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Sometimes regarded as a homely stepsister to the more glamorous Paramount, Puritan was truly a label with multiple personalities, and its various configurations continue to puzzle collectors. The confusion arises largely because Puritan for several years was produced by two separate companies - the New York Recording Laboratories and the Bridgeport Die and Machine Company - that were not always successful in coordinating their production.

Paramount, Puritan, and the United Phonographs Corporation
Puritan was registered as a trademark by the United Phonographs Corporation of Sheboygan and Port Washington, Wisconsin. A subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company and sister company to Wisconsin Chair's New York Recording Laboratories, United Phonographs filed a trademark application for its Puritan brand from Port Washington on January 5, 1917, claiming use of the trademark for both phonographs and records since October 1, 1916. Despite that claim, the earliest known mention of the brand occurs in the Talking Machine World for May 1918.

Surprisingly, the United Phonographs Corporation (not the New York Recording Laboratories, as might be expected) also filed the first trademark application on the Paramount brand on November 5, 1917, claiming use on records and machines from October 20 of that year. Nevertheless, when the Paramount label was launched on a small scale in late 1917, it was clearly credited to NYRL rather than United Phonographs.

Puritan phonographs were high-priced, often bulbous-sided floor models fitted with an odd saxophone-shaped horn that wrapped around the record-storage bin to open at the cabinet bottom, near floor level. Although touted as "The Long-Horn Sensation of the Phonograph Industry," these bulky machines produced rather anemic sound. Public reaction seems to have been lukewarm despite a determined marketing effort. A news brief in the August 15, 1919 issue of the Talking Machine World noted that one Charles Orth had placed 1,000 Puritan billboards along 175 miles of highway in Milwaukee County. Judging from the relative scarcity of Puritan products, his efforts were less than effective. In the early 1920s, Puritan machines were also sold under several custom and department brand names, including J. L. Hudson (Detroit).

Puritan records were first mentioned in a Puritan phonograph advertisement in the Talking Machine World for May 15, 1918, shortly after the introduction of the Paramount label from which it derived. Like Paramount, the earliest Puritan releases were nine-inch vertical-cut discs; couplings and catalog numbers were identical to the corresponding Paramount issues. The labels, in blue, black, and gold on light gray, depicted a colonial-style interior, a woman in Pilgrim garb, and a jarringly anachronistic floor-model phonograph. The records originally retailed for 65¢ each. Despite labels crediting United Phonographs, they were purely NYRL products from the start.

Following in step with Paramount, Puritan converted to lateral-cut issues in late 1919, and a December 1919 Talking Machine World ad boasted, "Puritan lateral-cut records are brilliant and contain the latest numbers." The earliest lateral issues bore the same basic labels as the vertical-cuts, but by later 1920 these were phased out in favor of redesigned three-color labels with an elaborate filigree pattern. The label underwent several changes in design and color scheme before the familiar grape-leaf design appeared in early 1922. Later that year, the NYRL name was substituted on labels for United Phonographs.

BD&M's "East-Coast" Puritan
On March 1, 1922, the Bridgeport Die and Machine Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, announced a new series of Puritan records. BD&M had copper-plated Paramount masters for the New York Recording Laboratories for several years, and in late 1921 or early 1922 the company arranged to press NYRL masters under various department-store and mail-order labels. Unlike NYRL's Puritan label, which was priced identically to the 75¢ Paramount, BD&M's Puritan records would sell for 50¢ each and were aimed at the popular mid-price market to which Emerson's Regal brand was catering so successfully.

Under BD&M's agreement with NYRL, BD&M would produce its 50¢ Puritan discs for distribution east of the Ohio River and north of the Potomac. NYRL would continue to produce Puritan for distribution elsewhere.

BD&M's initial Puritan label bore no resemblance to previous designs. Depicting a dour-looking pilgrim in profile, Puritan became the flagship label in an extensive line of BD&M brands that eventually included Belvedere, Broadway, Chautauqua, Hudson, Puretone, Resona, and Triangle, among others. Early BD&M products usually derived their couplings and catalog numbers from Paramount (i.e., Puritan 11227 = Paramount 20227).

NYRL and BD&M apparently attempted to match each other's couplings and catalog numbers but didn't always succeed, resulting in alternate versions of some early Puritan releases. The situation improved for a time in 1923. In that year, BD&M adopted NYRL's grape-leaf label design, and the two plants seem to have correlated their production more closely.

BD&M also produced special Puritan series to order for various distributors. Among these was the Co-Operative Record Company, which marketed its products through mail-order offers in Judge and other popular magazines. The Co-Operative series drew on the same material as standard Puritan releases but used different couplings. In an apparent cost-savings move, BD&M simply used existing labels showing the original issue numbers. As a result, the Co-Operative issues often show different catalog numbers (with the -A and -B side designations still appended) on each side, a longstanding source of confusion to discographers and collectors.

Although Puritan initially drew almost exclusively on NYRL's Paramount masters, BD&M began to press masters from other sources in 1924. The Emerson Recording Laboratories (which at this time was recording masters for its own Emerson label as well as the Grey Gull group, Clover, Dandy, and other low-priced brands) became BD&M's primary supplier. By mid-1925 the Bridgeport company was bankrupt, and the East Coast version of Puritan was discontinued.

NYRL's Later Puritan Label
While BD&M produced Puritan for distribution in the Northeast, NYRL continued to manufacture its own higher-priced version of the label at the Grafton, Wisconsin plant for sale in the South and Midwest. Although initially featuring the same material as its eastern counterpart, NYRL's Puritan label used a grapevine motif and substituted the legend "America's Best Record" for BD&M's pilgrim trademark.

By late 1924, BD&M had switched to Emerson as its main source of masters. The Puritan connection was severed, leaving NYRL the sole manufacturer of Puritan. For the next two years Puritan would offer a smattering of material from Paramount's race-record catalog. But after NYRL closed its New York studio in 1926, Puritan drew increasingly on ordinary pop tunes and dance numbers from the Regal Record Company, manufacturer of Regal records and a line of cheap mail-order and dime-store brands. The label was finally discontinued in mid-1927.

Selected References
"Advance Record Bulletins." Talking Machine World (monthly, 4/15/1922-12/15/1922 inclusive)
Bridgeport Die & Machine Co.: "Puritan Records" (advertisement). Talking Machine World    (5/15/1922)
Calt, Stephen: "Anatomy of a ‘Race' Label." 78 Quarterly 1:3 (1989)
Calt, Stephen and Wardlow, Gayle Dean: "The Buying and Selling of Paramounts." 78 Quarterly    1:5 (1990)
"Introduce the Puritan Record - Bridgeport Die & Machine Company Now Pressing a Record of    its Own." Talking Machine World (3/15/1922).
"Latest Puritan Records." Talking Machine World Advance Record Bulletins (3/15/1922)
"Puritan - The Long-Horn Sensation of the Phonograph Industry" (advertisement). Talking    Machine World (5/15/1918).
United Phonographs Corp.: "Paramount." U.S. Patent Office: Trademark application #107,185    (filed 11/5/1917)
--- "Puritan." U.S. Patent Office: Trademark application #100,387 (filed 1/5/1917)
--- "Puritan New Lateral Records" (catalog, 1/1920)
--- "The Puritan" (advertisement). Talking Machine World (12/15/1919)
Wisconsin Chair Co.: Untitled pictorial trademark (Paramount records). U.S. Patent Office:    Trademark application #131,546 (filed 4/23/1920)