Music Industry Professionals

Lummtone Records was established in Los Angeles in 1959 by Lummie Fowler, who came from the Crenshaw district in the South Central part of the city. He worked...

Music City Records was founded in 1954 by Ray Dobard in Berkeley, California, on the North side of Oakland on San Francisco Bay. The company’s address was first...

Dootone Records began operating in 1951, having been set up as Blue Records in 1949. Its founder was Dootsie Williams, who came to Los Angeles as a child...

Del-Fi Records was set up by Bob Keane in Hollywood in 1957, following his departure from Keen Records. It issued its first single in 1958, “Caravan” by Henri...

Ollie T. Hunt was born in 1917 in Los Angeles. He was a Black entrepreneur with an unusual approach to making his way in the music industry. During...

Mambo Records was set up by Larry Mead and Mike Gradney in 1955 in Pasadena, California. Mead owned a record pressing plant called Perfection Plastic Products situated at...

Selective was a Los Angeles label set up in 1949 by John Blackburn. It lasted less than a year but put out around twenty singles in that short...

Elko Records was originally called Echo Records. The company was formed in 1949 by John R. Fulbright and Jack Jackson in Los Angeles. Not much is known about...

Barney Ales was promoted to Motown’s Executive Vice-President and General Manager in 1969, from which position he ensured Motown’s success as a business for a few more years....

Al Bell was born Alvertis Isbell in 1940 in Brinkley, Arkansas and moved to North Little Rock, where he attended the Scipio Africanus Jones High School. Education in...