By CORNBREAD (66.185.84.74) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 12:30 am:

Now and then I run into some singles on Bell Records distributed by Pocket Books Inc. These came in a picture sleeve with printed price of 49 cents.

Two examples I recall were from veterans Edna McGriff and Buddy Lucas.

Did this label have anything to do with the Bell Studios or the Bell/Amy/Mala entity?

By Robb_K (66.81.195.83) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 12:45 am:

As far as I remember, those budget records were the first issues of the newly-launched label, which was owned by the owners of Bell Sound Studios. That was the same label that later spawned Amy and Mala as subsidiaries, and also distributed scads of independent labels from across The USA.

By Eli (68.236.53.71) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 12:56 am:

Bell records had no connection to Bell Sound studios

The Bell label was originaly owned by Al Massler.

If you look at that name you will notice from where the label sub names were derived.

Bell was originaly a "legit" and comedy imprint and when Larry Utall and Artie Wayne came aboard , they began to diversify into a full service imprint.
In 1975, Clive Davis stepped in and changed the name to Arista, and the rest is history.

By Robb_K (66.81.16.103) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:15 am:

Now I remember. I had read that Bell records were started by a firm that had previously been a pressing plant (not Bell Sound Studios). They were the pressing plant in New York, which had a lot of its labels fall off the records in the late '50s and early '60s. They started distributing records, as well. Weren't they eventually bought out by Colgems(previously Colpix)in the early 1970s (when the traditional blue label was changed to gray/silver), before the Clive Davis takeover in 1975?

By Eli (68.236.53.71) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:19 am:

Affirmative Robb!!

By Robb_K (66.81.16.103) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:30 am:

Thanks, Bobby. Do you know what the name of the pressing plant was?

By Eli (68.236.53.71) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:39 am:

Ill have to put on my thinking cap for that one Robb.
I used to know the answer so Ill pop a coupla Ginko Biloba and get back atcha!!

By Eli (68.236.53.71) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:41 am:

They may have been partners with Al Silver of Herald/ Ember in Silver Plastics, but im not certain, so Ill check it out.

By mike s (195.93.34.12) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 11:55 am:

I have gotta try this Gingko Biloba that Bobby keeps mentioning! It will probably help my memory etc but not my guitar playing!!

By paulie3$hoes (68.236.53.71) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 12:00 pm:

not fer nutin, but dey say dat it helps dat dere t'oid foot too, catch my drift????$%^&*

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 02:05 pm:

Bobby & Robb...
This may help - Perception/Today Records used the same pressing plant as Bell Records in the early mid 1970s. If someone remembers which facility Perception/Today used that would answer the question.

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Heikki (81.17.193.223) on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 03:56 am:

Hi!

Among Yahoogroups there's "AmyMalaBell".

Best regards
Heikki

By Mark Speck (199.183.107.42) on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 10:52 pm:

Thank you, Heikki! That group is run by two SDF'ers, namely Davie Gordon (founder/owner) and yours truly (moderator).

You are all welcome to join if so inclined:

http://www.yahoogroups.com/amymalabell

Best,

Mark

By Ron Murphy (68.42.90.140) on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 12:33 am:

the styrene records (labels are glued on after the pressing)that Bell was manufacturing in the late 60's and 70's were being done at a plant called "Bestway"

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 12:46 pm:

Thanks, Ron - for the info on Bestway!

Robb:
Columbia Pictures bought out Bell Records at the end of 1969 and folded their Colpix/Colgems label into Bell. That was also the year that Amy & Mala were phased out.

Clive Davis was hired by Columbia Pictures in 1974 to launch Arista Records which was originally going to be the sister label for Bell. It was decided months later by Columbia Pictures to install Davis at Bell & rename the label Arista.

Kevin Goins - KevGo