Okeh Records

Okeh Records began as the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corp., a phonograph supplier, in 1916, branching out into phonograph records in 1918. From 1926, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.

History

Okeh (pronounced 'okay') was founded by Otto K. E. Heinemann (1877–1965), a German-American manager for the U.S. branch of German-owned Odeon Records. Heinemann incorporated the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation in 1916, set up his own recording studio and gramophone record pressing plant in New York and introduced the company's line of records for public sale in September 1918. Heinemann formed the name of the record label "Okeh", from his initials; early disc labels rendered the name as OkeH. The first discs were vertical cut. In 1919, Okeh switched to the lateral cut method of sound recording more usual for disc records. That same year the name of the label's owning company was changed to the "General Phonograph Corporation" and the name on the label was changed to "OKeh". The common 10-inch discs retailed for 75 cents each, the 12-inch discs for $1.25. The company's musical director was Fred Hager, who also appeared under the pseudonym of "Milo Rega" (Hager's middle name and his surname reversed).