OKeh - Biography

Biography - OKeh

USA

OKeh Corporate History by R. Laird and B. Rust
OKeh vertical disc discography
Blue Okeh labels (1931-1934) and label rings

Founded by Otto Heinemann (1876 Lüneburg, Germany-1965 New York, NY), the OKeh label was named after the word Okay, using what was then believed to be the correct spelling of a word that meant "it is right" in the Choctaw language. Until January 1920, the label logo was styled "OkeH" to highlight Otto Heineman's initials. The story that his name was O.K.E. Heinemann is a myth because Heinemann's full name at birth was Jehuda Otto Heinemann.
Produced by the Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Co., the first releases appeared in 1918. They were vertical-cut (hill-and-dale) records on blue labels with an Indian head.
On Oct. 1, 1919, the company was renamed General Phonograph Corporation and switched to releasing lateral-cut discs. A new label with OKeh in a script font at the top was introduced in late January 1920. In November 1920, OKeh released Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues", the first authentic vocal blues recording. Based on the success of this record, the company launched its 8000 'race' series (1921-1934). They were also the first company to launch a series of Irish music (21000-series in 1921).
In January 1926, OKeh announced its own electrical recording process, Truetone; this process was used from April 19 to October 29, 1926 (matrix numbers 80001 to 80198), but Truetone labels were affixed to some earlier acoustic releases as well.
On November 11, 1926, OKeh was acquired by Columbia and became the OKeh Phonograph Corporation. OKeh now abandoned its True Tone process and switched to the technically superior Western Electric process used by Columbia (and yet, some releases are said to appear with Truetone labels as late as summer/autumn 1928).
The OKeh labels now listed the same patent numbers at the bottom as contemporary Columbia Viva-tonal releases until Columbia discontinued the OKeh label in 1935.
In April 1940, the OKeh label was revived. This second period lasted till 1946. During this time, hillbilly records were distinguished from pop records with the prefix 0.
The first CBS-style OKeh label (used till May 1941) featured four lines of patent text under the label name OKeh and listed patents 1625705 and RE 16588. The very earliest releases (April 1940) listed the catalog number at the bottom of the label; then it moved to the right of the spindle hole. In late 1941, the patent text was shortened to 3 lines. It now listed the patents 1625705 and 1702564. In 1942, a text promoting OKeh needles was added that appears on the labels until OKeh was disbanded again in 1946. The very last OKeh labels from early 1946 have reduced the patent text once more, to two lines that list only patent 1702564.

The label was relaunched once more in 1951 and released 78s till 1957. The 1951-1953 label showed two lines of patent text without a matrix number; from 1953-1957, the patent text was shortened to a single line.

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