Music has always been an integral part of my life, and I’ve immersed myself in the music scene of every city that I’ve lived in. As summer takes hold and music fills the streets of Cleveland, you can’t deny how deep the city’s musical soul goes. One of the city’s brightest stars and unsung heroes is the Boddie Recording Company, which is finally getting some of its due as it looks to become a local Cleveland landmark.
Boddie Recording Company was Cleveland’s first Black-owned recording studio. Run by Thomas and Louise Boddie (pronounced “Boe-dee”) out of a building behind their house at 12202 Union Ave. in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, the Boddie Recording Company was Cleveland’s own version of Motown. The studio recorded many locally and regionally successful acts, along with national artists who stopped to perform in the city.
“We recorded everyone,” Dennis Boddie, son of Thomas and Louise Boddie, told me in an interview of the studio’s impressive legacy. “We were (called) little Nashville for a reason.“
The Boddies’ personal story is just as intriguing as that of the studio. Thomas Boddie was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his grandmother in Kinsman. He graduated from East Tech High School in 1941, the only Black student in his class, and joined the Air Force. When he got back home, he couldn’t find work, despite having the same qualifications as his white classmates. Thomas Boddie finally got a position at Baldwin Organ Company and spent many years repairing organs.
Then, in 1959, he and his wife opened Boddie Recording Company, following their passion. In 1960, the couple moved to Union Ave. and the recording studio’s presence, reputation, and footprint quickly grew. Boddie recorded a wide range of gospel, soul, and rhythm and blues musicians, as well as rock, bluegrass, and country artists, some from as far away as Detroit and West Virginia. When the company found that white patrons wouldn’t come to a majority Black neighborhood on Cleveland’s east side, Boddie created his own mobile recording studio so that he could bring it to them.
Boddie captured classic Motown concerts at Leo’s Casino and promoted the campaigns of Carl and Louis Stokes. I remember the awe I felt in researching the studio and realizing that the Boddies had come to my grandparents’ church to record the choirs and sermons. This Cleveland gem had reached back and touched my childhood during the 1980s and 1990s also.
Despite the racial injustices and segregation of the time period, as well as the aftereffects of tragic events like the Hough Riots, the Boddies worked to bring quality recordings to everyone, showing the resilience and artistry of their studio. The company continued producing recordings through the 1990s, until Thomas Boddie’s eventual death in 2006.
Cleveland Landmarks Commission staff member Karl Brunjes explained why the Boddie Recording Company is so important to the city’s history at the commission’s April 13 meeting. “The Boddies were soon in high demand because of their cheap rates and quick turnaround,” he said. “This went from an unremarkable house in an east side neighborhood among many to a destination for musical hopefuls, gospel choirs, and touring bands from across the country.”
To be nominated as a local landmark, a location must be at least 50 years old and it must have integrity and historical significance, according to Brunjes. The house where Thomas and Louise Boddie lived was built in 1920, and contains historic elements, including a Dutch gambrel roof. There is a sign out front marking the spot of the recording company. The actual studio was located in the rear of the property in a cinder block building was was built as a dairy.
The Boddies ultimately created their own record press so that they could not only record musicians but also distribute them. During the oil embargo of the ‘70s, they couldn’t get the pellets used to make records, so they ground up old records themselves and used the materials to press new work. All told, it’s estimated that the company pressed more than one million records.
“My dad was a genius when it came to engineering and electronics … he made everything a one-stop shop,” Dennis Boddie told me. He also touted the fact that his father was able to create high-quality mobile recordings that people could access quickly. “You could buy ’em right then and there before you left the event instead of having to order it,” he said. “So, this is how far advanced he was.”
In the middle of the 20th century, Cleveland held the moniker, “Best location in the nation,” and it was well known among musicians that you had to come through Cleveland if you wanted to become famous. The Boddies recorded many national acts that played at Leo’s Casino, a famous Cleveland venue that operated at 7500 Euclid Ave. from 1963-1972 and booked many top Motown acts, including Otis Redding and the Temptations. Leo’s Casino was torn down in the 1970s.
Among the legendary local acts recorded by Boddie were Hot Chocolate, Harvey and the Phenomenals, Seven Revelators, and Los Nombres, according to Dennis Boddie. The Boddies also produced live recordings of Ike and Tina Turner; The O’Jays; The Kinks; and Sonny & Cher, he said. In the music community, Boddie was known for his technological innovations, including using mostly modified equipment and building much of his equipment himself. He created five record labels, including Plaid Records, Soul Kitchen, and Cookin Records.
Carlo Wolff, author of the new book Invisible Soul: Uncovering Cleveland’s Underground Soul Scene, has written extensively about Cleveland’s music scene from the 1960s and 1970s. “They recorded every gospel group that lived in and around Cleveland, country and western from all over,” he said of the Boddies, calling the venue “history buried in plain sight.”
Thomas Boddie was known as a technological innovator, building much of his own equipment while also engineering the records, Dennis Boddie told me. While people who visited the studio often thought Thomas was the boss, he frequently said it was his wife Louise. He called her his “American Express” because he never wanted to leave home without her, referencing the company’s long-running ad campaign.
Ultimately, Dennis Boddie said, he and his mother Louise have ambitions to turn the house into not only a local landmark but also a museum where people can learn about the history of Boddie Recording Company, “Music is the great equalizer, ” he said to me as I sat on his porch on Union Ave. where the Boddie Recording Company once churned out records. “He was a genius and ahead of his time, doing recording feats that were not seen in other studios.”
The city landmark nomination for Boddie Recording Company will be voted on by Cleveland City Council at its Wednesday, August 16 meeting.
E’chieko Tamu Wenrich-Clegg was a participant in The Land’s community journalism program.
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