All the artists, writers, and credited people on the records that I've seen (Reggie Soul, Sunday Williams, The Ledgends, Clarence Johnson, Johnny Cameron, Eddie Sullivan, Curtis McCormick, Moo-Lah Music, etc. operated out of Chicago). I think their offices were in Chicago, too. I've seen Red Balloon Record issues with Chicago pressing plant labels, clearly pressed in a Chicago Area plant, without the balloons graphics, by The Ledgends. So that must have been the first pressing.

They were distributed by Master Key, in Chicago. So, I don't think the L.A. address came from opening an office there because they became distributed by a national distributor located in L.A., because when The Ledgends' records took off, they got it picked up by Commonwealth United, located in New York.

Starting out in Chicago, and keeping their production there, did they pick up a major financing partner located in L.A.?

Edited Thursday at 05:152 days by Robbk

It is definitely a Chicago label- mentioned in Pruter's "Chicago Soul" and is listed in Dante Carfagna's " Soul Music Of Illinois" as a Chicago label.

I have a vague recollection of a "Sitting In The Park" interview where Bob asked someone about the address on Sunday William's "If That's What You Want". It was most likely Eddie Sullivan or Johnny Cameron or maybe even Clarence Johnson. An answer was given but I can't remember what they said. Sorry !

4 hours ago, The Yank said:

It is definitely a Chicago label- mentioned in Pruter's "Chicago Soul" and is listed in Dante Carfagna's " Soul Music Of Illinois" as a Chicago label.

I have a vague recollection of a "Sitting In The Park" interview where Bob asked someone about the address on Sunday William's "If That's What You Want". It was most likely Eddie Sullivan or Johnny Cameron or maybe even Clarence Johnson. An answer was given but I can't remember what they said. Sorry !

I'd bet it was Clarence Johnson. 2nd choice Cameron. They may have owned the label together, but Johnson had more assets. He owned more labels through the years. Sullivan only worked on one record for them, as far as I remember, but they ran the sessions.

Thanks Dave, for the tip on Bob's interview. I remember that he got the whole story from The Ledgends' interview. We were both right that something was fishy about that L.A. Address. Curtis McCormick was the creative head of the group. The other members were Carl McPhan, Lee Dees, and Lamar Greer. Curtis and the group rented an office on Michigan and 35th St. But, after doing that they didn't have enough cash to pay for recording studio time and pressing up records. So they hooked up with Clarence Johnson to finance those services, and to get their records distributed by his Master-Key Distributing, or IF possible, to be picked up by a national distributor. They said they had their own music publishing company, and didn't know why its name was left off their records, and Johnson's Moo-lah Music was there in its place. And they didn't know that Johnson re-issued "Gotta Let You Go" his own Locket Records, without telling them. And it got some local sales, and they got no money from it. Johnson also never paid them anything from the national deal with Commonwealth United, and they didn't even find out it was picked up until quite a while later. But Johnson probably got nothing from Commonwealth United, as they produced almost no sales, much less than the local Chicago labels. And even if they did have several thousand sales, their distributor probably wouldn't have paid them until it reached big city or regional hit level.

They also mentioned that Red Balloon never had anything to do with Los Angeles. They think he just put on that false address to impress national distributors to pick their records up. Maybe it was an address of a contact of Johnson's in L.A. who could front for him? In any case, we've got our answer. The Eddie Sullivan interview didn't give any details about Red Balloon. I always thought it was a Clarence Johnson label in the Master-Key group, with an office on The South side. And that's just what it was. So we've found yet another group of young singers who were taken advantage by a greedy record company owner.

Edited Thursday at 17:291 day by Robbk

I'm pretty sure ( some scrappy notes i have) that when Bob was talking to James Westbrook (5 wagers, deltas) he mentioned James taking lead on the Vows, 'when a boy loves a girl/east and west i go' and he said it was the 1st record on Red Balloon and was very obscure.

29 minutes ago, Kenb said:

I'm pretty sure ( some scrappy notes i have) that when Bob was talking to James Westbrook (5 wagers, deltas) he mentioned James taking lead on the Vows, 'when a boy loves a girl/east and west i go' and he said it was the 1st record on Red Balloon and was very obscure.

Yes, Red Balloon 01. It must be dead rare. I've only seen one copy of it. A collector friend had it. Bob Pruter didn't have it. I don't think Bob Abrahamian had one. It must have been after The V Wagers' Nation Time/Salem Sebons Foster releases. That must have been Clarence Johnson using Red Balloon for his own purposes, picking up a record from that group's manager.

Edited Thursday at 17:371 day by Robbk

It's actually Red Balloon #1000. And no, I don't own a copy .

4 hours ago, The Yank said:

It's actually Red Balloon #1000. And no, I don't own a copy .

Red Balloon 1000. Not in the 01-03 series. Jason Sean Music? They had no group members named Jason, or Sean (James Westbrook, Lee Brown, Larry Dotson, Larry Maxwell, and David Robinson). The publishing was shared with ASCAP's Chappel and Butler Music??? A lot of different people had their fingers in this eventual release. It's not likely to have been a Sebons Foster production. And Chuck Johnson got producer credit. Could HE have been Clarence Johnson's son, or brother? Roger Massey and Detroit's Mikki Farrow wrote the song. The group, must have left Foster's Nation Time/Salem Records, and gone out on their own, taking the recorded demo of the song to Clarence Johnson, who took credit for producing the session, got it recorded and pressed it up on Red Balloon (now using it as his "OWN" label). I think this must have been in late 1970 or early 1971, AFTER Red Balloon 01-03 ( The Reggie Soul, The Ledgends, and Sunday Williams releases). By the way, - according to the group members, told in the interview, the letter "d" in "Ledgends", was a label printing error, and the group decided to continue spelling their name that way, to keep consistent with their only record out at that time.

Edited Thursday at 22:201 day by Robbk

Talking of Red Balloon and The Ledgends and Bob, go on to YouTube, Mightyjoyung (hope I got the spelling right 😲) post's a version by The Jack Moves, of The Ledgends brilliant "A Fool For You " in the comments, if you scroll down, you'll see Bob getting animated with them, there's no credits whatsoever on the label, publishing, writer's etc for The Ledgends, Bob telling them to do the honourable and legal thing, and pay The Ledgends what they are due, as they have in effect, stole the song

Kev