Sholes was born in
Washington, D.C., and moved with his family to
Merchantville, New Jersey, at the age of nine, near where his father worked in the
Victor Talking Machine Company plant in
Camden. Sholes started work at Victor as a messenger boy in 1929 and worked part-time for the firm while a student at
Rutgers University. Scholes worked for a time in RCA Victor's
radio division, but his experience playing
saxophone and
clarinet in dance bands led him to the
record division. During
World War II, he worked in the
Army's
V-disc operation, which made records for radio broadcast and for personal use by army personnel. Sholes was inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame, which he had worked to create, in 1967. In 1968, Sholes suffered a
heart attack and died at age 57 while driving to
Vanderbilt University where his longtime friends,
Homer and Jethro were recording a live album for RCA Victor. Sholes was portrayed by actor Bart Hansard in the
CBS mini-series
Elvis (2005). ==References==