Justin Ring’s Fifty Years on Record

Some folks are content to run things from behind the scenes, Justin Ring was one of these. Just as with Eddie King, Ring’s name appears in record ledgers thousands of times, and not just for a single company. Ring, though mostly associated with Zon-O-Phone, worked for the following companies: Columbia, Lambert, Victor, Edison, Phono-cut, Rex, Okeh, and Decca. This is likely only a share of companies that Ring devoted himself to during fifty years in the music business. Ring’s name crosses the border between collectors of early disc records and collectors of classic ragtime sheet music. He was a fascinating character, who always seemed to be in the shadow of the larger personalities at the early recording studios. Despite the seemingly endless output of Ring, he still remains a mysterious figure, likely due to his own personality. He was born Justus Ringleben, Jr., on June 28th, 1876 to an old musician of the same name and a much younger woman named Rosa. His father was just about aged 50 when his first child Justus, Jr., was born, and he was the oldest of three. It is not known what Justin’s father played, but in a short bio on Justus, Jr., from The Focus, dated 1903, his father was said to have been a prominent arranger and writer for publishers like Oliver Ditson and Carl Fischer. Justus and his two siblings grew up on the lower east side, just a block away from the heart of