ABSTRACT

An American label of 1930-1933, affiliated with Victor, offering about 1,200 releases of dance and popular music.

A British product of 1935-1937, sold at Woolworth stores for 6d. The manufacturer was Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Good quality British dance music and pop vocals were offered, with some items taken from American Vocalion pressings. [Rust 1978.]

American bass, born in Paris, Kentucky, began as a church and concert singer in New York, and began to record for U-S Everlasting Records in 1910 or 1911 with “In the Garden of My Heart” (#239),a duet with Henry Burr. In October 1911 he began working with Edison, singing “Lost, Proscribed” from Martha, a duet with Reed Miller (#799). He headed the Frank Croxton Quartet on Edison Amberols, and sang for Columbia in 1911 and Victor in 1912. He formed his Croxton Quartet in 1912. Croxton’s repertoire was concert and opera, with no popular songs. By 1914 he had 17 solos in the Columbia catalog, plus many duets and parts in quartet renditions. In 1914 he was one of the Stellar Quartet, then he joined the Peerless Quartet in 1919 and the Eight Famous Victor Artists in 1919. In 1918 he formed the Croxton Trio. His best-selling Victor was “Weeping Willow Lane” (#18609; 1919), a duet with Burr. In 1925 he left the Peerless and joined another group, but gave up recording during the Depression. He remained active as a teacher and church singer. He died in New York.