Editing Paramount Records (section)

==Race records==
Paramount was contracted to press discs for [[Black Swan Records]]. When the Black Swan company later floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and made records by and for African Americans. These so-called [[African-American music|race music]] records became Paramount's most famous and lucrative business, especially its 12000 series. It is estimated that a quarter of all "race records" released between 1922 and 1932 were on the Paramount label.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Calt|first=Stephen|date=1988|title=The Anatomy Of A "Race" Label -- Part One|journal=78 Quarterly|volume= One, Number 3|pages=10–23}}</ref>  The company relied on offices and agents in nearby [[Chicago]] to find and record artists for its blues and jazz offerings.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-04-17 |title=Of Paramount's importance |language=en-US |work=Chicago Reader |url=http://chicagoreader.com/music/of-paramounts-importance/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |archive-date=2022-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121140338/https://chicagoreader.com/music/of-paramounts-importance/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Paramount's race record series was launched in 1922 with [[vaudeville]] blues songs by [[Lucille Hegamin]] and [[Alberta Hunter]].<ref name="Russell">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|location=Dubai|page=12|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref> The company had a large mail-order operation which was a key to its early success.<ref name="Barlow" />

Most of Paramount's race music recordings were arranged by black entrepreneur [[J. Mayo Williams]]. "Ink" Williams, as he was known, had no official position with Paramount, but he was given wide latitude to bring African American talent to the 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 that he was keeping the label afloat.

Problems with low fidelity and poor pressings continued. [[Blind Lemon Jefferson]]'s 1926 hits, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", were quickly rerecorded in the superior facilities of Marsh Laboratories, and subsequent releases used the rerecorded version. Both versions were released on compilation albums.

In 1927, Ink Williams moved to competitor [[Okeh Records|Okeh]], taking Blind Lemon Jefferson with him for just one recording, "[[Matchbox (song)|Matchbox Blues]]". Paramount's recording of the same song can be compared with Okeh's on [[compilation album]]s. In 1929, Paramount was building a new studio in Grafton, so it sent [[Charley Patton]] &mdash;"sent up" by [[Jackson, Mississippi]], storeowner [[H. C. Speir]] &mdash;to the studio of [[Gennett Records]] in [[Richmond, Indiana]], where on June 14 he cut 14 famous sides,<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/77 77]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/77}}</ref> which led many to consider him the "Father of the Delta Blues".<ref name="Grossman">{{cite book|last1=Grossman|first1=Stefan|title=Stefan Grossman's Early Masters of American Blues Guitar: Delta Blues Guitar|date=2007|publisher=Alfred Publishing|page=41}}</ref>

After Williams left Paramount, he placed the business in the hands of his secretary, Aletha Dickerson, who had not been informed that her former employer had quit. Dickerson continued working for Paramount, and eventually moved to the company's new headquarters in Grafton. In 1931, she quit when the management, facing hard times, cut her wages.<ref>{{cite web|last1=van der Tuuk|first1=Alex|title=Aletha Dickerson: Paramount's reluctant recording manager|url=http://www.vjm.biz/new_page_18.htm|access-date=May 25, 2018|archive-date=January 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121054121/http://www.vjm.biz/new_page_18.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>