Puritan - Biography

Biography - Puritan

USA

U.S. record company, active between 1918-1927.

Introduced in early 1918 by the United Phonographs Corporation of Sheboygan, Wisconsin (a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company), the first Puritan records were vertical-cut (hill & dale) 9-inch and 10-inch disks and reissued matrices in Paramount's 2000/30000 series. The top of the labels showed a cameo of a young Pilgrim woman listening to a gramophone in a nicely furnished living room, above the brand logo "Puritan Records and Phonographs."

In late 1919, Puritan, like its supplier, Paramount, moved to producing lateral-cut records. The labels were now much more ornate. They continued to show the living room scene, now in brown, but most of the design was now taken up by a floral pattern in gold and brown, and the brand name now appeared simply as "Puritan" in front of a black background. Around August 1920, the living room scene was replaced by the slogan "America's Best Record." In late 1920, the label design was further simplified to a plain blue label surrounded by a floral frame in gold, still featuring the phrase "America's Best Record."

In 1922, United Phonographs Corporation left the record business. The label was now jointly produced by The New York Recording Laboratories (another Wisconsin Chair subsidiary) and the Bridgeport Die & Machine Company (B. D. & M. Company) of Bridgeport, Connecticut. NYRL label were blue, whereas BDMC used black.

In March 1922, the B. D. & M. Company began producing a separate series of Puritan records for regional distribution in the Northeast U.S. They introduced a a new label that showed a male pilgrim's head in an oval at the top.

Both NYRL and BDMC issues derived their couplings and catalog numbers from Paramount's.

By 1924, though, B. D. & M. Company began to obtain most of its masters from the Emerson Recording Laboratories and severed its business relationship with The New York Recording Laboratories.

Between 1924 and 1927, Puritan was produced exclusively by The New York Recording Laboratories. In 1927, after NYRL had closed its New York studio, Puritan releases reissued recordings made by Regal Record Company, Inc.

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