Pickwick International, Inc.

1961 The company was founded by Cy Leslie in 1961 as a successor of Pickwick Sales Corp.. 1962 The subsidiary UK company Pickwick International Inc. (GB) Ltd. was installed. 1965 The subsidiary Canadian company Pickwick Records Of Canada Ltd. was installed. The company merged with the Musicland record store chain in the late Sixties. 1970 Capitol Records had a minority ownership which it sold off. 19?? The subsidiary Irish company Pickwick Ireland Ltd was installed The company was purchased by American Can Company in 1977, who relocated it from Long Island City to Minneapolis. PolyGram bought the company's assets (particularly the contract and back catalog of Kool & The Gang, who were on their De-Lite Records label) in 1979. Pickwick managed to survive until 1984, when it closed for good. Today, the Pickwick catalog (such as it is) is managed by Universal Music Enterprises via Hip-O Records. Lou Reed and John Cale worked briefly as Pickwick staff musicians and songwriters in the Sixties before founding the Velvet Underground. Its P.I.P. subsidiary had two disco hits by Gary Toms Empire in 1975 and 1976. It marketed cut-rate classical recordings under the Classics For Joy imprint and jazz compilations on the Quintessance label and sold children's records on the Happy Time and Mr. Pickwick labels until the mid-Seventies.