Urania Records, Inc. was an American record label founded April 15, 1951, by Czech-born New York industrialist Rudolf Koppl (1895–1956), who served as its founding president.

History

Urania Records initially released opera recordings from

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. The label was later run by Rudolph's son, Werner J. Koppl (1923–1996), also

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

-born, who, on March 23, 1956, sold Urania to American Sound Corporation – Daken Karl Broadhead (1905–1999), chairman; and Siegfried Bart ''(né'' Siegfried Gerold Bart; 1913–1997), president. American Sound was a joint venture of Allied Record Manufacturing Company (founded 1933) of

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

and Bart Manufacturing Company of

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. American Sound took over actual operations of Urania April 16, 1956. In 1958, American Sound Corporation sold Urania Records to Bart Manufacturing Corporation, which henceforth ran Urania as its subsidiary based in

. Simultaneously in 1958, American Sound, itself, was sold to Allied Record Manufacturing Company, which was headed by Daken Karl Broadhead from 1945 to 1979 as president and principal owner. In 1979, Allied was sold to

Warner Communications Warner Media, LLC (doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warner ...

and became part of

WEA Manufacturing WEA Manufacturing was the record, tape, and compact disc manufacturing arm of WEA International Inc. from 1978 to 2003, when it was sold and merged into Cinram International, a previous competitor. The last owner when the plant closed was Techn ...

Disambiguation

Urania Records of this article is not to be confused with the Italian-based classical label, Urania Records, founded in 1998.

References

{{Authority control Record labels established in 1951 Classical music record labels American jazz record labels Record labels based in New Jersey Mail-order retailers Defunct record labels of the United States Belleville, New Jersey 1951 establishments in New York (state)