Flexo

Flexo records were produced by the Pacific Coast Record Corp. (later the Pacific Coast Record Corp. Ltd.) which was incorporated on Dec. 26, 1929. This company seems to have acquired the rights to the type of flexible disc invented by J.J. Warner in Kansas City and released on the The New Flexo Record label during 1925-1928. Warner did not own the new Flexo label which was based in San Francisco & Los Angeles, but seems to have been active in the company as a technical al advisor (and possibly as a recording engineer). The Pacific Coast Record Company was located at 1040 Geary Street, San Francisco and began producing records in 1930. Similar company names were also registered, including Flexo Theatre Record Corp. Ltd. (1930), Flexo Pacific Coast Record Corp. (1932) and Titan Production Company Inc. (1932). Several of these companies (which operated at the same address) specialised in the production of advertising records & radio transcriptions which became the main area of activity after the Pacific Coast Record Corp. Ltd., which produced the Flexo label, filed for bankruptcy on May 8, 1934. One clue to the marketing of Flexos comes from a four page Pacific Coast Record Catalog that lists Flexos #100-134. Numbers 100-122 are ten inches in diameter and play from the inside out at 75 cents each. Numbers 123-134 are eight inches in diameter and play from the outside in at 40 cents each. Here's how the catalog touts "unbreakable records": "Phonograph manufacturers have beeen searching for years and the record buying public has been looking forward to obtainig a record that is UNBREAKABLE AND EVERLASTING. The new FLEXO RECORD meets these requirements. It cannot be BROKEN OR CRACKED; is of light weight for easy mailing and does not mutilate or mar easily. The new FLEXO RECORD is constructed of a specially processed material sufficiently delicate to produce the finest and natural tone qualities. The new FLEXO RECORDS have been put through the most trying and extraordinary tests, they have been thrown in the streets, run over by automobiles and trucks for hours at a time, they have been layed out under the burning rays of the hot summer sun without materially affecting their rendition qualities. They will wear almost indefinitely and are a permanent and lasting record. The PACIFIC COAST RECORD CORPORATION, in the production of the new FLEXO RECORD, has also developed the recording of sound waves by an entirely new process of phongraph recording, giving you a true reproduction of all sounds from the blare of a brass band to the whispered word. Only use the ordinary, new steel needle for the reproduction of the FLEXO RECORD. It seems Warner was more the inventor type than a marketing genius, and by 1934, the Pacific Record Company declared bankruptcy. Another company started up at the same address called Titan Productions which continued to produce mostly advertising records and radio transcriptions --and employed J.J. Warner--until 1939. FROM THE LINER NOTES WRITTEN BY TERRY ZWIGOFF FOR THE HARLEQUIN CD "SAN FRANCISCO JAZZ--THE FLEXO RECORDINGS 1930-1932" HQ CD 25