Plastic Products Record Plant

Plastic Products Record Plant. Hub of Rock 'N' Roll. , A key part of the rock 'n' roll wave that swept America in the 1950s started in these Quonset huts. R. E. "Buster” Williams, a self-educated engineer, opened Plastic Products in 1949 with equipment he had researched and designed himself. His company quickly became a major producer of the 45-rpm records that revolutionized the music industry and filled jukeboxes and record collections across America., Knowing the struggles of small, independent recording studios, such as Sun and Stax, Williams offered them generous credit terms. By 1956 Plastic Products was pressing records round the clock for more than 49 labels nationwide, including Chess, Atlantic, ABC, Ace, Hi, Meteor, and Veejay records. In that same year Williams doubled production, turning out more than 65,000 records a day., One hut housed shipping and printing operations and four management offices. In another the vinyl was compounded, milled under heat, and turned into rectangular "biscuits' for pressing. The presses occupied the other two huts., Recording artists often would visit the huts to see their records being created. In 1954 a young Elvis Presley showed up to see his early hit, “That's All Right, Mama,” rolling off the presses. Plastic Products later moved to Coldwater, Mississippi. Buster Williams, whose entrepreneurial genius helped make rock 'n' roll happen, died in 1992 at age 83.