American Record Corporation

The American Record Company resulted from the merger in July of 1929 of Regal Records, Cameo Records, the US branch of Pathé and the Scanton Button Company. Louis G. Sylvester (former head of Scanton) became president of the new company located at 1776 Broadway in Manhattan. In October 1929, Herbert Yates, head of Consolidated Film Company took control of ARC. In the following years, the company was very involved in a depressed market, buying failing labels at bargain prices to exploit their catalogue. In 1932, ARC was king of the «3 records for a dollar» market, selling 6 million units, twice as much as RCA Victor. In an effort to get back on top, RCA created its Bluebird label. ARC bought out the Columbia Records catalogue in 1934. ARC became part of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1938.