Modern-ists: The Bihari Brothers

TWO FACTORS combined to make the years of the Second World War uniquely fertile for Rhythm and Blues. One, strangely enough, was the shortage of shellac needed for the production of records. Those friendly Japanese Toyota-peddlers of today had occupied the main shellac-producing regions of Southeast Asia and they were not letting any of it out, particularly to the United States. The major record companies, fighting a battle of their own with the Musicians’ Union at the time, found their supplies cut to the bone, and then the bone was cut.