February Birthdays 
recently there was a thread moving thru SG101 re: DOWNEY RECORDS
http://www.surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6664
I just picked up this post from a Yahoo Group, and felt it might be something members of SG101 would want to see re: the passing of TOM WENZEL (I didn't see it posted anywhere; please forgive me if it has been posted somewhere else in SG101)
UNSTEADY FREDDIE
_
Tom Wenzel, who died on 19th September, aged 73, had
run Wenzel's Music Town with his wife, Maxine, as an
'oldies' record store since 1972. The Wenzels had come
from Grand Rapids, Michigan when Tom was very young,
and settled in Downey, the blue-collar Los Angeles
County enclave and home of Firestone. Exactly when
Wenzel's had stopped operating as a recording business
and the Downey record label wound down has always been
open to conjecture, but it was somewhere around 1968,
according to Maxine Wenzel. Maxine had been there
pretty much from the beginning.
The beginning was a week before Christmas 1958, when
Wenzel's Music Town opened at 13117 Lakewood Blvd.,
Downey, California selling hi-fi equipment, but
specialising in stereo sets and auto stereo for the
then burgeoning in-car entertainment industry that was
growing in California. Tom's father, Bill, who had
worked for the music division of MGM and later ran his
own spot welding shop, had started the business with
oldest son, Jack, and early in 1959, possibly
responding to local demand, they built a recording
studio in one half of the store's double-fronted space.
They also starting to stock the latest records.
Tom's older brother ran a record label, Jack Bee,
named for Bill and his elder son, that followed the
studio venture. Father and son's respective wives were
also involved. As previously mentioned, Maxine came in
to run the store after the record side of the business
got busy in 1962, with the start of the Downey label.
Another of the Wenzel's subsidiary labels, Carmax, was
named for Maxine and Bill's wife, Carmelita or Carmie.
It was with the Downey label that success came. First
in a local way, with the Pastel Six, who even got a
release in the UK, then with the Rumblers and 'Boss',
and finally the biggest of all, the Chantays'
'Pipeline'.
Tom and Maxine met at 14, in study hall at Bell High
School. At age 17, they got married. In around 1964,
Tom followed Maxine into the store. His job was to
make stereo reel tapes of currently popular albums
that were unavailable on tape, or reels of tape made
of selected singles that customers could order. Tom
described this business to me in 1991 as "kinda
illegal, but not real strong illegal." Wenzel's also
seemed to have run a lucrative business cutting
acetates of hard to find singles or tracks off
albums that were popular but not issued separately.
These were popular with cruisers (the dashboard
mounted 45 player was enjoying a peak in the late
50s and early 60s), oldies fans and record collectors,
but not so popular with Wallach's Music City over in
Lakewood! At any rate, Tom found himself "stuck in
this little closet" for the next three years, doing
his copying, while his father, Bill, honed his craft
as a producer/engineer and brother Jack worked as a
promotions man for the Downey label.
"My Dad was the engineer," says Tom, "so my brother
did pretty much everything else. He did all the
promo stuff and he got in with a guy who was a
promotional man for Mercury. He helped Jack out a lot,
got him in a lot of things. I remember them trying to
get their stuff started locally, and get it on the
air, and I think payola had a lot to do with it. Well,
if it sold 2,000 copies here locally they'd probably
play it for you, and how are you going to sell 2,000
locally if you don't get airplay.? " Bill Wenzel also
signed the artists that recorded for Downey.
Rex De Long of the Rumblers says, "Tom and Maxine are
indeed wonderful folks. Tom, however, installed sound
equipment in cars. Maxine (who we all had a crush on)
sold records. Neither was ever involved in the
creative process. . The only two "hands-on" were Bill
and Jack. Carmie (Bill's wife) just sorta ruled the
roost."
After the successes of 1963, with the Rumblers and the
Chantays, sales slowed down for Downey releases.
Although the Wenzels kept on recording, in a wide
variety of musical styles, which included nurturing a
young and broke Barry White, who in return would
produce sides by the Downey rock groups, in particular
the Rumblers, before moving on and doing the same
thing at Bronco. They also continued to develop new
artists there, where, for instance, Little Johnny
Taylor would try out a new song or two, and then make
a master elsewhere. There was also much interest put
into the Wenzels' publishing wing, Downey Music.
In the late 60s brother Jack was diagnosed with
leukaemia, and wound down his involvement with the
business. Ultimately he would die in 1971. By that
time Downey was closed for business as a record label,
while Wenzel's Music Town sold records, and tried to
keep abreast of what was popular, and get the latest
releases in as fast as the big stores up in Hollywood,
while a burgeoning 'oldies' business became their forte.
They also published a monthly bulletin, which included
their own best seller chart. When KRTH (K-earth 101!)
signed on the air in the early 70s they bought their
play list of oldies from Wenzel's.
In 1972 Steve Propes came in with a box of 45s and
suggested to Tom and Maxine, who were by now running
the store, they sell them on a consignment basis. They
gave it a go, and this was the beginning of what might
be described as Wenzel's longest running success. From
1972 until their retirement in 2002, Tom and Maxine ran
Wenzel's Music Town, Home of Oldies But Goodies.
Thousands of record collectors from all over the world
visited Wenzels during those thirty years. It was the
only reason to drive out of LA down to Downey, unless
you wanted to check out the 'listed' McDonalds just
further down Lakewood, or sample the excellent fare at
Stox, a diner and cocktail bar nearby, which you would
only know if you were visiting Wenzels anyway.
The studio half of the premises was opened out to
accommodate the growing stock, and the original two
Scully 4-track machines were sold to a garden business,
who were apparently meant to lease the space, but
reneged on both the rent and paying for the equipment.
Whatever the whole story is there, the Downey studio
was lost in the mists of time.
I was introduced to Wenzels in 1978, when Danny
Holloway took me down there during my first Stateside
trip. He advised me to use the bathroom while I was
there, as it had already become a legendary room. The
more interesting stock, including the consignment
items, was in the room to the left, which had once
housed the studio. Permission was needed to pass
through into that room, where one would be surrounded
by four walls racked out with 45s. If you needed to
use the bathroom, you had to ask again. The room all
browsers needed after a couple of hours digging
through record racks was situated through another door,
in a back store room. Collectors who knew the store
always told newcomers to be sure to use the bathroom
and look up above their head. There, on an old shelf,
were piled the original master tapes from the Downey
studio and label. It was part of the experience of
visiting Wenzels. The store was also a stop-off point
for surf writers and researchers, like John Blair and
Robert J. Dalley. Not to mention where some local
musicians, mainly the Blasters, got their early
inspiration.
In the 80s and 90s a number of Downey re-issue CDs
were compiled by various labels, which Tom Wenzel
helped out with while holding on to the ownership of
the Downey masters (with the exception of the Chantays
and some of the earliest Rumblers material, which had
been sold to Dot Records at the time of its initial
release, and is now part of Universal). Here are some
words from Dave Alvin of the Blasters: "If you mean
the reissue CD on Hightone's HMG label of blues and
r&b tracks recorded at Wenzel's Music Studio for the
DOWNEY label in the late 50's and early 60's ... It's
a great CD of lesser known west coast blues artists
and my only connection is that Wenzel's was the
record store in my hometown of Downey, California
where I could buy blues, rockabilly, honky tonk and
surf records when I was a kid. A million years later
I introduced Bruce Bromberg, of Hightone Records, to
Tom Wenzel (son of Downey Records owner/producer Bill
Wenzel) and they came up with the idea of the reissue
CD." The CD Dave is talking about was 'Downey Blues',
now available in upgraded form on Ace CHCHD1165 'R&B
On Lakewood Boulevard'.
In 1991 I asked Tom Wenzel for an interview, after
having spent another pleasant afternoon browsing and
buying at his store. I had been impressed by the number
of dead-stock Downey label 45s and obvious subsidiaries
that could still be found among the racks. Realising I
knew very little about the label, and thinking there
was a good story there, I called Tom a few days later.
While Tom and Maxine were two of the most gracious
interviewees you could possibly imagine, who stayed
late to answer my questions, a conversation between an
intrepid reporter armed with no knowledge of a label
and having had no time to research, and an enthusiastic
and kind man who spent three crucial years himself
"stuck in this little closet", does not make an
informative interview. Tom even let me snap pictures of
contracts as well as the famous master tapes, which he
took out of their boxes, while all the time the film
was not run on properly in my camera! Back in England I
enlisted the help of some knowledgeable friends, filled
in some gaps, and had my article published in Goldmine
later that year. As it happened, there were still
numerous gaps in the Downey story at the time of that
article, and much is still coming to light at the time
of this writing. Unfortunately, no-one thought to
interview Bill or Jack early on. Jack obviously fell
ill before it occurred to anyone to get an interview,
and Bill had retired to the Arizona desert by the time
I interviewed Tom. I have wondered if I should have
gone out and found his trailer home back then. If I
could have that time over .
Bill died in 1999. By this time the business of selling
vinyl had slowed down so much that Bud's Mower Shop had
moved in on much of the old Record Store space. It was
only a matter of time. Steve Propes did much in an
attempt to save Wenzel's as an institution in a world
that cared less and less. In 2002 Tom and Maxine
retired, and the old familiar store closed down for
good. When asked what she felt upon this momentous
occasion, Maxine shouted, "I can't wait to get out of
here!". At last Tom and Maxine, and some of their
family, had a chance to travel and relax for a few
years. Eventually, Ace Records acquired the rights to
the Downey catalogue, with of course the exception of
the tapes sold outright to Dot back in '63 & '64. Since
then Tom continued to be as helpful as he could be with
any questions we had about artists and recordings.
Tom was also an avid bowler, participating in local
leagues for numerous years. He is survived by his wife
of 55 years, Maxine, and four children, nine
grandchildren and four great grandchildren._
