Urania Records

Urania Records, Inc. was an American record label founded April 15, 1951, by Czech-born New York industrialist Rudolf Koppl (1895–1956), who served as its founding president.

Urania Records
Founded	April 15, 1951
Founder	Rudolf Koppl (1895–1956)
Status	Inactive
Genre	Classical, jazz
Country of origin	United States
Location	Belleville, New Jersey

History

Urania Records initially released opera recordings from East Germany. The label was later run by Rudolph's son, Werner J. Koppl (1923–1996), also Czech-born, who, on March 23, 1956, sold Urania to American Sound Corporation – Daken Karl Broadhead (1905–1999), chairman; and Siegfried Bart (né Siegfried Gerold Bart; 1913–1997), president. American Sound was a joint venture of Allied Record Manufacturing Company (founded 1933) of Hollywood and Bart Manufacturing Company of Belleville, New Jersey. American Sound took over actual operations of Urania April 16, 1956. In 1958, American Sound Corporation sold Urania Records to Bart Manufacturing Corporation, which henceforth ran Urania as its subsidiary based in Belleville, New Jersey. Simultaneously in 1958, American Sound, itself, was sold to Allied Record Manufacturing Company, which was headed by Daken Karl Broadhead from 1945 to 1979 as president and principal owner. In 1979, Allied was sold to Warner Communications and became part of WEA Manufacturing.[1][2][3][4]

Disambiguation

Urania Records of this article is not to be confused with the Italian-based classical label, Urania Records, founded in 1998.

References

1. "Urania – The Opera Recordings" (synopsis), by David Patmore, Classical Recordings Quarterly, No. 66, Autumn 2011, p. 45 (EBSCO accession no. 67159370)
2. "American Winds Up Purchase of Urania Diskery," Billboard, March 31, 1956, p. 23
3. "Rites Held For Rudolph Koppl," Billboard, October 20, 1956, p. 20
4. "Urania Label Sold to Bart," Billboard, October 20, 1958, p. 2