lists, and indexes, 1921-1934. Most are typed copies, most likely intended to be used as part of the book text. Some are typed transcriptions of Gennett ledgers, while others are indexes compiled by MacKenzie. A few of the ledgers and notebooks are original or xeroxes or photographs of originals. For more information on this part of the collection, see the following section.

Part 5 is made up of recording information cards, 1927-1929, and is in boxes 10 and 12. These have been kept in their original order; most follow chronologically, but some are out of order. The cards include the following information: song title, lab (master) number, take, catalog number, date recorded, artist, description (genre), composer, publisher, and royalty information. These are the original cards made during recording sessions.

Part 6 contains MacKenzie's card file catalog of record labels. It is in card file boxes 13-19, and are arranged alphabetically by record label. There are about 70 labels included, and all are either Gennetts or Gennett affiliates. MacKenzie set up the card file system to collect information on as many individual discs from each record label as possible. The cards include the following information: catalog number, artist, song title, Gennett master number, composer/lyricist/arranger, and name of artist and releases on other labels with catalog numbers.

Part 7 of the collection is interviews on cassette tapes, 1970 and ND, in box 20. Included are interviews with Florence Gennett and six past Gennett employees. MacKenzie also put "library" information on the tapes, such as addresses, etc., read directly into the tape recorder from phone books, city directories, etc.

Part 8 of the collection, in box 21, is made up of old thermofax and xerox copies. These were xeroxed at the time of processing to preserve them. Even though the old thermofaxes are brittle and decaying, they are still, in some cases, more readable than the new xerox copies. The old copies will be maintained until they decay beyond a point of usefulness. They have been stored together, and are arranged in inventory order. The bulk of the old thermofaxes and xeroxes are from master number and numericals notebooks and lists, and record catalog pages.

Items stored in other collection areas of the library make up part 9 of the collection. It includes artifacts, photographs, and popular sheet music.

 This section is to help clarify the information given in part 4 of the collection. Made up of master numbers and numericals ledgers, notebooks, lists, and indexes, much of the content of part 4 was intended to be used as part of the book text. Some are typed transcriptions of Gennett ledgers, while others are indexes compiled by MacKenzie. A few of the ledgers and notebooks are original or xeroxes or photographs of originals. At the beginning of some of the ledgers, notebooks and indexes are instructions for their use, along with an explanation of the contents of the various columns. Following is some of this information, and similar information for items not explained by the collector.

Throughout this section, MacKenzie used two dating systems. The first is the familiar month and day arrangement: 4/28 is April 28, and will usually be found in a column with the year date at the top. The second system is a set of four or six numbers with no punctuation separating them: 0406 is April 6; 290701 is July 1, 1929.

Box 6 contains a numericals notebook of Gennett and affiliated labels, arranged alphabetically by record label. For each entry, MacKenzie lists the catalog number, the artist, and the Gennett master number, title and composer/lyricist/arranger for each side of the disc.

In boxes 6-7 are the Gennett New York and Richmond ledgers and notebooks. The Richmond ledger, early series, and the New York catalog of Gennett masters were intended to be a part of the book text and similar information is given for each ledger. MacKenzie notes that the matrix numbers were copied from the original ledgers, and do not represent a list of masters as they were cut. Instead, it is a register of the masters received in Richmond from New York. Information included is condensed from the original master sheets of 16 columns into the 10 columns on the typewritten page: 1. matrix (master) number and take; 2. date received from N.Y.; 3. made for (customer); 4. artist; 5. song title; 6. matrix (master) number of the "mate" on the original Gennett issue; 7. musical and mechanical quality of the take expressed numerically (I, II, etc.); 8. and 9. catalog number; 10. monetary reference, probably the amount of money paid to the artist for the take.

The New York and Richmond masters notebook (1922-1924) was transcribed from typewritten log sheets in the Richmond office, and was probably compiled by George A. Blacker. It probably was not to have been included as part of the book text, and contains less information than above: name of artist, master number, take number, date and title.

Box 7 contains a number of master, numerical and other notebooks and lists, 1923-1934. The Gennett numericals for the 3000, 6000, and 7000 series gives the catalog number, artist, and side with the Gennett master and take number, song title, and composer/lyricist/arranger. It is difficult to tell if this was to have been part of the book text. The Gennett numerical ledger for the GE 3400-3412 and GE 6000-6264 series, 1926-1927, was copied from the original ledger sheets. Arranged in five columns, the typewritten information includes 1. catalog number and release date; 2. matrix (master) number; 3. label and catalog (?) number; 4. artist and song title; 5. cut-out date. A Gennett masters list from Richmond gives the master and take number, date, artist, instrumentation, title, and the various labels with catalog numbers under which the master was issued.

Continuing in box 7, a Gennett masters notebook (1-2900 series, X, BEX, WEX, and GEX) gives the master number and take, date, artist, song title, instrumentation, and the various labels with catalog numbers under which the master was issued. The Gennett master number notebook of theater and sound effects includes for the theater list the catalog number, type of musical group or sound effect, the master number, and title or description of the effect. The sound effects list contains the catalog number, the title or description of the effect, and the master number for each side. The Gennett master numbers by artist is arranged by artist name. Under each name is listed the real name if a pseudonym, master number, title, and other discs made from the master, including the pseudonym, label, and catalog number. The composer/lyricist/arranger list for the X141-X687 and GEX688-GEX1486 series gives the matrix (master) number and artist name only. Miscellaneous lists include sound effects, the chapel series, Gennett rejects, master and take number by genre, Gennett masters on Australian records, X series recording dates, a master and take list for the 12000 series, and loose ledger sheets found in with the recording information cards.

Box 8 holds an artist cross-index notebook, arranged alphabetically. MacKenzie intended to include this as part of the book text to help solve the mysteries created by Gennett's practice of using artist pseudonyms when a Gennett master was released under another label. It includes real names as well as pseudonyms for individual artists and groups, along with the label name and catalog number. Also in box 8 is a xerox copy of an original Gennett master ledger, 13000 and 14000 series, and miscellaneous pages from a 1926 master ledger. The ledger pages give the master number, the date received from New York, made for (customer), title of song, description (genre), master test, shells ordered, catalog number, and remarks.

The collection also contains (boxes 8-9) photographs of a Gennett ledgers (it is unclear if this is more than one ledger). The ledger numbers run from GE14239 to N19997, and N63137 to N63289. Because the photographs are of different sizes, the smaller ones have been stored in a photograph box, while the larger ones are stored in regular manuscripts boxes. Because of this, the numerical sequence of the ledger(s) is disrupted. To aid in keeping the ledgers in their proper numerical order, numbers have been put in parentheses on the folders and in the inventory. It appears that the photographs were made from a microfilmed copy of the ledger(s), which explains the poor quality of the reproduction of some of the ledger pages. The last two folders in this section are xeroxes of the ledger pages and were stored in with the photographs.

In OM box 133 (folders 1-2) is a Gennett master ledger (original) from ca. 1926 to ca. 1934, and runs from approximately the 300 to the 19000 series. The ledger sheets contain the following information: lab (master) number, factory number, title, and type (genre); information for the Gennett catalog includes artist, release date, and catalog number; and information for the stencil catalog includes the label and catalog number, release date, and reference number. Also included are pages from a 1927 master ledger containing the 12000-19000 series.

Boxes 9-10 contain numerical, master and other number notebooks and lists for record labels affiliated with Gennett. They include notebooks and lists for Canadian Compo, Champion, Varsity, ACO, Grey Gull, Herwin, OKeh, Vocalion, Decca and Paramount. Much of the same information given for the Gennett ledgers, notebooks, and lists is included here.

BOX AND FOLDER LIST

ACO G-16100's (G15934-G16228)

ACO Australia 2000 (GA20002-GA20044)

Angelus 3000 (3020-3350)

Apex Canada 700 (729-792)

Beacon (7003)

Bell (568-617)

Bell (1165-1191)

Beltona (945-1272)

Black Patti (8001-8055)

Broadway 5000 (5000-5111)

Broadway 8000 (8143-8248)

Buddy (8001-8070)

Challenge 100 (101-199)

Challenge 200 (200-271)

Challenge 300 (308-398)

Challenge 400 (400-431)

Challenge 500 (501-506)

Challenge 700 (700-763)

Champion 40000 (40000-40115)

Champion 45000 (45000-45200)

Champion 50000 (50010-50069)

Champion 15000 (15001-15249)

Champion 15000 (15250-15999)

Champion 16000 (16000-16451)

Chantal De Lux (808-934)

Chapel 500 (500-519) (N18456-18596)

Sonny Clay (22-23)

Clifford (5121-5331)

Coliseum (1869-2052)

Conqueror 7200 (7235-7277)

 Joe Davis (5000-7000)

Decca 5000 (3832; 5348-5927)

Decca 7000 (7137-7428)

Decca Australia (X1090-X1270)

Domino Canada (21549-21565)

Duophone B-5100 (B5132-5152)

Electron (5005-5106)

Embassy (9242)

Fireside Melodies (N19999; N20061)

Gaiety (P113-P122)

GE Skating Rink (9000-9017)

Gennett 2000 (2020)

Gennett 3000 (3001-3412)

Gennett 4000 (40305)

Gennett 5000 (5750)

Gennett/Joe Davis 5000 (5003-5008)

Gennett 6000 (6000-6849)

Gennett 6000 (6850-6999)

Gennett 7000 (7000-7322)

Gennett 1200 (1202)

Gennett S.E. (Sound Effects) (1001-1357)

Gennett Australia (6102-6111)

Gennett Bell (600-609)

Golden Tongue (174)

Guardsman (1864GV-2121GV)

Herschel 2000 (2001-2021)

Herwin (92001-93031)

Herwin 55000 (55001-55008)

Herwin 75500 (75501-75581)

Iragen (IG-29-10; IG-29-02)

Kildare (B207; B217)

Lyric (3329-3331)

Meloto (S-1668)

Meloto Canada (93083)

Melotone Canada 45000 (45000-45262)

Montgomery-Moore (2 cards; no numbers given)

Montgomery Ward (4900-8099)

Old Cabin (N18987-N18991; no #)

Paramount 3000 (3138-3299)

Paramount 12000 and 13000 (empty-may be in unidentified cards)

Paratone (1 card giving history of co.)

Personal 20000 (20015-204000; no #)

Keith Prowse (K101)

QRS (7016-7075)

Rainbow (1119-1130)

Rayo Electrico (40101-40329)

Regent (1075)

Rex (9457-9462)

Savoy (500-504)

Scala (761-811; no #)

Silvertone 3000 (3010-3129)

Silvertone 3500 (3500-3590)

Silvertone 3800 (3801-3864; 4008-4019)

Silvertone Autographed 4000 (4001-4005)

Silvertone 5000 (5001-5503; 5663-5697)

Silvertone 8000 (8000-8249)

Silvertone 25000 (25011-25126)

Starr Australia (707)

Starr Gennett (23019-23083)

Superior 300 (300-390)

Superior 2500 (2501-2839)

Supertone 9200 (9000-9999)

Theater Use (0101-0226)

Universal 4000 (4000-4118)

Unknown (Champion?) (30019-33072)

Unknown (16452-16832)

Unknown (12678-13092)

Varsity 5000 (5090-5143)

Varsity 6000 (6001-6074)

Vaughan (975-1850)

Vocalion (empty)

Vocalion Australia (XA18001-XA18063)

Vocalion English (X9796-X10016; B207-B209)

Miscellaneous

Louis Armstrong recordings, various labels (mostly OKeh, Parlophone, Vocalion)

Miscellaneous Historical Notes

Trade Publications

Branch Office Data

Who's Who

Trademarks

Lea Butt/Lorren Bolton, C-60 Cassette, ND

Joe Geier #1, C-30 Cassette, ND

Joe Geier #2, C-60 Cassette, ND

Joe Geier #3, C-60 Cassette, ND

Joe Geier #4, C-60 Cassette, ND

Florence Gennett #1; Library 2, C-60 Cassette, ND

Florence Gennett #2; Clayton "Jack" Jackson #1, C-60 Cassette, ND

Library #3 and "Tag" Taggart Pt. 1, C-60 Cassette, ND

Robert Thompson, C-60 Cassette, 1970

 Artifacts:

 -Columbia Record Pin - "You'll Remember Me" in title place on front of disc; back gives address of Columbia Phonograph Co.

 Photographs: (Visual Collections)

-Notebook: photographs of labels (94), trimmed 

-Slides: 22-some copies, of recording process

-Photos: 75 full-size; 65 of labels and 1 of artist

-Negatives:
from Talking Machine World, 1925
from Talking Machine World, 1926
from Talking Machine World, 1927
Various labels

-Photos: ca. 32, trimmed or small, more labels

-Photos: 2 photos of Ken Hulsizer from his correspondence

-Photos: 3 photos of recording machine, Gennett studio building in Richmond, and one of Harry Gennett and record finishing machine (?)

-Photos: large photos of various items
10 of recording equipment and sound truck (equipment on the truck?)
6 of recording sound effects
1 of Hopi Indian recorded by J. Walter Fewkes and Gennett at the Grand Canyon
1 of Gennett recording studio, Richmond
3 individual and 1 family photo (unidentified)

-Large negatives of the items above

-Large Photos:
Starr Piano Co. retail showroom
Starr Piano Co. owners? and employees?
Starr Piano Co. salesroom, Richmond, IN
Starr Piano Co. founders, identified
Residence of Henry Gennett
recording machine
recording/duplicating machine or movie sound machine?
Starr Piano Co., Richmond, 1872, 1890, 1906
recording sound effects
man with master? disks
3 people by lake, unidentified

 Sheet Music: (Printed Collections)

 "Kentucky's Way of Sayin' Good Mornin'"-Kahn and Van Alstyne, 1925
"My Blue Heaven"-Donaldson and Whiting, 1927
"Waiting and Longing"-Treadway and Harwell, 1929
"For You"-Dubin and Burke, 1930
"Sleepy Little Cowboy"-DeMetrius and Collins, 1951

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

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