A subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company, United Phonographs, trademarked its record brand from Port Washington in 1917 and began issuing records the following year on the Puritan and Paramount labels. Puritan lasted only until 1927 but Paramount, based in the factory of its parent company in Grafton, published some of the nation's most important early blues recordings. Between 1929 and 1932, they produced more than 1,600 recordings by such blues legends as Skip James, Charley Patton, "Son House", Louise Johnson, King Solomon Hill, and Blind Joe Reynolds.

Learn More

Paramount Records

See more images, essays, newspapers and records about Paramount Records.

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

Alex van der Tuuk, Paramount's Rise and Fall: A History of the Wisconsin Chair Co. and its Recording Activities (2004); www.ParamountsHome.org; Univ. of Wisconsin's Wisconsin Music Archives