American Pro

US label that released a series of Zoom Happy Birthday flexi-discs. In 1976, The American Broadcasting Co. introduced the Captain Zoom personalized happy birthday recording in a soft record format. Originally developed collaboratively by Stewart Sloke (the “original” voice of Zoom), Donn Marier, Richard Klein, and Javier Cruz, its early commercial success was aided by Robert Stiller, who was a sales and marketing consultant to ABC. When ABC decided to discontinue their Record and Tape Division in 1978, Mr. Stiller purchased the recording rights and inventory and merged the recording into American Pro, a general products company with distribution to the mass marketing sector.