1920: the Putnam Theatre in Brooklyn ran a newspaper ad for Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds, proclaiming her an “Attraction Extraordinary.” A few weeks earlier Okeh released Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” and it sold extremely well. Thanks in part to Gennett’s victory in the early patent case (Victor Talking Machine Co. v. Starr Piano), an injunction to stop to smaller labels from using lateral cut 78s was denied. Thus Okeh could release this, the “first race record” to an eager audience who possessed the right equipment. Without the injunction, Okeh faced an uphill battle trying to release this on the unpopular vertical / ‘hill and dale’ disk.
1929: Bert Stock and His Orchestra recorded “Turn on the Heat” in NYC. It appeared on Gennett 7059, Champion 15886, and Supertone 9585. The recording featured Doc Mayer (v), Joe Barone and George McKee (c), Delmar “Dick” Evans (tb), Hap Swanson and Lee Loveland (as/cl), Bert Stock and Edward Walker (p), Billy Yates (g), Hank August (bs), Billy Yates (bjo), and Doc Meyers (d/xyl). The Champion issue sold 2,746 copies in 1930.
1935: Gennett recorded President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech in Atlanta, “The Meaning of Progress,” dedicating the Techwood Homes near Georgia Tech. Techwood was a New Deal slum clearance project to build twenty-three brick and concrete buildings to house 604 families and 308 Georgia Tech students. It also included forty-two concrete buildings with 677 apartments at Atlanta University. It appeared on Gennett Historical 8 and the catalog noted “We introduce here out initial release of Historical and Educational recordings reproducing decisive moments of History, made as they occurred, or reproduced exclusively for Gennett by the author,” “1 double faced 16 inch 33 1/3 RPM 1 single faced 16 ich 33 1/3 RPM $14.00.”
Gennett Records Discography 