From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Jul 1, 2002  1:13 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Lew Chudd
 
LEW CHUDD

Born Lewis Robert Chudd, 1 July 1911, New York City, NY
Died 15 June 1988, Los Angeles, California

Label owner / radio producer.
Lew Chudd has been described as gruff, hardbitten, ill-mannered, demanding
and abrasive. According to sound engineer Bunny Robyn: "He didn't know an
A-flat from a G but he smelled money."
Chudd had held several positions at the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
and had served in the Office of War Information before he entered the record
business. After starting and selling a jazz label - New York City-based Crown
Records - Chudd moved to Los Angeles and embarked on what would become
a major business venture. Partnered with Max Feirtag, he started Imperial
Records in January 1946.
Initially, Chudd looked for markets that weren't covered by the major labels.
He went to Mexico City and recorded hundreds of sides with Mexican musicians,
aimed at the growing black and Hispanic population of southern California.
Chudd's
next move was into the folk dancing and square dance markets. By 1949, when he
entered the rhythm and blues field, Imperial was said to be grossing a million
dollars
a year. In the R&B field, Imperial initially recorded west coast jump blues by
artists
including Charlie Davis, King Porter and Poison Gardner. But after meeting New
Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew in Houston in 1949, Chudd moved into the
newer R&B style. He came to New Orleans in December of the same year and
almost immediately he and Bartholomew discovered Fats Domino. Domino's 'The
Fat Man' and '3 x 7 = 21' by Jewel King were the label's first hits, in 1950.
Leaving
Bartholomew to record further R&B artists, Chudd signed performers in the
gospel,
blues (Smokey Hogg) and country fields, though of these only Slim Whitman was
commercially successful. Consequently, Imperial focused exclusively on R&B
for the next few years. In New Orleans, Bartholomew provided hits by Smiley
Lewis,
Roy Brown and Chris Kenner in addition to Domino, while Los Angeles bandleader
Ernie Freeman had a pop hit with Raunchy. By 1957, Chudd was ready to plunge
into the white teenage market, signing boyish television star Ricky Nelson
who had over a dozen Top 20 hits in the following five years. Another prolific
white Imperial artist was drummer Sandy Nelson. In 1961, Chudd purchased the
New Orleans label Minit from Joe Banashak, but two years later Imperial itself
was bought out by Al Bennett's Liberty/United Artists company, and Chudd
retired from the music business.
In 1979 United Artists/Liberty was acquired by the giant EMI conglomerate,
which now holds the rights to the vast Imperial back catalogue.

Further reading: Michel Ruppli, The Aladdin/Imperial labels : a discography.
Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1991.