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The McNulty Family, an Irish-American musical vaudeville group, was part of the emergence of “ethnic” recordings in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. This section is a short history of the development of the Irish recording industry, particularly in reference to Decca and Copley to which the McNulty Family were signed.

The McNulty Family is primarily associated with its 78 Decca recordings from the 1930s and 40s although they recorded with other companies until the late 1950s. In

121 _{There was some cross-over between instrumentalists and vocalists. In cases where a musician was listed}

as both I counted them as an instrumentalist only. There were two violin players who also played accordion and bagpipes respectively and I included them in both categories.

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1929, Decca was originally established in Britain as Decca Record Co. and specialized in affordable but quality recordings (Vernon 1995, 121). In 1934, a subsidiary was opened in the United States with a slight name change to Decca Records (Ruppli 1996, xv; Universal Music Group 2010d, np). The U.S operations of Decca were headed by Jack Kapp, a former executive with England’s Brunswick label. Knapp left when Decca obtained distribution rights to Brunswick and Arc’s material in the Americas (Ruppli 1996, xv). During the Depression, record prices dropped from 75 to 35 cents and

production went from 32 million sales in 1927 to just 8 million in 1932 and six million in 1933 (Gronow 1982, 8; Spottswood 1990, xxx, xvii; Trew 2000, 307). US Decca

continued to sell its records for the low price of 35 cents and quickly became competitive even when other companies were suffering. Of the three major labels which were Decca, Columbia and Victor, only Decca survived without bankruptcy or restructuring

(Spottswood 1990, xvi-xvii). Decca took over the British Brunswick label in 1932 and later the American Brunswick Company (Vernon 1995, 110, 121). Foreshadowing the Decca of today, within the Universal Music group, the company immediately started to acquire other labels and eventually opened studios in Los Angeles and Chicago and New York City (Ruppli 1996, xv; Vernon 1995, 121).122

122 _{Decca went on to invest in Universal and in 1952 became a majority stakeholder. Ten years later Decca} Records was acquired by MCA Inc. But it was not until 1973 that it switched names to MCA records (Ruppli 1996, xvi; Universal Music Group 2010d, np).

MCA went on to buy many other labels and in 1996 MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group adding Polygram in 1998. At some point the Decca label must have been revived as in 1999 Decca and Phillips merged into Decca Music Group (Universal Music Group 2010d, np). The Universal Music Group operates in 77 countries and claims to represent “98% of the music market” globally (2010e, np).

At its peak as an independent record company, Decca recorded artists such as Bing Crosby, the “best selling artist of all time,” Judy Garland, Guy Lombardo, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Halliday, and Ella Fitzgerald to name a few (Ruppli 1996, xvi).

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Trew notes that Decca became one of four major records companies in the depression era to feature an exclusively Irish series, the Decca 1200 series. Other labels included Okeh, Columbia and Victor. Spottswood’s list of ethnic recordings also includes a limited number of 78s from Bluebird and Brunswick (Spottswood 1990, xxxiii-xlvi; Trew 2000, 307).123 _{The heyday of Irish recordings was nearing its end when} the McNultys started recording in 1936 and by the 1940s all the major labels had stopped recording Irish music as a niche market. This made Decca “the last company to pay [niche markets] serious attention” (Moloney 1982, 94). During the peak there were up to 40 companies recording Irish material in the 43 years between 1899 and 1942.

Considering Decca’s late emergence on the scene it still cornered almost a fifth of the market (Trew 2000, 306). When the market slowed for Irish music recordings in the late 1940s, Justus O’Byrne DeWitt founded Copley records in order to fill the void left by Decca and other labels (Moloney 1982, 94).

Copley began with Ellen O’Byrne De Witt in New York around 1916 when she opened a store called O’Byrne DeWitt on Third Avenue (Gedutis 2004, 149, 152). Ellen O’Byrne was a pioneer in several areas. Not only did she manage a store attached to her name but when she discovered her customers wanted Irish recordings and there was little to offer them, she approached Columbia Records. Columbia started an Irish series under Today Decca is a group of labels specializing in various markets (Universal Music Group 2010b, np). Not surprisingly, Decca Classical along with Deutsche Grammophone and EMI specialize in classical music while Decca Records itself has artists as diverse as Boyz II Men, Sting, The Proclaimers and Rufus Wainwright (2010a, np; 2010c, np). There is also Decca Vision and Decca Broadway (2010b, np). In the past ten years Universal has also acquired Rounder Records and Verve (2010d, np). Rounder is now under Concord Groups.

123 _{Bluebird (B-4500 to 4597 from 1936-1939 and B-4900 to B-4999 from 1933-1936 both of these}

sequences also included West Indies music as well as Irish); Brunswick (68000 to 68004 in 1927); Columbia (33000-F to 33562-F from 1925-1936, 33500-F to 33532-F from 1947-1951); Decca 12000 to 12287 from 1934 to around 1950; Oken 21001 to 21081 from 1921 into the 1930s

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the promise that her store would pay for the first 500 discs (ibid., 149). In this manner, she is credited both by Moloney and Gedutis with “single-handedly founding the Irish recording industry” which began in earnest in 1916 after her Columbia deal (Gedutis 2004, 149; Moloney 1982, 90). In 1925, her son Justus O’Byrne DeWitt inherited the business, and in 1926 moved it to Boston’s Dudley Square. There he re-opened under the name O’Byrne DeWitt House of Irish Music (Gedutis 2004, 149-150).124 With the demise of Decca’s Irish series, Justus started producing his own recordings in 1948. The label name underwent several changes from O’Byrne DeWitt in 1948, then All Ireland, and finally Copley Records in 1953 (ibid., 152). Copley’s only competition as an Irish music record label was the Celtic label from Rhode Island which put out only twenty-four albums (ibid., 154-155). It is not surprising that DeWitt, a businessman, was primarily interesting in making money, but it is surprising by today’s standards, that he did not give royalties and paid very little to the musicians for their time (ibid., 155). This may explain why the McNultys recorded only 41 tracks with Copley, a fraction of what they had recorded with Decca. In the late 1950s, DeWitt found it less profitable to produce albums and shut down that portion of his business (ibid., 157). In the 1990s, Paddy Noonan of Rego Records bought Copley’s master tracks (ibid., 158).