Vargo

The American Record Pressing began in Detroit in 1950 as Vargo Inc. The company was purchased on September 1, 1951, and moved to Owosso, Michigan, a small rural community located 25 miles west of Flint. Its first Owosso location was at 1011 E. Main Street in a building that had been occupied for the previous ten years by the Douglas Trucking Lines. The company was called Vargo Record Pressing when it took over the building, but changed its name to American Record Pressing the following year. In 1951, the plant had only three record presses and handled only 78 rpm records. Some of those recordings were issued on its own Vargo label. By the end of the decade, however, the demand for 78 rpm records had dwindled, and the orders from record companies were mainly comprised of seven-inch 45 rpm singles and long playing 12-inch albums in both mono and stereo. American Record Pressing eventually discontinued its Vargo label and became strictly a custom pressing business. It produced records for companies that did not have their own pressing plant. In its earliest days, the business was limited to Detroit customers, but by the end of the 1950's it was shipping to all parts of the country. ARP's customers included a bevy of well-known national labels: Cameo-Parkway and Swan (Philadelphia), Vee Jay, Tollie, and Bamboo (Chicago), Era (Hollywood), Buddah (New York), Sussex (Los Angeles), and Motown, Tamla, Gordy, Soul, Harvey, and V.I.P. (Detroit). In addition, ARP stamped all of the 45 rpm singles that were produced by Fenton Records in the Great Lakes Recording Studio in Sparta, Michigan; and they pressed singles for a host of other small Michigan labels as well.