more on "Inc"

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

        I have deleted all previous notes on "inc." pronounced as "ink", so
I can't give credit to previous contributors.

        Someone noted the crime fiction bookstore/publisher "Murder Ink":
according to the Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing (1999),
this was founded in June, 1972.  (sv article "Bookstores,
specialized")

        In 1936, Count Basie and certain members of his band made some
recordings.  Because a conniver named Jack Kapp had induced Basie to
sign a disadvantageous exclusive contract with Decca Records, these
records could not be released under Basie's name.  (After the Decca
contract expired, such groups would be called Count Basie and His
Kansas City Five, &c.)  One of the bandmen at the session was Jo
Jones, another was Carl Smith, so the records were released as by
"Jones, Smith, Inc".  I do not believe that I have ever heard this
pronounced "Jones, Smith, Incorporated".  This disk jockey I have
most often heard announce this group's name is Phil Schaap, whose
father was and is a fervent jazz hound and a close friend of many
jazz musicians.  Basie, Jo Jones, and most of the other participants
in this session knew Phil Schaap when he was in diapers, and this is
exactly the sort of detail he likes to get right, so when he says
Jones-Smith Inc I think we can assume that that is what his father
and Basie said.  Still, the next time he is on the air, I will call
and check with him.  Stay tuned.

GAT