Cricket Records
| Cricket Records | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Parent company | Pickwick Records |
| Founded | May 25, 1953 |
| Founder | Cy Leslie |
| Genre | Children's |
| Country of origin | USA |
Cricket Records was a children's label operated by the Long Island, USA based Pickwick Sales Corp., more commonly known as Pickwick Records, and headed by Seymour "Cy" Leslie. Pickwick owned and operated several budget labels; Cricket is significant in that it may have been one of the very last American 78 rpm labels to operate at the end of the 78 rpm era.
Cy Leslie reorganized Pickwick Sales Corp. in 1952 out of Voco, which had begun in 1946 producing recorded greeting cards, elaborately designed kiddie picture discs with cardboard backings and finally multicoloured vinyl records. Cricket was the successor to Voco, making its debut with Pickwick itself on May 25, 1953; "my wife's birthday" as Leslie later recalled. Cricket was the first product line offered by Pickwick Sales Corp. According to Leslie, "Good fortune introduced me to an early genius, Eli Oberstein. He owned a vast catalog which included many children's albums, which he agreed to lease, thus beginning Pickwick's first licensing – The Pickwick Cricket line of children's records." Many of the early records were credited under the collective banner of the "Cricketone Players," or some variant thereof. The 1953 lease from Oberstein produced roughly the first fifty Cricket Records, and the remainder were recorded in a scatter-shot fashion afterward. Cricket singles sold for 49 cents each.
Cricket Records are often anonymous, or credited cryptically to non-entities such as "Cricketone Orchestra." Among established name artists to appear on Cricket were Gene Autry, William Bendix, Smiley Burnette, Bobby Colt, Dennis Day, Eddie Dean, Leif Erickson, Ray Heatherton, Boris Karloff, Maury Laws, Gisele MacKenzie, Norman Rose and David Wayne. Cy Leslie himself is credited on C-85 as the leader of The Calypso Tones. There are no credits on records in the 6-inch series, though these largely duplicate material that appeared in other formats.
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