Why buy from us?  In 1970, a lot of artists were starting their record companies, and John Poole wanted to do the same, so we started Anita O'Day Records.  We lived in Hesperia, California where there were more Joshua trees than people.  I designed the covers, and did the bookkeeping.  Anita would hang out at the local bar and sell records when she wasn't working.  The company led to gigs in New York, Washington state, Japan, and Sweden.  The people of Japan gave John a neat portable tape recorder, and he started recording every job they went on.

John and Anita also began working in Los Angeles at different clubs like Dontes, Ye Little Club, and Concerts by the Sea, and sold records on the job.  Then came a break, the Newport Jazz Festival, and the El Matador in San Francisco.  In 1974, we moved to Studio City, then Burbank, to be closer to the airport.  In 1980 I left for Ohio with my son, Jonathan, so he could be in a more wholesome atmosphere.  John and Anita moved to Hemet, California.

In 1984, John and I got back together.  He wanted to establish a home base in Las Vegas which was closer to the airport and had no smog, and we soon started  Emily Productions as a small business.  Anita moved to Las Vegas for awhile, but decided to move back to Hemet, California.

Thirty-two years of stress in the business caused John to have a nervous breakdown.  In 1997, Anita fell and broke her arm and was in a nursing home for a year.  John and I went to visit her several times.  John had always wanted to write his memoirs from someone who "was there."  I got laid off from work, so we decided it was do it now or never.  John had collected newspaper articles, pictures, and tapes for 50 years and started dictating on tape. 

John died of congestive heart failure on April 11, 1999.  I spent the next few years finishing and editing the book.  It's going to be called Jazz, Genius, and Jail.

I finally found a neat company that could help me develop my own web site which had been created to make our products more accessible to people who want to shop on line.   They suggested adding other artists from the same era.  It also features secure online ordering.