The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records: A Great Migration Story, 1917–1932

Blackwood (creative writing, Hollins Univ.; See How Small) tells two stories in one in this history of the rise and fall of Paramount Records (1917–32). First, the book examines how a never-ought-to-have-been label inadvertently became the purveyor of “race records,” recordings aimed specifically at Black audiences. There are also profiles of the label’s artists. Starting in 1917, a Wisconsin furniture company was contracted to make phonograph cabinets for Edison, and records were its way to sell them. No one at Paramount knew anything about recording or music; they viewed phonograph records as throwaways, produced as cheaply as possible and sold by word of mouth and testimonials in the Black media. On the edge of bankruptcy in 1922, they hired their first Black sales manager and scout, J. Mayo Williams, who recruited Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, James P. Johnson, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. By 1932, Paramount had left behind 2,300-plus priceless recordings of blues, gospel, and jazz music. Erratic business practices, inattention to detail, inordinate cheapness, thievery and ignorance didn’t stop Paramount, but the Depression did.