Charlemagne Record Exchange
Charlemagne Record Exchange is a used record store in the Five Points South neighborhood of Birmingham. Located at 1924 1/2 11th Avenue South, Charlemagne is owned by Gary Bourgeois, Marian McKay and Mike McCay. Jimmy Griffin, a fixture in the store and a Charlemagne coprorate officer, is locally known for his vast knowledge of music. Charlemagne specializes in new and out of print Rock, Jazz and Blues LP's, CD's, cassettes and DVD's.
History
In 1977 Bourgeois and Griffin were English majors in college, and on their way to becoming professors. Then Bourgeois and Marian McKay went to Europe. “We saw this little dress shop in Paris and it gave us the idea. The owner’s cat lived under the ironing board, and you could see Notre Dame Cathedral out the window –we thought that was the life. Neither one of us wanted to work in an office building. Also, I had seen Rasputin Record Exchange in Berkeley.” So the three agreed to open a record exchange and named it while listening to “Kid Charlemagne” by Steely Dan. The partners rented a shop at the Garages and started trading records and selling used records. At first they were only paying themselves $30, which then turned into $50 a week, then $75. Within the first year, they were clearing a $100 each and “feeling rich.” 1
References
1 Duval, Lynn. Excerpt from "Historical Hangouts", 1994 Black and White Magazine History of Southside, stevenfordbrown.com