Fronts For the Numbers Racket [[& maybe Drug Selling too)

[jsmith]

It is common knowledge that many record companies / recording studios were really fronts for racketeering. Many 'numbers' rackets were run out of such offices / buildings. They were also easy places through which to launder money [[from drugs & other illegal operations). Way Out Records studio in Cleveland was a very busy place, with people coming & going all day, every day. BUT lots of that traffic wasn't related to the recording biz at all [[even though one of Way Out's 2 owners was an ex cop). Lots of recording sessions were held there [[mainly) to act as cover for the 'other' visitors). But for every track cut there, only a very small proportion were ever pressed up onto vinyl.
BUT IN ADDITION to those type of premises, some night clubs were also put to similar uses.
In Pittsburgh, there was a big crowd of Sicilian & Jewish racketeers that ran numbers scams. They would use a night club outside the city as their watering hole / place of business.
For around 30 years, the Ankara Club on Route 51 in Pleasant Hills was utilised by them. As a consequence of the need to keep the club busy, many top acts were booked to play the venue. Many of these were doo wop, blues, R&B and soul artists.
Is it known if this practise was common in cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore & DC ?

[robb_k]

In Detroit, it was bandied about that Ed Wingate [[Golden World-Ric Tic), Wilbur Golden [[Correc-Tone), Jim Riley[[Diamond Jim-Riley's-Big D) had numbers running businesses, but they all had more than one legitimate businesses to launder the money from that questionable source. I never heard that about any of the Chicago record label owners, although several of them did also own night clubs. Numbers was big in Chicago, and their organised crime was even bigger than Detroit's, but I don't remember any of the record company or recording studio owners there, being involved in that. Of course, the people who WERE, all had legit businesses, like hotels, used car lots, bowling alleys, laundromats, food automats, liquor stores and distributorships, and Juke box distributorships, to launder their questionable income. I'm sure The Chess Brothers, Vivian Carter and Jimmy Bracken of VJ, The Leaner Brothers [[Onederful-Mar-V-Lus, M-Pac, Toddlin Town, Al Benson [[Parrot, Crash, The Blues), The Colberts [[Tip Top-Nike), Mel London, Ric Williams, etc weren't involved in that business.