Golden Crest of music earns CHS honor
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| Clark Galehouse Jr. |
Editor's note: Third in a series of three features on Creston Hall of Fame inductees.
Nobody knew the national fame coming for Clark Galehouse Jr. when he grew up in the 300 block of South Maple Street in Creston just before the Great Depression, graduating from Creston High School in May 1929.
Studying music at Drake University, Galehouse couldn't wait any longer, and embarked on his own music career with bands in Chicago. Soon, he was on his way to the Big Apple, and he would go on to become a giant in the music recording business.
Tonight, a second cousin from Creston, Francie Ahrens, will accept the honor of Galehouse's induction into the Creston High School Hall of Fame. Galehouse died in 1983 at the age of 71.
"I was so thrilled to hear the news," Ahrens said. "His family was so humble, that people really did not know that he created this record label (Crest) and named it after his hometown."
In the 1940s and '50s, in particular, Galehouse's businesses were competing head-on, and sometimes working in collaboration with the nation's major record labels.
The fabled studios of Golden Crest /Shelley Records, were located in Huntington, Long Island, N.Y., about 40 miles east of Manhatten. Golden Crest/Shelley (named after his only child, Shelley Galehouse Boven, who still resides in New York), were two progressive independent record labels started by Galehouse, known as a businessman, inventor and visionary.
The studios of Golden Crest/Shelley became an incubator for young talent, and gave voice to a new exciting sound emerging from the New York City streets. This sound later became known as "Doo-Wop."
Shelley Broven's husband, John Broven, has written a book on music history, "Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers (Music in American Life). It includes an entire chapter on the Long Island music scene headlined by Galehouse's enterprises.
CHS days
Galehouse was born in 1911 in Pontiac, Ill., but was raised on the south side of Creston. He was active in Creston High School operettas, glee club (Creston placed third in the state behind Des Moines East and Burlington in 1928), orchestra (first-chair violin), charter member of the school's first band and boys' quartet. He placed first in the state in a violin contest.
Yet, friends still living in Creston recall a humble young man, highly respected for his talents.
"He was very outstanding in music when we were in school," said Margaret (Herr) Weisshaar, 97, a classmate of Galehouse at CHS. "His father was a jewelry repairman and had an office and shop in back of a clothing store on Adams Street. Clark had a sister, Dorothea, and she, too, was outstanding in music and got involved in therapy with music for the troops coming back from service."
Galehouse left Drake University and played saxophone and clarinet in Chicago clubs and on the road during the swing band era.
Pressing records
Galehouse quit playing in bands when he married Aleece, a swing jazz harpist from Alaska, in 1939. He gained a foothold in the New York music network.
During World War II, Galehouse participated in war-time defense work regarding plastic development. He founded Shelley Products in 1948, a custom record manufacturing company that pressed records in New York for such companies as Capitol, Columbia and RCA Victor.
In 1953, he launched the Crest Records label, eventually to become known as Golden Crest. He recorded all genres of music, including collegiate choral series and chamber music. He viewed part of his mission as giving opportunities to talented young musicians and sponsored a national contest that awarded a recording session to the winner.
Galehouse frequently traveled the country to conduct custom recording sessions for promising musical acts. Ahrens remembers meeting him at one such session in 1971 at the University of Northern Iowa, then known as State College of Iowa, famous for being a public teacher training institution.
"My fiance at the time was in jazz band," Ahrens related. "He said he was excited because this guy from New York was coming out to record the band to make an album, and that I should sneak in and watch the recording session. It was dark in the auditorium, but I noticed this man that resembled my great uncle Clark, who had passed away. Then it all hit me. That's his son, Clark Jr.! I was so excited, I ran down and had the best visit with him. He was like that, he'd take the time to record for educational purposes."
But he also recorded some of the top musicians of the era.
"Daddy really enjoyed recording the top composers in the field," said Shelley Broven. "He wanted these really good performers so kids could hear how something was supposed to be played. At one convention, a guy came up to me and said he knew my father in Chicago. He said he was the only man he ever met that could score out an arrangement for every individual member, each person's part, off the top of his head. He could hear a wrong note in the middle of a whole orchestra."
Plastic invention
Galehouse met Arnold Brilhart, another musician, and together they designed and manufactured the Brilhart mouthpiece for sax and clarinet from plastic.
Meanwhile, the Shelley Products pressing plant was started modestly from a garage on Long Island's north shore. He was set up to manufacture 78-rpm records as contractor for Columbia and RCA Victor, and soon the business was booming.
Galehouse's command of plastics led him to introduce a four-cavity press for the manufacture of records by injection mold. This revolutionary process enabled records to be turned out quickly in volume.
A Galehouse recording of the Wailers' song, "Tall Cool One," led the Seattle group to an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand show. Galehouse went on to introduce new promotional tactics for singles, such as paper picture sleeves and labels bearing artist photographs.
Through it all, Galehouse's first love was producing, engineering and mixing sessions for promising young musicians. He'd see the same dedicated roots developed in himself south of the railroad tracks in Creston.
He was quoted by his sister Dorothea as saying, "Give a kid a horn, and he's going to be a good kid and a good citizen."
