{{short description|American radio and music business executive (1896–1974)}} {{Infobox person | name = Herman Lubinsky | image = Herman_Lubinsky.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Lubinsky in 1950 | birth_name = Hyman Lubinsky | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|8|30|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Branford, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|3|16|1896|8|30|mf=yes}} | death_place = Newark, New Jersey, US | family = TJ Lubinsky, grandson | alma_mater = | occupation = Music executive, record label owner, radio station owner | years_active = 1922–1974 | known_for = Founder of Savoy Records }}
'''Herman Lubinsky''' (born '''Hyman Lubinsky'''; August 30, 1896 – March 16, 1974) was an American radio station and music business executive who founded Savoy Records in New York City in 1942.<ref name="Larkin2006" /><ref name="Carpenter2005">{{cite book|author=Bil Carpenter|title=Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDYftTBTFyEC&pg=PA259|year=2005|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-841-4|page=259}}</ref>
== Career == Lubinsky was born to a Jewish family<ref name=Postwar>{{Cite web|first1= Robert|last1= Cherry|first2= Jennifer|last2= Griffith|authorlink= |title=Down to Business: Herman Lubinsky and the Postwar Music Industry |publisher=Journal of Jazz Studies vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1-24 |date=Summer 2014 |url=https://jjs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jjs/article/download/84/71 |accessdate=}}</ref> in Branford, Connecticut,<ref name="WWII Draft"/>{{refn|group=nb|Sources that give his birthplace as Bradford, Connecticut (which does not exist), or Bradford, England, are in error.}} the son of Fannie ({{nee}} Rosinsky; 1865–1941) and Louis Lubinsky (also known as Leuvinsky; 1857–1921), both of whom had emigrated from Russia in 1883.<ref name="19001910 US Census"/>
By 1915, he was working as an electrical contractor in New Haven,<ref name="New Haven Directory"/> before serving as a radio operator in the US Navy.<ref name="radio"/> In 1922, Lubinsky founded The Radio Shop of Newark, in Newark, New Jersey,<ref name="Radio Shop 1922" /> and, in 1923, set up a radio station, WRAZ, which changed its title to WCBX and then, in October 1924, to WNJ.
The station operated from the attic of Lubinsky's home before its studio in Newark opened in 1925. The station became known as "The Voice of Newark" and presented programmes for immigrants to the New York metropolitan area in Polish, Lithuanian and Italian.<ref name="radio"/>
In 1929, Lubinsky set up the Radio Investment Co., but in November 1932 his application to renew the license for WNJ was refused by the Federal Radio Commission because he refused to accept limits on the station's bandwidth.<ref name="broven"/> Lubinsky fought the action in the courts, but the station was taken off the air in March 1933.<ref name="radio"/>
Lubinsky then started the United Radio Company, which sold and repaired radios and phonographs and began selling records. Encouraged by his friend Eli Oberstein, a music business executive, he launched Savoy Records in 1942 from his new Radio Record Shop.<ref name="Broven2009">{{cite book|author=John Broven|title=Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFrYsNvmrvQC&pg=PA58|date=2 March 2009|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-03290-5|page=58}}</ref> The company released jazz recordings made before the Petrillo Ban came into effect and also recordings made by musicians attempting to circumvent the ban by recording under pseudonyms.<ref name="broven"/> Among the latter was Bonnie Davis, whose recording of "Don't Stop Now" reached number 1 on the R&B chart in 1943.<ref name="whitburn" /> By 1944, the label had begun to release records by leading jazz musicians, such as Ben Webster and Lester Young,<ref name="discography"/> and over the next few years its roster of musicians expanded to include Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Erroll Garner, Miles Davis, Paul Williams and Brownie McGhee.<ref name="Ruppli" />
After opening an office in California in 1948, Savoy continued to have success with such musicians as Johnny Otis, Little Esther Phillips, Cannonball Adderley and Big Maybelle, although after the mid-1950s it began to concentrate increasingly on gospel music, including Clara Ward, the Drinkard Singers, Alex Bradford, the Caravans, Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes and James Cleveland. Lubinsky continued as head of the company until shortly before his death in Newark in 1974.<ref name="Ruppli"/>
== Character and controversies == [[File:Herman Lubinsky (1923).jpg|thumb|150px|Lubinsky in 1923<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/radiodealer02unse#page/n412/mode/1up "Herman Lubinsky"], ''Radio Dealer'', January 1923, page 37.</ref>]] Lubinsky has been described as "an arrogant bully... the quintessential loudmouth, overweight, cigar-smoking record man with little apparent charm";<ref name=broven/> as "a colorful character... endowed with a shrewd business sense";<ref name=kukla /> and as "a rather profane cheapskate who had a low opinion of many of the musicians that he recorded" and who "was best known for his desire to cut expenses at all costs".<ref name="yanow"/> His oldest daughter, Lois Grossberg, later said, "He was paranoid about money. It consumed him like a burning fire. He had a reputation as an ogre in the business. You have no idea of the cheapness."<ref name="kukla"/>
The singer Little Jimmy Scott recorded for Savoy in the 1950s. He left the label in the early 1960s and recorded an album with Ray Charles for the latter's new label, Tangerine. However, Lubinsky claimed that Scott was under contract to him for his lifetime. The record was withdrawn. As a result, Scott retreated from the recording industry until after Lubinsky's death.<ref name="RitzHoffer"/>
== See also == * TJ Lubinsky, grandson
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=nb}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="Larkin2006">Larkin, Colin (ed.) (2006). [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100117468?rskey=9VnFWM&result=2 ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', 4th ed.]. London: Muze.</ref>
<ref name="broven">Broven, John (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=uFrYsNvmrvQC&pg=PA58 ''Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers'']. University of Illinois Press. pp. 57–59. {{OCLC|216938277}}.</ref>
<ref name="Ruppli">Ruppli, Michel; Porter, Bob (1980). [http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/herman_lubinsky.htm ''The Savoy Label: A Discography''] (excerpt). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. {{OCLC|5353729}}.</ref>
<ref name="yanow">Yanow, Scott. [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/herman-lubinsky-mn0000678736 "Artist Biography: Herman Lubinsky"]. ''AllMusic''. Retrieved 25 March 2014.</ref>
<ref name="WWII Draft">[https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-25990-497-47?cc=1968530 U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card, 1942, for Herman Lubinsky]. Retrieved 25 March 2014.</ref>
<ref name="19001910 US Census">[https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11829-137638-24?cc=1325221 1900 United States Federal Census, Branford, Connecticut, for Himie Leuvinsky]. Retrieved 25 March 2014.<br>- [http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/7884/31111_4327341-01264/150618821?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3d1910USCenIndex%26indiv%3dtry%26h%3d150618821&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord 1910 United States Federal Census for Hyman Lubinsky].</ref>
<ref name="New Haven Directory">[http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/8777/CT-Newhaven-CT-1915-0602760/572166?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&rc=944,2519,1074,2552;214,3093,380,3131;1175,280,1345,317;1201,325,1382,371 New Haven, Connecticut, City Directory, 1915]. p. 618.</ref>
<ref name="radio">George, Jim. [http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/njamhistory9.html "WNJ – 1450 AM, Newark"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708072641/http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/njamhistory9.html |date=2012-07-08 }}. ''New Jersey AM Radio History'' (blog). Retrieved 25 March 2014.</ref>
<ref name="Radio Shop 1922">[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/Gloversville%20NY%20Morning%20Herald/Gloversville%20NY%20Morning%20Herald%201922%20Grayscale/Gloversville%20NY%20Morning%20Herald%201922%20Grayscale%20-%200891.pdf "Radio Review: Herman Lubinsky"], in collaboration with ''Science and Invention'' and ''Radio News'' via ''Morning Herald'' (Gloversville, New York), 24 March 1922. p. 6, col. 6.</ref>
<ref name="discography">[http://www.jazzdisco.org/savoy-records/discography-1931-1944/#441222 "Savoy Records Discography: 1931–1944"]. ''{{URL|JazzDisco.org}}''. Retrieved 25 March 2014.</ref>
<ref name="whitburn">Whitburn, Joel (1996). ''Top R&B Singles: 1942–1995''. Record Research. p. 104. {{OCLC|35116031}}.</ref>
<ref name="kukla">Kukla, Barbara J. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cbt1NiemfHsC&pg=PA154 ''Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1925–50'']. Rutgers University Press. pp.153-154. {{OCLC|48176785}}.</ref>
<ref name="RitzHoffer">Ritz, David (2003). [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/jan/09/artsfeatures.popandrock "The Hit That Never Was"]. ''The Guardian'', 9 January. Retrieved 25 March 2014.<br>- Hoffer, Jason (2011). {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140326000549/http://www.goingthruvinyl.com/wp/2011/11/s01-ep08-1-of-2-talking-about-life-with-little-jimmy-scott/ "Talking About Life with Little Jimmy Scott"]}} (interview). ''{{URL|www.goingthruvinyl.com}}'', 15 November. Retrieved 25 March 2014.</ref>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubinsky, Herman}} Category:1896 births Category:1974 deaths Category:People from Branford, Connecticut Category:American music industry executives Category:Record producers from Connecticut Category:A&R people Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:20th-century American people