{{Short description|American entrepreneur (1925–2018)}} {{more citations needed|date= May 2016}} {{infobox person | name= Russell Solomon | birth_name= Russell Malcolm Solomon | birth_place= Sacramento, California, United States | birth_date = September 22, 1925 | death_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|3|5|1925|9|22}} | occupation = Retail executive | known_for =Founder of Tower Records }} '''Russell Malcolm Solomon''' ({{Date range|1925|09|22|2018|03|05}})<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dead-people.com/Russell-Solomon|title=Russell Solomon - American retail executive, died on Monday March 5th 2018 at age 92|publisher=Dead People|date=5 March 2018}}</ref> was an American entrepreneur who founded the worldwide retail music store chain Tower Records.
== Personal life ==
=== Early life === Russell Solomon was born in Sacramento, California, and grew up there during the Great Depression. His father owned a small but successful business called Tower Cut Rate Drug Store, where Solomon worked from the age of 13, absorbing lessons from his father. He had little interest in school, and had a record of both showing up late as well as leaving early. He said in a January 2011 interview for the ''Sacramento Bee'', that he "couldn't get up in the morning" so he'd get there about an hour before lunch and go home soon afterward.<ref name="SacBee">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/23/3339848/smile-youre-in-russ-solomons-viewfinder.html|title=Smile, you're in Russ Solomon's viewfinder|publisher=The Sacramento Bee|first=Dixie|last=Reid|date=January 23, 2011|accessdate=August 22, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110412055011/http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/23/3339848/smile-youre-in-russ-solomons-viewfinder.html|archivedate=April 12, 2011}}</ref> Solomon said he "was thrown out of high school," although he did take some classes at Sacramento Junior College. His lack of formal education did not appear to hinder him especially since he learned valuable business lessons from his father. Solomon also spent a lot of time with the photographers who processed film.<ref name="SacBee"/>
In 1941, when only sixteen, he sold used jukebox records out of his father's drug store. When war broke out later that year he was drafted into military service; when the war was over, he returned to the drug store and his fledgling retail operation.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}
=== Marriages and family === In 1945, Solomon married his first wife, Doris; they had sons Michael, in 1948, and David, in 1962. Solomon and Doris separated in 1973, but remained on good terms. In 2010, he married Patti Drosins after a long friendship.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/obituaries/russell-solomon-founder-of-tower-records-dies-at-92.html|title=Russ Solomon, Founder of Tower Records, Dies at 92|last=McFadden|first=Robert D.|date=2018-03-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-06|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== Early career == In 1952, Solomon took his merchandising business from a few racks in the drug store owned by his father, Clayton, to a full-fledged sales company in a building across the street.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-12-fi-917-story.html|title=How Sacramento Solomon Built a Tower of Vinyl Out of Father's Store |work=The Los Angeles Times|date=March 12, 1988|first=Steve|last=Geissinger|access-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref> He bought stock on credit, and was soon in financial difficulties due to poor sales; by 1960, his creditors had forced him to close. Solomon borrowed US$5,000 from his father and started MTS Inc., named after his son Michael, and hired Walter "Bud" Martin to run the money side of the business.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/MTS-Inc-Company-History.html|title=History of MTS Inc. – FundingUniverse|website=www.fundinguniverse.com|accessdate=6 March 2018}}</ref> A month later, by December 15, 1961, he was back in business with a new store at 2514 Watt Avenue, in Arden Arcade, a neighborhood in Sacramento, that formed the foundation for his international business.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}
== Tower Records == Eight years later, Solomon signed a lease for a {{convert|5000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} store in San Francisco. The store was immediately profitable, so Russell Solomon expanded, to Los Angeles in 1970, and added 26 more locations in the next ten years, including a store in Sapporo, Japan, in April 1980. Over the next decade, Tower Records spread across the globe selling books and videos in addition to music. In May 1998, MTS Inc. sold $110 million worth of notes to finance more international growth. They also received a $275 million line of credit from a group of large banks. One year later the company reported its first loss, after making $76 million in the previous nine months, the loan interest payments had caused the company to lose money. Although Tower Records continued to expand it never recovered and, in 2006, the company was forced to liquidate and close.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tower-records-files-for-bankruptcy/ | work=CBS News | title=Tower Records Files For Bankruptcy | date=February 9, 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author = Jens F. Laurson & George A. Pieler | title = The Tower that Fell | work = Forbes| date = 2006-11-15| url = https://www.forbes.com/opinions/2006/11/15/tower-music-bankruptcy-oped-cx_jfl_1115tower.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081211100623/http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2006/11/15/tower-music-bankruptcy-oped-cx_jfl_1115tower.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = December 11, 2008 | accessdate = 2008-12-09}}</ref>
== After bankruptcy == Russell Solomon, now 81, went back to his first store location in Sacramento and planned a new store opening under the name R5 Records, six months after Tower Records had shut down.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}} Solomon did not own the Tower name, but used the same color scheme, and a logo designed by Mick Michelson, who had designed the original Tower Records logo in the 1960s. Several long time employees joined, and Solomon financed the enterprise himself. The new store was patterned after Tower, because Solomon still believed that "All we need to do is the things that made Tower successful."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=116661|title=Tower Records founder, Russ Solomon to open R5 Records|author=David Watts Barton|publisher=Steve Hoffman Music Forums|date=9 June 2007}}</ref> However, the new store was not successful, and after less than three years Solomon sold it to local Sacramento chain Dimple Records. Dimple's co-owner John Radakovits turned his grand opening into a retirement party for Russell Solomon,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nodepression.com/|title=The Journal of Roots Music|publisher=No Depression|accessdate=6 March 2018}}</ref>{{Deadlink|date=April 2026|fix-attempted=yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/buy-a-record-dammit/content?oid=1458378|title=Buy a record, dammit - Sound Advice - Music - July 22, 2010|website=Sacramento News & Review|date=20 July 2010 |accessdate=6 March 2018}}</ref> attended by many former Tower Records employees.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}} Radakovits included a large oil painting of the Tower Records founder in his rock 'n' roll memorabilia display, and dedicated the store to his long-time competitor and friend.
Solomon died, apparently of a heart attack, on March 4, 2018, according to the Sacramento Bee while drinking whiskey and watching the Academy Awards, after having just criticized someone {{who?|date=January 2023}} at the ceremony's fashion choice.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article203542104.html | title=Founder of Tower Records dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars | last=Shallit | first=Dale Kasler And Bob | date=2018-03-05 | work=The Sacramento Bee | access-date=2018-03-06 | language=en-US | issn=0890-5738}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20170627221532/http://www.tower.com/ Tower.com] * [https://archive.org/details/JDLasicaRussSolomononTower_sriseandfall Russ Solomon on Tower's rise and fall]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Russell}} Category:1925 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American chief executives Category:American music industry executives Category:American art collectors Category:Businesspeople from Sacramento, California Category:Businesspeople from San Francisco Category:20th-century American businesspeople