growing up in Washington DC, I used to fall asleep on Sunday nights listening to WHFS’s Sunday night reggae show, and remember hearing this

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

The Tower Records story is about a man, his company and the unprecedented economic and cultural impact it had on the music industry and people around the world.   Tower Records begins with the man who created it… Russ Solomon.

From an early age, Solomon had a special love of music, a dynamic personality and the inventiveness of a crafty entrepreneur.  His first job was sweeping floors in his father’s drug store, located in the Tower Theater building, in the sleepy northern California town of Sacramento.  Still a teenager, Solomon had the idea to sell discarded record singles from the counter-top jukeboxes for 5 cents a piece. His father gave him a shelf in the back of the drug store and this became the training ground for Russ Solomon, the young man, who would one day create a Billion dollar a year music empire.

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Miss Monkey worked at the Tower in Washington DC for a decade, behind the scenes…  making the huge album displays. She has a very funny anecdote about meeting Mr. Solomon. 

He was in DC for a few days with the managers of the region, and downtown was all aflutter knowing he’d be popping in at some point that day.  My co-workers had stepped out for lunch, and having the studio to myself for the next hour, I stretched out and set up the room to do a large projection. 

The room was pitch black, and I was standing there tracing lord knows who’s logo, and felt the urge to break wind.  Knowing I was alone in the studio, I did so with my usual gusto.  Out of the darkness came a giggle.  I spun around and there was my boss and Russ, standing in the doorway. 

Talk about wanting to crawl in a hole and disappear…. OMG.  I apologized profusely and stammered that I thought I was alone in the room and how do you do, Mr. Solomon, (shake hands) and “I love your work” and “thank you’s” all around.  Not one of my better moments.

(thanks for the link Rob)

The Best Years of Our Lives trailer

My mother was working at the Walter Reed Artificial Limb Shop in Washington, DC during the World War 2.  She was a leather worker, and cut, assembled, and fitted the straps and bindings that held on artificial limbs for maimed returning GI’s. 

Harold Russell was one of her early clients. A knockout amputee herself, (RT AK) she went on to make the straps and bindings for the limb sets he wore during the production of this film.

Old-time Washingtonians may remember Georgetown’s Bayou Nightclub.  She told me once that the bouncer refused her entrance because she was wearing slacks, and in the forties, ladies didn’t wear slacks to nightclubs.  She told the doorman to lean over and knock on her knee.  She was allowed in.