a salesman. Jerry Blaine founded Cosnat and it was a “leader in its field on the Eastern Seaboard “. In the fall of 1961 he moved to Los Angeles, California and was instrumental in setting up Cosnat's West Coast operations as a salesman and then branch manager. In the fall of 1962 Lawrence became the general sales manager for Colpix Records and Dimension Records, which were divisions of Columbia Pictures, in New York, New York. After a year, he was promoted to General Manager of Colpix Records and worked directly for Don Kirshner after Kirshner sold Aldon Music to Columbia Pictures in 1963 and became head of Columbia's newly expanded record division. While at Colpix Records Ray signed and produced Woody Allen’s first comedy album and also signed John Davidson and Davy Jones before he became a member of “The Monkees”. In April 1965 Lawrence started his own business, Ray Lawrence, Ltd. to specialize in promoting phonograph records and servicing rack jobbers, one stops and retail record outlets. His first client was Madman Muntz and some of his other clients included Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Bill Cosby, [Farley Parkenfarker], [Okie Duke], Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Floyd Cramer, Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Ray Price, the North Texas State One O'Clock Lab Band under Leon Breeden, World's Greatest Jazz Band and others. He was known in the record business for his moniker, "The Record Man". In the late 1970s he started Dobre Records, a jazz record label. He produced and released over 50 albums of jazz musicians including Milcho Leviev, Cannonball Adderley, Ruth Brown and others. A detailed discography is available below. Most of the records were recorded at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, California. Five of the albums he produced were nominated for Grammy awards. Lawrence was also involved in starting at least two other record labels, including Black Jazz Records and Jazzz Records. In 1979 Lawrence attended the 11th Annual Cultural Awards dinner at the White House hosted by President Jimmy Carter. In May 1980, because of changes in the record industry business model Lawrence stopped promoting phonograph records and started acting as a personal manager for musical artists, variety acts and others. Some of his clients included Trini Lopez, Al Martino and Buzz Aldrin. Lawrence died on August 27, 2017, in Studio City, California. Discography Some albums that Ray has produced. Notes and references Further