Defunct Store Pillows
Description: Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Sherman Oaks, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label currently is distributed in the US by The Orchard, and internationally by Sony Music Entertainment. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Records in the United States from 1988 to 1993.
Description: Mega Records was a Danish record label established in 1983. It was renamed Edel-Mega Records when it was acquired by Edel Music in 2001. Mega's catalogue is now managed by Playground Music Scandinavia, which was spun off from Edel in 2010. Their most internationally successful artist is the Swedish pop group Ace of Base, who have to date sold over 30 million records worldwide. Nicki French also released a single under their label.
Description: Philo Records was a short-lived record company and label founded in 1945 by the brothers Eddie and Leo Messner. Soon after it was founded, the name was changed to Aladdin. Philo's releases included 78 RPM singles of Illinois Jacquet, Wynonie Harris, Helen Humes with the Bill Doggett Octet, Jay McShann and Lester Young, and an album (set of two 78 RPM records) of Lester Young, Nat King Cole and Red Callender.
Description: Remembering the wonderful Hudson's Department Store. The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was a retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit was the tallest department store in the world in 1961, and, at one time, claimed to be the second-largest department store, after Macy's, in the United States, by square footage. Hudson's was known for customer satisfaction and its liberal return policy. Hudson's was involved in the community. In 1924, two years prior to rival Macy's, it staged its first Thanksgiving Parade, which continues today. In 1923, it unveiled the world's largest flag, which covered 3,700 sq ft (340 m2) of the Woodward facade.
Description: Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty department stores stores across Southern California. Bullock's was founded in 1907 at Seventh & Broadway in downtown Los Angeles by John G. Bullock, with the support of The Broadway Department Store owner Arthur Letts. In 1923, Bullock and business partner P.G. Winnett bought out Letts' interest after his death and the companies became completely separated.
Description: Alpha Beta was a beloved grocery store chain in the southwestern United States from 1917 to 1995. Founded in Pomona, California, the chain became famous for organizing products alphabetically, inspiring its unique name. Though the stores were eventually rebranded under other supermarket chains, Alpha Beta remains a nostalgic favorite among fans of vintage retail, classic California history, and retro Americana.
Description: Trix Records was an American independent record label, which was set up in 1972, by the folklorist Peter B. Lowry. It lasted just under a decade as an active label dealing mainly with Piedmont blues artists from the Southeastern states (the focus of Lowry's folkloric field research), together with the anthology Detroit After Hours, a collection of Detroit piano players. The label's last release was by David "Honeyboy" Edwards in 1978, although Lowry continued recording until 1980 with Cephas & Wiggins. Lowry's long-time partner, Roberta Casey, ran things in the 1990s and helped in arranging the sale of its eighteen issued LP master tapes to Joe Fields of Muse Records.
Description: Soma Records was an American record label, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by wholesale record distributor Amos Heilicher. The Soma name was "Amos" spelled backwards. Heilicher, along with his brother Danny, was also in the jukebox and wholesale record distribution businesses, and owned the Musicland chain of retail music stores.
Description: Jitney Jungle was a chain of supermarkets that began in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1919. Originally, brothers Judson McCarty Holman and William Henry Holman and their cousin William Bonner McCarty founded a charge-and-carry grocery store in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1912. Over the next few years, they opened additional stores, but in 1916, one of their stores found itself unable to collect the amounts owed by some of its customers, and the idea of changing over to a cash-and-carry business model began to take root. While W. H. Holman was away serving in World War I, his brother and cousin decided to change over to cash-and-carry, and after he returned from the war, they opened the first Jitney Jungle on East Capitol Street in Jackson.
Description: Meritt Records was an American jazz and blues record company and label that existed from 1925 to 1929. It was founded in Kansas City by Winston Holmes, the owner of a music store. Records were made in his studio and sold only in his store. Holmes produced about 20 double-sided acoustically recorded phonograph records in the mid and late 1920s. Most of the sides are of locally based jazz and blues performers, plus some gospel music and sermons.
