ABSTRACT

They grew up in the South and the Midwest, but their father was of Hungarian Jewish descent, and their grandfather had been a professor at the University of Budapest. Together, Jules, Saul, and Joe started the Los Angeles-based Modern Records in early 1945. Their older brother, Lester (born 12 May 1912; died September 1983) started his own label, Meteor, in Memphis in 1952 but folded it five years later to join his brothers as sales manager. Modern became one of the leading independent jazz and blues labels. B.B. King was their major artist. They launched subsidiaries such as Kent and RPM, and a budget LP label, Crown. The brothers broadened their enterprise to manufacturing and distribution before selling the catalogs in 1980.