The House Of Beauty Records - The Beauty Shop That Caused A Revolution

WEST SACRAMENTO CA (IFS) -- It's that time of year again that we attempt to show of signs of love and humanity for a couple weeks out of every year.  As for me, I celebrate Christmas everyday and as always our humble beginnings with the start of this lead singer of the Peppermints, LEE ROGERS CRATON, known as the "Prince of Detroit" back in the days.  The Peppermints' first single that Ms. Carmen C. Murphy produced that was not a Gospel record and the first record produced in Detroit under a AF of M AFTRA Licenses that costed Ms. Murphy $5,000 cash money just to press her first  record.

Between 1954 and 1963, all of the records that were pressed by the new recording companies in Detroit in  all the neighborhoods, records were pressed under Carmen C. Murphy licenses.  She is truly the queen of the recording business in early Detroit music scene.

First let us understand that a lot of gold mining was going on in Detroit in the early 1950's.  The rulers of the record world were from Hollywood, California by the names of the Bhari Brothers who owned and controlled the RnB records market with their Crown Jubilee/Kent/Modern/StarDay labels with great artists from Detroit with the money flooding back to California by the buckets load.

You have to have a pressing licensing to press any records back in the early 1950's.  Murphy who just had crossed over the $250,000 dollar mark for her House Of Beauty Cosmetics and hair straightening products for people of color began pressing records for all the small black labels in the area.

The House of Beauty Records company came about when James Cleveland and his Voice of the Tabernacle needed a sponsor on the early morning Sunday programs of Black churches that had from 15 minute sermons, up to a full one hour full gospel shows.

Murphy said to have sponsored his church and choir for the first couple of years.  Then it was asked where can we purchase your records?  As the Gospel music of that day began to sell volumes, Murphy was asked if she could think about recording other types of music, and the answer was the Peppermints with Lee Rogers.

As always during these times, the musical  "children" of Lee Rogers which includes, RG Ingersoll of Hotrax Records in Neveda, Debby Clinton of Platinum Sound Records in Mountain Park, Oklahoma and Kenneth Howard Smith of SDC OmniMedia Group.  Smith reseeded D-Town Records back to the Hanks Family two (2) years ago, with Ingersoll, Clinton, Smith and Tony Craton of Jantony Records in Detroit, Michigan with thirty (30) per cent of the ownership being retained by the "kids" with the controlling seventy (70%) being under BHS Enterprises in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Carmen C. Murphy's long arms of the vinyl business included Theola Killgore's "The Love Of My Man" on HOB's Serroc Records label, which was produced by Ed Townsend who would later write and produce for Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" among other great songs.