Inside the Columbia Pressing Plant with David Bispham (1912)

This 1912 publicity shot, showing baritone David Bispham pressing a record, reveals what a grim, gritty operation Columbia’s Bridgeport pressing plant was. Conditions did not improve there, and in the early 1930s John Hammond finally exposed the situation in a muckraking article that had employees clamoring for unionization. The problems were finally corrected, and the workforce unionized, after CBS purchased the plant in 1939.