DJ George Garabedian

 

Downbeat Magazine April 1958

There are few images of George V. Garabedian, and his definitive biography has not been written.   George was a performing musician, and led several different groups of studio musicians: George Garabedian And His Royal Armenians, The Archibald Players, The George Garabedian Players, and The George Garabedian Troubadours. Below is a partial discography. Most of his sides were released as The George Garabedian Players; I included their one 45 with Liberty. They have over twenty 45s all effectively self-released on Mark 56 Records, the list is too long to include.

Garabedian was also president of Chevron records. The earliest appearance of George in Billboard is January of 1957 for hiring two comic artists to draw album art: Virgil Parch and Paul Welb. An article in Variety in 1958 calls him the general manager but it's also the first mention of his attempt to buy some of the Laurel and Hardy catalog. The American Record Label Directory and Dating Guide, 1940-1959 notes that the parent company is UPA Pictures.

Almost everything he recorded was self-released. When he was running Chevron Records in 1955 he approached W.C. Handy about doing a film on his life. That eventually became a feature film in 1958, St. Louis Blues, starring Nat King Cole and Eartha Kit. [LINK]But that didn't happen until after Paramount removed Garabedian as producer on the project. It's probably the most famous thing Garabedian ever did, and he didn't even get to really do it. But those sides he did in 1958 and 1959 did move a few units.

Arist	Tracks	Label/Format	Release Year
George Garabedian And The Royal Armenians	Artistry In Rhythm / Afraid To Dream	Chevron / 45	1958
George Garabedian And The Royal Armenians	Thanks / Ball of Love	Chevron / 45	????
The Archibald Players	Mr. Grillon / The Big Nothing	Arch Records / 45	1958
The George Garabedian Troubadours	Thomas Dooley Cha-Cha-Cha / Two Hearts To Sing	Mark 56 / 45	1959
The George Garabedian Players	Artistry In Rhythm / Art's Tune	Liberty / 45	1959

But things got more interesting late in life when he founded Mark 56 Records in 1970. In addition to numerous music releases, Garabedian started releasing old radio serials on LP. This was probably the first time that had been done commercially since radio serials were pressed to transcription discs. Stephen Fuchs interviewed him for Cash Box in 1976 where he got more of the story.

Below is a list of all the radio programs Garabedian released under the Mark 56 label. I've included the catalog oddities like re-releases, and changed release numbers. I've removed all the non-radio soundtracks (I think) and all the random original music releases. Many are simply named "Original Radio Broadcasts" and the tracks generically as "Episode 1." There is conflicting information on many of these indicating their release may have been rushed. The list goes on only sporadically beyond release number 730, I stopped there to preserve my sanity.

Release	Artist	Album	Year
571	W.C. Fields	Original Radio Broadcast	1972
575	Laurel & Hardy	No U Turn	1973
577	Laurel & Hardy	Babes in Toyland	1974
578	Bill Ballance	Feminine Forum	1978
579	Laurel & Hardy	Another Fine Mess	1973
583	Fibber McGee & Molly	Johnson Wax Program Vol 1	xx
584	Fibber McGee & Molly	Johnson Wax Program Vol 2	xx
585	Fibber McGee & Molly	Johnson Wax Program Vol 3	xx
586	Fibber McGee & Molly	Johnson Wax Program Vol 4	xx
588	Superman	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
589	Dick Tracey	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
590	The Lone Ranger	Original Radio Broadcasts	1972
591	The Shadow	Vol 1	1972
592	Sgt. Preston of the Yukon	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
593	Little Orphan Annie	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
594	Captain Midnight	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
595	W.C. Fields/Lux Radio Theatre	Original Radio Broadcast	1972
596	Tom Mix	Two new original episodes	1973
599	The Green Hornet	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
600	Laurel & Hardy	Trouble Again!	1973
601	Laurel & Hardy	No U Turn	1973
602	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
603	Jack Armstrong - The All American Boy	Wheaties Presents	1973
604	Jungle Jim	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
605	Lum & Abner	An Evening with Lum & Abner	1973
607	The Green Hornet	*Duplicate of 599	1973
608	The Shadow	Vol 2	1973
609	Flash Gordon	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
610	Lux Radio Theatre	The Treasure of Sierra Madre	1973
611	Suspense - Bela Legosi	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
613	Rudy Vallee	The Fleischmann's Hour Presents	1973
614	George Burns & Gracie Allen	Maxwell House Coffee Vol 1	1973
615	The Chase and Sanborn Show	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
619	Nick Carter Master Detective	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
620	The Great Gildersleeve	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
621	Ed Wynn The Fire Chief	As the Perfect Fool	1973
622	Lassie	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
623	Mandrake the Magician	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
624	Blondie	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
625	Super Heroes Of Yesteryear	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
626	Don Winslow of the Navy	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
627	Charlie Chan	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
629	Red Ryder	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
630	Terry and the Pirates	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
631	Gasoline Alley/Moon Mullins	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
634	Campbell's Playhouse	Huckleberry Finn	1974
635	Jack Armstrong - The All American Boy	*Different tracks than 603	1973
636	The Shadow / Fibber McGee And Molly	Original Radio Broadcasts	1973
637	Grand Central Station	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
638	Sam Spade/Howard Duff	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
639	Betty Boop	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
640	Bill Stern/Sports Newsreel	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
642	Straight Arrow	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
643	Mae West	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
644	Tarzan	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
645	Hallmark Playhouse	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	1974
647	Soap Operas	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
649	The Shadow/The Lone Ranger	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
650	Superman	*Different tracks than 588	1974
652	Miss Helen Hayes	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
654	A Streetcar Named Desire	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
657	The Shadow	Vol 3	1974
659	Will Rogers	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
660	Archie	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
661	Louella Parsons	Hollywood Hotel	1974
662	The Whistler	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
663	Joe Palooka	Original Radio Broadcasts	1974
665	Various	Good Old Days of Radio	1974
666	Superman	*Different tracks than 588	1974
668	Lux Radio Theatre	African Queen	1975
669	The Fat Man	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
670	Mr. Keen Tracer Of Lost Persons	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
671	The Goodwill Hour	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
672	Alan Ladd	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
673	Major Bowes	And His Original Amateur Hour	1975
674	Ripley's Believe It Or Not	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
676	Hopalong Cassidy	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
677	Superman	Volume 1-4	1975
678	Buddy Clark	The Carnation Contented Hour	1975
679	Skippy Hollywood Theatre	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
681	Rudy Valee	An evening With Rudy Valee	1974
682	Sad Sack	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
685	Little Orphan Annie	Vol 2	1975
686	Hop Harrigan	America's Ace Of The Airwaves	1975
687	The Lone Ranger Rides Again	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
692	The Aldrich Family	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
695	Lux Radio Theatre	To Have And Have Not	1975
696	This is your FBI	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
697	Mystery Theatre	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
698	Soap Operas	Vol 2	1976
699	Red Skeleton	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
702	Mary Pickford America's Sweetheart	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
703	Sky King	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
706	Harry S. Truman	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
709	The Mills Brothers	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
710	Helen O'Connell	Original Radio Broadcasts	1975
712	Memories Worth Saving	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
713	Various	Golden Days of Radio	1976
714	Rudy Vallee	World War II U.S. Coast Guard Band	1975
715	Popeye	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
716	V.J. Day WWII Ends!	Recording of the surrender ceremony broadcast	1976
717	Captain Midnight	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
719	Frankenstein	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
720	Lux Radio Theatre	Dracula	1976
724	Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol	Nordstrom Presents	1980
726	Edward G. Robinson	Original Radio Broadcasts	1976
728	D-Day The Day The Allies Invaded France	NBC Radio Broadcasts	1978

In the late 1950s Garabedian bought some rights to the Laurel & Hardy catalog. He'd been producing records since at least 1956. In 1960 he and his friend George Holcott reviewed that acquisition but sat on it for another decade. In 1972 Holcott owned R&R Distribution and called up Garabedian offering to be a distributor for his tiny label. In the interim Garabedian had bought up the rights to 400 more copyrights. He briefly listed off some of the ephemera:

"In addition to numerous radio broadcasts ranging from "Sgt Preston Of The Yukon" and "Little Orphan Annie" to "An Evening With Rudy Vallee" and "Don Winslow Of The Navy," Garabedian commands the rights to such golden possessions as a tape of George Gershwin sitting at the piano, directing a rehearsal of the original Broadway cast of "Porgy And Bess"; a taped conversation of Harry Truman as he ran for Senator; on-the-spot documentation of VJ-Day; recordings of Rudolf Valentino..."

He didn't forget about Nat King Cole. He licensed the rights and began releasing 22 sides from his back catalog in 1974. In the May issue of Billboard there was an article on R&R Distribution. In 1976 he announced he was releasing an LP of the King Kong radio serial. I don't think it ever came out though. In 1979 he popped up in the news again in a legal flight with Wally Heider of Hindsight records over the Stan Kenton catalog. Apparently George's rights to the C.P. MacGregor Transcription catalog had an exception. He finally got nominated for a Grammy in 1981, under Best Historical Reissue with "Early History of the Phonograph Record." If you check the Grammy Winners book he actually won once but it was earlier, in 1978 with the Citizen Kane motion picture soundtrack in 1978. It was the legitimacy that he had craved for decades but he never struck gold again.

Not that everything on Mark 56 was a classic. Mark 56 makes an inauspicious appearance in the book The World's Worst Records: An Arcade of Audio Atrocity by Darryl Bullock. In 1978 Garabedian announced that he had negotiated an exclusive arrangement with the Henry Ford Museum for the duplication rights to the 26,000 Edison Cylinder and disk masters. they had an immediate 16 releases planned and another 200 projected releases. He told the interviewer:

"We might somewhere along the line in the next couple years pop up with an LP which will step out , attract an abundance of airplay and wind up on the charts."

Was George a radical optimist or was he just teasing? It's hard to know. But nothing charted and the releases stopped abruptly. Following his death in 1987, his son Marcus Garabedian, took over running Mark 56 Records. His obituary in the Los Angeles times names his wife as Nancy and his daughter as Rebecca then list of their sons John, Phillip, Paul, Leslie, Vincent, Arthur and Mark. In 1988 Marc cut a deal to sell weekly cassette subscriptions of the Wall Street Journal. You could call 800-727-WALL (9255) for a $44.95, 12-week subscription. It's fascinating as the move prefigures the later invention of podcasts. But also The Wall Street Journal Radio Network which wasn't launched until 2014. But the cassette-based service never materialized.