Humble Beginnings

• Tower Records founder Russ Solomon began his career in music retail in 1941. The 16-year old Solomon sold used jukebox 78s in the drugstore run by his father Clayton. A separate entrance was created for customers of Tower Record Mart, who were able to preview albums in listening booths. From this inauspicious beginning, Russ opened his first freestanding shop, called Tower North, on the corner of Watt and El Camino avenues in 1960. Six years later, Solomon reopened Tower Record Mart inside his father's pharmacy, only to move it to a larger location across the street from its original home on Broadway. The biggest acts of the 1960s, among them The Rolling Stones, The Righteous Brothers, Arlo Guthrie and The Dave Clark Five, came to Tower Records to perform, meet their fans and shop for music.
  
  

Growing the Brand

• Inspired by the success of his Sacramento stores, Solomon opened the first Tower in San Francisco in 1968. The first Los Angeles location would follow in 1972, and at this point Tower was well on its way to becoming a successful music retail chain. National expansion was followed by global expansion. Stores were established in Canada, England, Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Ecuador.
  
  

Bankruptcy and Liquidation

• As the factors cited in the Overview squeezed Tower, the company began to lose business at the same time it was taking on more debt. Inevitably, Tower filed for bankruptcy in 2004. This would be the first of two times the company would declare bankruptcy, the second and final time being in 2006. After entering Chapter 11, the company was forced to reorganize. Tower's assets were eventually auctioned off for approximately $134 million to Great American Group, which liquidated store inventory immediately after purchase.
  
  

The Present

• Nowadays, the only way to shop at Tower Records in the United States is to go to its retail site. Stores in Japan, Mexico and Ireland still operate under the Tower Records name. The 75-plus Japanese stores possess Tower's name and branding, but they are owned and operated independently by Nikko Principal Investments.
  
  

Conclusion

• In a gesture symbolic of Tower Records' fate, the neon sign hanging above the maiden Tower Records on Watts Avenue in Sacramento was removed on March 12, 2009. The neon sign has been donated to the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center and will eventually make its way to an exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Coming full circle, Solomon has opened up a new record store called R5 on Broadway, down the street from where his fallen empire began.