Leo M. Mintz (10 October 1911 – 4 November 1976) was a

record store A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sol ...

owner in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, United States, who was instrumental in the early establishment, marketing and promotion of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

music. He was born in Cleveland. Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973 for Leo Mintz, ref A30742
/ref> In 1938, while working as assistant manager at an army surplus store, he decided to set up a record shop, Record Rendezvous, on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, on the edge of the city's black community. Initially, this sold used

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

records, which Mintz purchased through regular visits to a warehouse in Columbus. At the store, he was among the first to put records in boxes which customers could browse through, rather than having to ask for songs by name. He also provided listening booths so that customers could hear the records before purchasing them, and encouraged in-store promotional appearances by recording artists. The store became known as the "'Vous". By about 1950, Mintz noticed an increase in the number of white teenagers sifting through his racks, listening and dancing to

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

records, such as those by

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a popular music, pop music ...

Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter best remembered as a singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by ...

and

Fats Domino Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...

, which had been marketed to

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s. However, they rarely purchased them because of the stigma attached by some to "

race records Race records is a term for 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising var ...

". He persuaded radio presenter

Alan Freed Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...

to play the records, initially as novelties on WAKR-AM in

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

, and then in 1951 on a new radio show which Mintz helped him to secure at WJW-AM in Cleveland. Mintz sponsored Freed's radio programme, ''The Moondog Show'', and supplied many of the records played. Several sources claim that Mintz, rather than Freed as is usually suggested, was the first to use the term "rock and roll" - a phrase quite commonly used in the records - to describe the music and, in particular, to promote it to white audiences. According to one source, one night while he was on air, Freed turned to Mintz and said, "Leo, this music is so exciting, we’ve got to call it something." Mintz replied, "Alan, you are rolling tonight...you're rocking and rolling...call it 'rock and roll.'" Mintz also sponsored Freed's ''

Moondog Coronation Ball The Moondog Coronation Ball was a concert held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 21, 1952. It is generally accepted as the first major rock and roll concert. Background Alan Freed "had joined WJW Radioin 1951 as the host of ...

'' in March 1952, often regarded as the first rock'n'roll concert. Freed left Cleveland for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in 1954. Mintz expanded the chain of Record Rendezvous stores to five by the 1960s, and continued to operate them until a few months before his death in 1976.

References

External links

Douglas Trattner, Schoolhouse Rock, ''Cleveland Magazine'', April 2007
- article written by Mintz's grandson * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mintz, Leo 1911 births 1976 deaths Music retailers of the United States Businesspeople from Cleveland Rock music people 20th-century American Jews Music of Cleveland 20th-century American businesspeople