Cameo

U.S. budget record label (1922 - 1930).

Originally produced by the Cameo Record Corporation and introduced as a 50¢ record of mediocre quality in February 1922 that was mainly sold through Macy's department stores. The earliest releases had plain black labels and used a 200 catalog series. They were recorded in the recording lab of a former Columbia recording engineer, Earle W. Jones. These records were pressed by Cameo's mother company, Siemon Hard Rubber Co. in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a facility with a capacity of up to 50,000 records a day. In March 1922, a second pressing plant in Framingham, Massachusetts, able to produce of 20,000 disks a day, was added.

The quality of Cameo releases improved briefly in late 1922, with newly recorded material by popular performers such as Lucille Hegamin, William Robyn and Healy & Cross. These were better pressed and adorned with a distinctive red-and-blue striped label. Cameo, however, was not able to compete with larger companies, and within a year the quality of records began to deteriorate. In mid-1923, the striped labels were replaced with a simpler design in gold on black and white, and pressing quality declined markedly. In addition, the company relied on the usual freelance vocalists and studio orchestras under the direction of Bob Haring and Arthur Lange. It used pseudonyms to mask its lackluster artist roster. By 1925, Cameo records were selling for 35¢. In October 1927, Cameo merged with the Pathé Phonograph & Radio Corp., and the catalog series that had begun at 200 ended at 1288 in December 1927. In 1928, new releases used an 8000 catalog series, a 9000 series in 1929, and an 0100 series in 1930. Although the two companies maintained individual identities on the surface, recording operations were consolidated at Pathé's studio, and master trading between the two divisions became commonplace. In July 1929, the Cameo Record Corporation merged with the Regal Record Company, Inc. and the Scranton Button Company to form the American Record Corporation, and Cameo records drew on a common master pool that supplied other ARC dime-store labels as well. The Cameo label was discontinued by the end of 1930.