Bob Blythe was a ball point pen manufacturer and owner of BB pens. Later he was president of a record company,

Tops Records Tops Records was a Los Angeles-based record label owned by Tops Music Enterprises, both founded in 1947 by Carl L. Doshay and Sam Dickerman. After a prolific and profitable run, Tops merged with PRI Records in 1958, which in turn, sold to a group ...

, as well as founder of budget record label Sutton Records.

Background

Blythe was a former vaudevillian who drove around in a yellow convertible. He would hire actors to work in his pen factory.

BB Pens

He partnered up with Jack Stein, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

surgeon. They began the pen operation in Mrs. Stein's kitchen, but as a result of making a mess in the sink, they moved it to Stein's garage. Later they were on the verge of having a $1,250,000 contract for a chain of jewelry stores signed but it didn't eventuate because a pen exploded in the face of the director of the stores. After that they had to start again. By 1949, it was forecasted that year that the company would produce 20 million pens.

Tops Records

In 1958 Blythe was hired by Tops Records. In early April 1959, Blythe bought into Tops Records and became the largest shareholder. At the time, Blythe who had 25 years experience in chain store merchandising was entering his first venture into the record business. As of March 1960, he still retained his position, vice-president of sales. He was no longer the owner of BB Ball Point Pen Company by that time. In August 1960, Blythe embarked on a 3-week trip across the United States to meet with distributors.

Sutton Records

By 1963, Tops Records was in liquidation. A liquidation sale was advertised in the March 9 issue of ''Billboard''. In 1963, it was reported in the March 2 issue of ''Billboard'' that Blythe had launched a new record label called Sutton Records, a subsidiary of his recently formed Sutton Enterprises. This low-budget label was one that would cater outlets serviced by

rack jobber A rack jobber (also known as a rack merchandiser) is a company or trader that has an agreement with a retailer to display and sell products in a store. The outlets for the products would be ones that traditionally do not stock such products such as ...

s. On board with Blythe was stockholder Manny Kopelman and sales vice-president Danny Weston.''Billboard'' March 2, 196
Page 6 Bob Blythe Starts New Name Talent Low-Budget LP Line
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blythe, Bob American entertainment industry businesspeople Year of birth missing Year of death missing