Mercury Music Hall (U.S.A.) / c. 1948
Corporate background:
Launched in 1945 in Chicago, Mercury
was bought out by the European giant Philips in the early
1960s.
The label is still active in the U.K.
Design: Curtains
are shown raised, evoking the music hall stage.
Sophie Tucker ("The Red Hot Mama') was
born in 1884 in Russia, but started her career as a blackface
vaudeville entertainer in New York in the early 1900s.
Possessed of a loud voice, and reveling in
her obvious physical unattractiveness, she flaunted her
unconventional personality and was loved for it. She died in
1966.