Banner

Banner Records was a United States based dime store record label manufactured between 1922 and 1935. It was created primarily for the S.S. Kresge Company, though it was employed as a general purpose budget label in other discount stores as well.

Banner Records was launched in January 1922 as the flagship label of the Plaza Music Company of New York City. Plaza Music Company sold and distributed several cheap labels targeted at various discount houses, and employed bandleader Adrian Schubert as musical director. Early material was leased from The New York Recording Laboratories, but from late 1922 on most was recorded at Independent Recording Laboratories. Records were produced by the Regal Record Company, Inc. and pressed by the Scranton Button Company. From early 1923, Banner began to issue the Regal Record Company, Inc.'s new 5000-series masters. From that point on, Banner and Regal catalogs were virtually identical, although couplings and pseudonyms often differed. At the beginning, Banner concentrated on popular dance hits, though it also recorded comic selections, semi-classical music and a small number of country and blues records. Although introduced as a 50¢ record, Banner records were reduced to 35¢ each (or 3 for $1) in September, 1925, in keeping with other Plaza labels.

Rights to the Banner trademark passed from the Plaza Music Company to American Record Corporation in 1929. ARC continued to produce the Banner label as one of its main dime-store brands for several years, but discontinued the label at the end of 1935.