Research Craft

Defunct Los Angeles, California, pressing plant, in operation from 1946 until September 1981, known as Research Craft Company (later Research Craft Corporation). Known to have non-exclusively pressed for Bethlehem Records, Key Records (4), Chapel, Riverside Records, Russell Records (2), Canyon Records (2), Capitol Records and subsidiaries, and others (confirmed for pressings in the 1950s per Billboard October 1956). In August 1965, Research Craft was purchased by Liberty Records, Inc., becoming Liberty's West Coast pressing operation (an East Coast plant, All Disc Records, Inc., was purchased the following year). Both plants' ownership switched to United Artists Records in 1971 upon Transamerica's shutdown of Liberty, and were purchased by Capitol Records on July 1, 1978. In February 1981, Capitol sold Research Craft and All Disc to ElectroSound Group, which closed the two plants in September 1981, transferring contract pressing for former Research Craft clients to Monarch Record Mfg. Co.). Identification: From about 1956 to 1965, the runout sections of LP pressings by the plant carried the stamped notice U.S.PAT.# RE 23,946 G B PAT.# 713,418. These were patents held by Allan R. (Al) Ellsworth, president of Research Craft for much of the 1950s and 1960s, and general manager in the mid-1960s. The patents pertained to the manufacture of phonograph records, which provided for a raised surface on the outer edge of the record and around the label area to prevent damage to the playing surface. U.S. Patent RE 23,946 was issued February 17, 1955 (and was itself a reissue of Patent 2,631,859, which had been issued March 17, 1953, and seen on the center labels of Capitol Records and its sublabels starting in 1956 and continuing until about 1973, with one sublabel, Harvest, showing it on 45s until its 1983 demise), and G.B. Patent 713,418 was issued on August 11, 1954. Research Craft LP pressings made during its ownership by Liberty, and subsequently by United Artists, can be identified by a uniform, slightly chamfered pressing ring of 2.875" diameter (resembling the Monarch pressing ring), and label typesetting from The Bert-Co Enterprises. Additional runout identifiers may include a "-Re" suffix (for "Research Craft") at the end of the runout matrix string. Research Craft pressings made from 1978 to 1981, after its purchase by Capitol Records, may also have "CA" etched after the matrix string (for Capitol Industries, Inc.).