Tom Donahue, a San Francisco DJ who worked for KYA radio, owned the record label.
Members included Grace Slick's then-husband Jerry and his brother Darby, author of "White Rabbit", but felt they had no talent because it took 45 takes for them to "get it right."
In 1965, Autumn records released the single [6] sung by later Manson family member Catherine Share aka "Gypsy", recorded & released under the name of "Charity Shayne" - produced and written by Marty Cooper.
The Grateful Dead (then known as The Emergency Crew) were almost signed to Autumn in 1966, but the label was running out of money, so their 45 was issued by Scorpio, a Fantasy Records subsidiary.
The Charlatans, another San Francisco area 1960s-era psychedelic group which had Dan Hicks as a member, was also almost signed.
The problem was that the label was headed toward bankruptcy and didn't have the necessary money on hand to sign either band.
Autumn was probably one of the most successful independent record labels in the mid-1960s, but changes in the record-buying public's tastes and major marketing by already established bigger labels (nearly every major record company signed a heavy psychedelic band in the late 1960s) led to the demise of Autumn in 1966.