The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1921, a man named Harry Pace started the first major Black-owned record company in the United States. He called it Black Swan Records.

In an era when few Black musicians were recorded, the company was revolutionary. It launched the careers of Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, William Grant Still, Alberta Hunter, and other influential artists who transformed American music.

But Black Swan’s success would be short-lived. Just a couple years after Pace founded the company, larger, wealthier, white competitors started to take an interest in the artists whose careers Pace had propelled. Then, Pace’s own life took a mysterious turn.

This episode originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2021.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Last day is a show about the moments that change us.
0:03.0	I just don't think I will ever get used to this.
0:06.0	I'm Stephanie Little's Wax, and I have had one of these moments.
0:10.0	We all have.
0:11.0	So let's unpack the chaos that is our human existence together.
0:14.5	I don't believe things happen for a reason.
0:16.5	I don't believe the universe has a plan.
0:18.5	Each week, I sit down with a new guest to explore happy, sad stories of transformation.
0:24.0	It's leaning far, far into the pain. That's what it is.
0:27.5	Listen to last day wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.5	Radio Topia.
0:34.5	From PRX.
0:36.5	From PRX's Radio Topia, this is Radio Diaries. I'm Joe Richmond.
0:44.5	In June of 1921, a new voice was heard on record players around the country.
0:52.5	Ethel Waters was a young black singer who was making a name for herself
0:56.5	in the Cabaret Circuit during the Harlem Renaissance.
1:02.5	He may have heard of Ethel Waters,
1:04.5	but he probably haven't heard of the man who recorded her first songs and turned her into a star.
1:09.5	His name was Harry Pace, and a hundred years ago he launched the first major black-owned record company in the United States.
1:17.5	On today's show, we're telling the history of a groundbreaking company
1:21.5	and of a black man who set out to uplift his community through music.
1:26.5	It's also the story of a mystery about Harry Pace, an identity, and the reasons he may have been forgotten.
	...

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