At 35, he created an empire of record stores
Russ Solomon passed away at the age of 92 after suffering a heart attack last Sunday, the 4th, while watching the Oscar awards ceremony.
His son, Michael, told the Sacramento Bee that his father “was giving his opinion on how ugly what someone was wearing was, and then asked [his wife] Patti to bring more whiskey .” When she returned with the drink, Solomon had passed away.
Russell Solomon founded Tower Records in 1960 in Sacramento, California when he was only 35 years old. It quickly became one of the most iconic and famous record stores in the world.
With nearly 200 physical stores and an online presence , Tower Records went bankrupt in 2006 when it could no longer keep up with the rapid shift in music consumption caused by the Internet.
The bankruptcy occurred before the recent resurgence of record stores, a result of renewed interest in vinyl. Today, perhaps Tower Records would have a different fate.