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Paramount Records was founded in the 1910s as a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company of Port Washington, Wisconsin, Fred Dennett Key, director. The chair company had made some wooden phonograph cabinets by contract for Edison Records. Wisconsin Chair decided to start making its own line of phonographs with a subsidiary called the United Phonograph Corporation at the end of 1915. It made phonographs under the Vista brand name through the end of the decade; the line failed commercially.
In 1918 a line of phonograph gramophone records was debuted with the Paramount label. They were recorded and pressed by Chair Company subsidiary The New York Recording Laboratories, Incorporated, which despite its name was located in the same Wisconsin factory complex as the parent concern.
In its initial years, the Paramount label fared only slightly better than the Vista Phonograph line.. The product had little to distinguish itself. Parmaount offered recordings of standard pop-music fare, on records recorded with below average audio fidelity pressed in below average quality shellac.
In the early 1920s, Paramount was still racking up debts for the Chair Company while producing no net profit.
Paramount began offering to press records for other companies at low prices.
The Paramount Record pressing plant was contracted to press discs for Black Swan Records. When that later company floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and thus got into the business of making recordings by and for African-Americans. These so-called " race music" records became Paramount's most famous and lucrative business.
Most of Paramount's race music recordings were arranged by Black entrepreneur Mayo Williams . Mayo had no official position with Paramount, but was given wide latitude to bring African-American talent to Paramount recording studios and to market Paramount records to African-American consumers. Williams did not know at the time that the "race market" had become Paramount's prime business, and he was essentially keeping the label afloat.
Paramount is best known for its wealth of recordings of blues and jazz in the 1920sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Events and trends Technology John Logie Baird invents the first working t and early 1930sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Link Trainer invented Sc, including such artists as Ma RaineyMa Rainey ( April 26, 1886 December 22, 1939) was a classic female blues singer, a pioneer of the genre, and one of the first generation of blues singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues . Many felt she did much to develop and populari and Blind Lemon JeffersonBlind" Lemon Jefferson (September, 1893 December, 1929) was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s. He had an intricate and fast style of guitar playing and a particularly high-pitch.
The Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a global economic slump that began in the United States following Black Thursday, the Wall Street panic of October 1929. On October 24, 1929, share prices on Wall Street collapsed catastrophically, setting off a chain of bankruptc drove many record companies out of business, and the initial incarnation of Paramount closed down in 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo.
In 1942Events January January 1 World War II: The word " United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact. January 2 World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. January 5 Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary ass the then-inactive Paramount Records company was purchased from Wisconsin Chair Company by John Steiner, who revived the label for reissues of important historical Paramount recordings as well as new recordings of jazz and blues.
The rights to the portion of Paramount's back catalogue not yet in the Public domainThe public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. Proprietary interest is typically represented by a cop are now owned by George H. Buck as part of his Jazzology Records group, but use of the name "Paramount Records" was purchased from Buck by Paramount Pictures, a previously unconnected company.