The Theron Label Latest update: June 3, 2005 Theron Records was formally launched in March of 1952 by Connie Toole, a former railroad employee who had always loved music, and at the rather late age of 43 got into the record business. His label, which recorded a variety of combos, vocal groups, and singers, lasted until 1956. But Toole continued to record into the 1960s. Theron was typical of many Chicago labels of the early 1950s; its recording output reflected both the rhythm and blues and jazz heritage of the 1940s (nightclub acts) and the youth music of the 1950s (doowop groups). So far as we know, no gospel artists appeared on Theron. From the collection of Tom Kelly Connie Toole was born Samuel Cornelius Toole on August 2, 1909, in Coffeyville, Kansas, the son of two professionally educated parents. He named the company after his son Theron, who was studying art at the time and designed the labels. Said his other son, Cornelius Toole, an attorney, "After the First World War Chicago became a Mecca for blacks. A lot of people came here to work in the stockyards. And his mother and father came here. His mother was a concert pianist, who had graduated from Chicago Musical College. His father was a lawyer. He had been a bugle player in the Spanish-American War. They divorced in 1925, when he was still a teenager and he grew up in that era during the 1920s. I guess he would be the male version of the flapper." Toole worked various jobs at United Cigar Company, at the stockyards, and as a messenger for the Post Office. In 1929, when the Regal Theater opened, he was one of the first ushers there. Related Cornelius, "It was a beautiful theater. I can remember when I was five years old getting into the Regal free. Of course, it was loaded with visiting bands. I remember seeing Fats Waller there when I was young. Then my father went on the railroad, the Santa Fe, as a waiter in 1939. My father was extremely interested in the music world. My father played the trumpet and the piano. These musicians used to come by the house all the time and play. I remember Art Tatum coming by our house. He had a passion for the music and for musicians, and the sporting life. He liked that environment, always liked night clubbing and music." | |
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