OLIVER RECORDS

Francis Albert Oliver was born in Worcester MA on March 17, 1915.  By 1930 he was in San Francisco and he married Genevieve Elizabeth Tilford in Oakland on October 14, 1939.  At the time of the 1940 Census (1) they were living at 148 Lily Street in San Francisco and Francis gave his occupation as “Recording Engineer, Phonograph Records.”  They appear in the San Francisco Directory of 1941 living at 654 40th Avenue with Francis described as a “photographer”;  in 1942 he is listed with no mention of Genevieve as resident at 58 Garden Street and no occupation is given; in 1943 he and Genevieve were living at 324 Baker Street and he is described as “eng Blue Network Co.”; they were at the same address in 1944 and his occupation is given simply as “eng”; and in the 1945-6 directory they were at 2816 Clay Street and he is described as “eng Am Broadcasting Co.”  The NBC Blue [radio] Network was purchased by ABC in October 1943, so Francis was working for the same company from 1943 to 1945.   He does not appear in the San Francisco Directory of 1948-9 nor thereafter.  In 1946 he formed the Oliver Record Company which does not appear to have operated beyond 1949 at the latest.  Of his later life I know little - he remarried in 1955 (after divorce, it may be assumed, since Genevieve lived on until 1988) and died on June 6, 1978 in Indianapolis.Most of the known issues on Oliver were ethnic (mainly Hawaiian, with a couple of Greek and Italian items) or pop (The Eastmen Trio; Stephen McNeil And His Orchestra with vocal by Pat Michels).  The black artists included Elder C. Guidry (2) who sang “Shake My Brother's Hand” and “My Record Will Be There” on Oliver 18.  These tracks also appeared on State Negro Spiritual 18, while State Negro Spiritual 19 coupled titles with Oliver matrix numbers, viz “He Knows How Much We Can Bear” and “Precious Memories.”  It is not unreasonable to suspect that they were also on Oliver 19 but no copy is known. Apart from Guidry there were two issues by Willie Chinn and His Orchestra.  Chinn was Chinese-American but the vocals on his records were by George Bledsoe (his titles were “Dinky Little Cable Car ” “You Can’t Have Ev’rything,” and “I’ve Heard It A Million Times”) and Jerome Richardson, who sang “(Follow The Sun) On Highway 101.” The Cash Box of October 13, 1947 p. 51 carried an account of a meeting of the California Music Operators Association in which it reported that “The representatives of the Oliver Record Company were also guests of the evening and they too played a large part in making the meeting a success.  They presented five acts of professional entertainment and a four-piece Hill-Billy orchestra which were all artists who make records for the Oliver Record Co.  This part of the evening was dedicated to the California Music Operators Association and its members by the Oliver Record Co. and each operator, employee, or friend was presented with a Vinolite Phonograph Record as a souvenir of the evening.  Oliver spoke to the members regarding the possibility of the operators owning their own record companies should they be forced to do so.  His talk was received with great enthusiasm and Oliver was assured by the members present that they wanted to see more of  him at their meetings.”The only evidence for dating of which I am aware is the fact that Oliver 15 was listed In The Billboard of August 30, 1947, which suggests that the label was active in 1947 and probably into 1948.  The Billboard of January 24, 1948 and January 22, 1949 lists Oliver Record Co., 5538 Foothill Blvd., Oakland, Calif.  A report in The Oakland Tribune of September 29, 1949, under the headline “5 Boys Wreak $7000 Damage In Warehouse” stated that: Five Oakland boys, 12 to 13 years old, who broke into a warehouse and caused $7000 worth of damage when they smashed or stole 2000 phonograph records today were cited for burglary and remanded to their parents for later action of the Juvenile Court.  Patrolman Paul Jones of the Juvenile detail, said the warehouse at 4926 East 12th Street was a shambles when he was called to investigate.  It was evident that the youths had staged a battle royal, using the records as ammunition.  The burglary occurred Sunday, September 18.  In addition  the boys damaged brass master records, scattered half a million record labels around the building, tore four telephones from the wall and disassembled a couple of them, the officer said.  The boy, who, police said, admitted the vandalism, gained entry to the building by climbing a fire escape and crawling through a broken window.  The records were the property of the Oliver Record Company and the building is owned by Abraham Penn, 32, of 4174 Lyman Road, Oakland, who notified police. (3)  By this time the company seems to have been out of business, to judge from an ad which appeared in The Oakland Tribune of August 21, 1949: