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Ananoid Label
Milkov : Human Kindness Personified Vic Vapourub interviews Milkov Magnesia, A&R man for the Anadin label 1944-60 VV: Well, let's start by asking you if you're sitting comfortably. MM: OK (pause) VV: Er...Are you sitting comfortably? MM: Yes VV: Then we'll begin. Tell me, Milkov - how & when did you first become involved with recording in general & Anadin in particular? MM: Well Vic, I guess it'd be around '41 or '42, I was at High School & I took a part time job as a soda jerk at the corner drug store in my neighbourhood. At that time it was run by a nice little old lady who only used to open on Sundays. This made it kinda rough for me only having a Saturday job. Then she went & sold the business to these two dopey looking guys - and it was Ivor & Ed Migraine. Well, they were pretty good businessmen y'know. Within a few months they'd increased the turnover & established a new clientelle, mainly musicians working the strip. They started to market Potter's Guitar Pastilles to session musicians - it was the first time they'd been available on the West Coast. They did pretty well with them, got popular with the bandleaders, players & the like. Then around '43 Ed came up with the idea of selling special strong aspirin for hungover musicians. He put a lotta codeine in this new pill, had it made to look like a tiny axe, y'know & called 'em "Little Hatchet" headache pills. We had a banner sign in the window that said "Little Hatchet for splitting headaches". So, one thing led to another & slowly but surely Ivor & Eddie drifted into the recording business. Ivor figured it'd be a good idea to get a slice of both ends of the action, and seeing that by that time we had got to know most of the jazz & R&B artists around town he figured we'd stand a good chance of being successful." VV: So that's when they started the Philosan label? MM: Yea. See, we already had the distribution chain, the records could be shipped out all around L.A. on the delivery trucks we used for film processing - Eddie had an interest in that company too - & so all we needed was a studio. VV: And that's where you came in? MM: Right, right. I'd always been kinda interested in recording, & I'd built my own studio over weekends in the bathroom at my Aunt's house. So we used that to cut the first records in. So, without too much thought, we did a session with a local band, Johnny Poultice & the All-Sores - & it was a hit. It got the label established almost overnight. VV: Why then did the Migraine Brothers change the name to Anadin? MM: Oh, sure. Well there was a guy over in west L.A., an electrical contractor called Phil Osan who objected on the grounds of infringement of trading name. So we had to change. It was a real shame too, 'cause we were all set to go into the 45's market with a new line of easy listening music for the middle-aged market. We had a slogan & everything. VV: What was that slogan? MM: Oh, lemme see..."Philosan, 45's for over forties". Yea. VV: So, the company became Anadin. Can you tell me about some of your early successes? MM: Well, about the first thing I can remember was a woman came up from Texas, she was called Lola Anasthetic, a chiropodists wife I think, & she brought three guys with her, that was Strychnine Hopkins, Chunder Smith & a junk-food addict called Amos Heartburn. We cut a thing with Strychnine & Chunder called "Can't Spew Like You Used To" which was pretty good. Then Ed signed Johnny Snore's Three Tablets too, & they brought along their featured vocalist Charles Drowse. After that it just took off. We started a subsidiary label called Snore, initially for gospel groups. VV: Who did you record? MM: Oh, let me see, well, there was the Slumberdown Quartette, The Golden Snooze Trio, Reverand Zedbed & his Forty Winks Choir...a whole bunch of them. VV: But that label didn't last? MM: Well, yes & no. It later evolved into an album label - we were the first company in the USA to issue Steroid LP's. VV: You also had the Vimto label MM: For country music, yea. Oh, we cut some stuff with an old time fiddle & guitar duo Farmer Cyst & Boyle Burstyn & we had a small southern hit with "Silver-haired Mother's Last, Fatal Ride to the Truck Stop Boogie" by Luke Ozade's Glucose Ramblers. But we pretty much stuck to jazz & R&B. VV: Yes, getting back to the Anadin label for a moment, you had a pretty good slice of the R&B market in the early '50's didn't you? MM: Sure, we had hits with guys like Chicken Pox Waterford, Lynn Dope, the Throbbins, & a guy called Floyd Drexel - him I remember especially because we did a live recording of "Too Much Dixie-Roll" at Frank Dull & Gene Normal's Flu Jubilee right here in L.A. That was one of the first hits ever written by Jerry Stealer & Mike Lifter - Ivor had caught them shoplifting & put them to work writing songs instead. VV: THen the hits started... MM: Right, we had a smash with Greasy Snack Boogie by Amos Heartburn - we used the Maxwell House Band on that, then Eddie & Ivor went down to New Orleans & cut some stuff there, they found Sherbert & Licquorice, the Sweet Hearts of the Blues & we had a national hit with "Let the Enzymes Roll" & they cut another thing called "Cough-em-o" with Gene & Eucalyptus too. VV: Papa Athletesfoot cut "After Piles" for you in New Orleans as well didn't he? MM: I don't remember him at all. VV: But you must do, he's fantastic, great downhome harp. MM: All you European guys are the same, aincha? You all go bananas about some wheezing old back country blues man that don't mean shit & never did, & you ignore truly important guys like Charles Drowse. VV: With respect, if you could take your boot off my throat we can get back to the story. MM: Oh, yea. Sure...sorry. VV: Who else can you remember? MM: Well, there were quite a lot of groups - we had the Five Sneeze, the Head-Throbs, the Sha-Wheeze & the Five Rennies. All pretty good, y'know. We had a big hit with a song called "Diet In Drug Store No.9". Did real well. VV: Turning for a moment to the Migraine Brothers themselves, they spent a lot of time on the road promoting the records didn't they? MM: Yea, that's right. They used to pack up the Edsel on a monday morning - load it to the brim with records, suitcases, Women, Whiskey &... VV: They sold magazines too? MM: Yea, sure. They'd sell anything. Right up on through the fifties they never stopped selling drugs. Nickel & dime bags, all kinds. Ivor was never without a pack of suppositorys in his wallet. They'd come back to L.A. a week later with an empty car & a full wallet. Great days. Whenever that happened Ed would crack open a bottle of Sanatogen & we'd all have a party. Amos Heartburn would sit in the back office & play all night for a glass of Ribena & a packet of Freeto's. Oh man, what a time. VV: What other artists did you record? MM: Ok, there was Louis Synex & his Nasal Spray Five - they had a hit with "Go Blow Your Nose" & then we did some recording with Johnny Fullersearth, he was the cat that cut "Cruel Cruel Piles" for us. Oh yea, there was a guy called ...lemme see, how did we bill it on the label? Oh yea, Clarence Gargle, his Catarrh & Orchestra. He hit with "New Bonton Gargle". VV: The one thing that interests me most is that you actually, as it were, transplanted New Orleans in Los Angeles. MM: Oh sure, we brought in Plasma Johnson, Big Tea Drinker, Earl Erizer to cut some stuff. We gotta hit out of that wiht "Ping Pong" - we cut that 'cause Cosimo said how we had a lotta balls to do it in the first place. VV: How did Lowell Balsam come to record for you? MM: Through his manager, Bedpan Bentley. He'd cut some stuff for Clown Beataround town & he came over to us. We did pretty well with "Chuck Up With The Boys" & "Bowel Trouble" you know? VV: Yes, he's very popular in Europe generally, & in Dulwich especially. MM: Did you know he started out as a boxer? VV: No. MM: Oh yea, he was one of the first Rhythm & Blues men in the business. VV: Yea, he just had an album issued in Sweden on the Bruise Boy label. Anyhow, I know that Anadin folded around 1960. Can you tell me a little about that? MM: Well, both Ed & Ivor were getting on in life some & I think they'd come to a point where they'd just about had enough. So one day around 1960 they ran into a guy called Chew Cudd. He was a candy-store owner, marketing a pretty successful line in Mint Imperials & he wanted to break into the record industry. He'd tried before but the crowbar he was using was too small & in any case the warehouse was well guarded. So he bought the whole label, just like that! VV: Lock stock & barrell? MM: Especially the barrell, Ed & Ivor used to take turns in it. VV: I see, well, we won't go into that. MM: Ed & Ivor did! as often as possible. It was a kinda hobby for them. VV: Anyhow, let's get up to date, I understand that there are currently negotiations underway to lease some of the old material in Europe? MM: That's right, as far as I know. A guy from T.C.P.** was here a little while ago fixing up the deal. VV: Do you know if there'll be any unissued material in that package? MM: Sure, we recorded a lotta stuff that never got released. There's tracks by Junior Dispirin, Big Sis Titus, Helen Fumes & Her Inhalers, Rufus Beecham & the Pills, Little Penny Sillan, Sherbert & Licquorice, all sorts.... VV: That'll be nice. Very little has come out in the U.K. since those old triangle centre Valium 45's by Amos Heartburn. MM: Talking of him, I'm sure there's an alternate take of Corn Pad Boogie lyin' around somewhere. VV: That'll be nice. MM: You already said that once. VV: I know. I can't help repeating myself. MM: Here, have a Rennie's & lay down until you fell normal again. VV: Ta. ** Ted Carrol Promotions (General Manager: Dream Topping)