Ethel Gabriel

When Gabriel died at the age of 99 in March 2021, her nephew, Ed Mauro, told The New York Times that her success in music came “when the playing field wasn’t level.” Gabriel — considered to be the first female producer to work for a record label — had another take: She told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1983: “I didn’t know I was somewhere I shouldn’t be.”

The Pennsylvania native affixed labels to records and packed them for shipment at the RCA Victor plant in Camden, N.J., before moving to the company’s corporate offices in New York. With RCA, she worked as an A&R executive and eventual vice president, championing the signing of Pérez Prado to help bring mambo to the United States and creating the Living Strings, Pure Gold and A Legendary Performer series. Gabriel produced over 2,500 albums — 15 of them certified gold — and won a Grammy Award for best historical album in 1982.