Pickwick International, Inc.

[b]1961[/b] The company was founded by [a=Cy Leslie] in 1961 as a successor of [l=Pickwick Sales Corp.].
[b]1962[/b] The subsidiary UK company [l=Pickwick International Inc. (GB) Ltd.] was installed.
[b]1965[/b] The subsidiary Canadian company [l=Pickwick Records Of Canada Ltd.] was installed.
The company merged with the Musicland record store chain in the late Sixties.
[b]1970[/b] [l=Capitol Records] had a minority ownership which it sold off.
[b]19??[/b] The subsidiary Irish company [l=Pickwick Ireland Ltd] was installed
The company was purchased by American Can Company in 1977, who relocated it from Long Island City to Minneapolis.
[l=PolyGram] bought the company's assets (particularly the contract and back catalog of [a=Kool & The Gang], who were on their [l=De-Lite Records] label) in 1979. Pickwick managed to survive until 1984, when it closed for good. Today, the Pickwick catalog (such as it is) is managed by Universal Music Enterprises via [l=Hip-O Records].
[a=Lou Reed] and [a=John Cale] worked briefly as Pickwick staff musicians and songwriters in the Sixties before founding the [a=Velvet Underground]. Its subsidiary had two disco hits by [a=Gary Toms Empire] in 1975 and 1976.
It marketed cut-rate classical recordings under the [b]Classics For Joy[/b] imprint and jazz compilations on the [b]Quintessance[/b] label and sold children's records on the Happy Time and [l=Mr. Pickwick] labels until the mid-Seventies.