How Did Rhino Start?

Rhino began with Richard Foos indulging in his love of roots music (especially the blues) by digging through record bins at swap meets and record sales. Seeing that a $3 pile of albums could be sold for many times that led Foos to buy up old records. He initially sold them out of the trunk of his car, then the back of a small electronics shop, and eventually opened the first Rhino Records retail outlet in 1973. The store became a success, leading to a second store. Through those salad days, Foos gained a "from the ground up" retail experience that informed the company's planning in the years to come. Rhino also gained a reputation as the hippest record retailer in the L.A. area, thanks to Foos' collecting expertise and offbeat sense of humor. This success was enhanced when self-confessed "record fanatic" Harold Bronson became a steady customer of the expanded Rhino Records retail store near UCLA. Bronson's knowledge of music led Foos to hire him as a salesperson, and to promote him to store manager soon afterward. Bronson went on to help mastermind oddball ventures such as The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra (in 1978, the TCKO recorded the Rhino label's first true novelty hit, a version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" - itself a version of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love"). Through the years Rhino evolved beyond novelty releases and into reissuing classic pop music and video from the 1920's to the present.