Broadway (9)

U.S. record label (1921-1935). This was originally produced by The New York Recording Laboratories (NYRL) of Port Washington, Wisconsin and the Bridgeport Die & Machine Company (B. D. & M. Company) as a cheap (39¢) label to be sold by the May Company and other department stores. This was the first of many collaborations between NYRL and BD&M, all of which drew upon NYRL's Paramount masters and duplicated that label's couplings. After BD&M dropped NYRL as its master supplier in late 1924, Broadway drew on masters from several other suppliers, most notably Emerson Recording Laboratories. When BD&M went bankrupt in 1925, production of the Broadway label shifted to The New York Recording Laboratories' plant in Grafton, WI. New series were introduced, including a popular 1000 series in 1925, followed by a short-lived race series (5000) and a country music series (8000) in 1929. When NYRL collapsed in 1932, the American Record Corporation took over production of Broadway, and the NYRL imprint was removed from labels. Masters from ARC and its Brunswick Record Corporation affiliate were used from that point, duplicating material issued on Banner, Brunswick, Melotone, Perfect (3) and similar labels. Finally, in 1934, Decca Records, Inc. purchased the Broadway trademark and issued its own short-lived series that contained some newly recorded material but mostly drew on older Champion (5), Gennett Records and Paramount masters. Sales were poor, and Decca discontinued the label in early 1935.