Record Buying in the 1930s-40s

[Nathan Dodge]

Were records by black artists readily available in "white" stores during this time? If one wanted, say, a Duke Ellington record, did that person have to travel to a black neighborhood in order to purchase it? I understand the term "Race Records" is bandied about during this time, but I thought that referred to what was the precursor to R&B. The reason I ask this is because my wife's grandfather died last year and in his collection of 78s were the typical bands of the era, Harry James and the like, but there was a noticeable absence of Jazz stalwarts like Duke, Count, and Satch. I also suspect that the numerous covers of Ellington compositions made those songs accessible to mainstream record buyers, but since Duke did have a radio show, wouldn't many white record buyers want those particular versions?

I'm really trying to get a sense of what music-buying habits were like and how difficult/easy it was to obtain all of those great sides that the likes of Duke and the rest were doing then.

 

[scotrace]

This is an EXCELLENT question.

I have read that recordings by black artists are much, much scarcer and often in very poor condition if found. They tended to be played a lot more, and wore out.

I know I certainly would have played them to death. Bessie Smith? Fats Waller? Fletcher Henderson? Wow.

 

[Feraud]

This is a great question.
I have often wondered how accesible blues music was to folks in the old days. How well known were the great artists like Son House, Leadbelly, Johnson, etc.
Geography, exposure, segregation, etc. must have come into play to limit the records reaching a wider audience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some years ago, I bought out the old 78rpm stock of a defunct furniture store in Belfast, ME -- my birthplace, and about as white a town as there ever was. Included in the stock of records were plenty of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway sides on Victor and Brunswick, all of which were part of the regular catalog series for these labels. There were no "race" records, though -- these were in a seperate catalog series, and while they could be ordered by any customer that wanted them, they weren't ordinarily carried in stock unless there was sufficient demand.

I suspect this was the general rule -- black artists who had sufficient mass appeal to be listed in the "regular" record catalog, folks like Ellington, Calloway, Don Redman, Fats Waller, the Mills Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. would be available anywhere records were sold. The artists who appealed more to specialty interests -- serious jazz, blues and so forth, would be cataloged in the "race" section by the major labels, and would only be distributed in areas where there was enough of an African-American population to warrant it.

This wasn't purely a racial distinction, either. The major labels segregated country/old-time/western/hillbilly artists in exactly the same way.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

My dad told me similar stories as LizzieMaine described. We are from North Georgia and he was able to get any records by any Black artists he wished when he was a teen in the 40s.

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Something that is often overlooked is the way people would hear these lesser-known (black & white) bands. Radio formats were quite different in the 30s than they are today. The format would have been closer to today's network TV than to what we know as commercial radio. You would have a half-hour of news at noon, some soap operas, more news and then after dinner, radio serials like Little Orphan Annie and the like, and then music in the later part of the evening. The music would often be broadcast live from a famous ballroom & feature a well-known band. As far as I can tell, other than programs like "Your Hit Parade", you really didn't have the song-song-song-commercial format of today's radio.

So, bottom line, how did people hear the "other" types of music? From a jukebox. The jukebox could be programmed with 16-20 records of the distributor's choosing, and the selections were usually rotated weekly (based on popularity- jukeboxes have a counter where the operator can see how popular individual songs are). This also allows the operator to place local favorites into the jukebox strictly for the audience that frequented that particular club, diner, malt shop, etc.

You were much more likely to hear "black" music in an area where that was popular, and this is the beginning of the concept of the "single" (as opposed to the album) record. Even into the 1960s, you'd have groups with a local following getting their records played & purchased through plays on the jukebox only, without much radio exposure. Once in a while one of these bands would break through, but by and large, many bands came & went with only modest airplay on jukeboxes.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that the music was there if you went to the right place; not necessarily on the radio.