b. USA. Originally from Pittsburgh and the son of Hungarian immigrants, Rupe had moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to attend University of California at Los Angeles. His first involvement in the record business was as a partner in the small Atlas Records, which was notable for being the first label to record Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers and Frankie Laine. Despite this, Atlas failed in its first year, and with diminished savings Rupe founded Jukebox Records in 1944. The first release on Jukebox, ‘Boogie #1’ by the Sepia Tones, sold about 70, 000 copies. While the following year the label added Roy Milton’s Solid Senders to its roster and had immediate success with ‘R.M. Blues’ in 1946, at which point Rupe left Jukebox to start Specialty Records. Specialty went from strength to strength throughout the late 40s with records by Jimmy Liggins And His Drops Of Joy, Camille Howard and, at the turn of the decade, Joe Liggins and Percy Mayfield (‘Please Send Me Someone To Love’). In early 1952 Rupe made his first trip to New Orleans to find a Fats Domino for Specialty, and instead he came away with Lloyd Price and ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, which shot to number 1 on the R&B charts and became one of the first funky R&B records to be bought in large quantities by white Americans. Later in the 50s, this New Orleans connection led to artists such as of Larry Williams, Earl King, Art Neville, Guitar Slim and, of course, Little Richard. Owing mainly to the success of Little Richard and his many hit records, Specialty continued to flourish during the rock ‘n’ roll years with secular recordings by Sam Cooke among others, but after the departure of Richard and Cooke in the late 50s, Rupe began to direct his business acumen towards movies and real estate. However, he and his family have maintained the Specialty label, whose treasured reissues continue to sell to R&B, rock ‘n’ roll and gospel fans.