78 RPM - Ethel Waters - Oh Daddy / Down Home Blues - Black Swan - USA

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Ethel Waters
Label:	Black Swan
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	2010
Date:	Jul 1921
Format:	10"
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	2 Own
Price Guide:	$110 - $221
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PRICE GUIDE

$110 - $221

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Ethel Waters	Oh Daddy	Russell, Herbert	Rate
B	Ethel Waters	Down Home Blues	Tom Delaney	Rate

Notes

Ethel Waters w/ Cordy Williams' Jazz Masters

Black Swan ad, Muncie Evening Press [Muncie, IN], August 10, 1921: Third release.

Images

Comments and Reviews


fixbutte 18th Jul 2022		Thanks, xiphophilos. Your itemization shows that Black Swan numbers 2009, 2012 and 2013 had not been allocated in early July 1921, supporting my guess that these were the new releases in August 1921 (and that 2010 and 2011 were released before 2009). It also suggests that number 2008 was already allocated to Alberta Hunter then, although there is no trace of an actual release of that number before September 1921.



xiphophilos 18th Jul 2022		I've checked out The Crisis, the journal of the NAACP in which Pace regularly advertised his Black Swan releases. The July 1921 edition has a Black Swan ad with photos of Revella E. Hughes and C. Carroll Clark and a list of names of exclusive Black Swan artists (Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Creamer & Layton, Katie Crippen, Eddie Gray, Juan Harrison). There is no list of the actual releases, but: Revella Hughes = Black Swan 2001 Carroll Clark = Black Swan 2002 Katie Crippen = Black Swan 2003 Juan Harrison = Black Swan 2004, Creamer & Layton = Black Swan 2007, Alberta Hunter = Black Swan 2008, Ethel Waters = Black Swan 2010, Eddie Gray = Black Swan 2011. This July number of Crisis was received by the Indiana University library on July 2, 1921, i.e., releases may well have appeared later in July still.



fixbutte 17th Jul 2022		Fair enough, xiphophilos. Meanwhile I have found an ad for "the 5th series" on Black Swan Records. As expected, the series comprises three new records ("feature releases"), i.e. numbers 2014, 2015 and the previously missing 2008. Counting five months from May 1921 on, I date these three releases to September 1921, matching the mentioned ad for Black Swan 2008 in the September issue of Talking Machine World. Bad news is that the 5th series ad was placed in the November 5th, 1921 issue of The Chicago Whip. Considering that in November 1921 already Black Swan 2021 was on sale, I guess the Chicago Whip ad just came a few weeks after the event. [Edit: In fact, the Chicago Whip ad was first published on September 17, 1921 and reprinted there unchangedly several times, see Black Swan 2008.]



xiphophilos 16th Jul 2022		You may well be right, fixbutte, and maybe Black Swan 2010 here was released as early as July 1921, before the August or September 1921 release of Black Swan 2008. I decided to go with dates for which we have hard evidence. If other evidence shows up to support your hunch, we can always adjust the date. So far, it looks as if Black Swan's 1st release was May 1921 2nd release was June 1921 3rd release may have been July 1921, but we only have an August 10, 1921 ad so far. It could well be that Black Swan planned on releasing 3 records each month, but they don't say that anywhere explicitly that I have seen.



fixbutte 16th Jul 2022		Thanks, xiphophilos, for editing several release dates. Still, based on a three records per month release scheme, I'd rather date Black Swan's "Third Release" including this one here to July 1921. Unfortunately, the July 1921 issue of The Crisis to confirm this is not available on Google Books (in contrast to the August issue). [Edit: I found it here, and it contains an ad with the "Exclusive Black Swan Artists" (including Ethel Waters) but sadly not the then current release list.] Besides, considering the Black Swan ads, I feel certain that Black Swan 2008 was not released in August but in September 1921.



fixbutte 15th Jul 2022		Some more thoughts about the early Black Swan release dates: - The given New York 1920s source includes a Chicago Defender ad of the Black Swan "May Releases" with numbers 2001, 2002 and 2003. - The "Third Release" (apparently for the month of July) in the Aug 10, 1921 issue of the Muncie Evening Press has eight Black Swan records from 2001 to 2011 (missing 2006, 2008 and 2009), and apparently 2007, 2010 and 2011 were the last of them. - The Black Swan "Fourth Releases" ad in the August 1921 issue of The Crisis (page 188) and the above August 1921 ad in the Talking Machine World have three additional records 2009, 2012 and 2013, apparently for release in the month of August. - So it looks that numbers 2004, 2005 and 2006 (all present in the August 1921 ad) made up the second monthly release in June 1921, whereas 2008, missing in all Black Swan ads until August, was to be released after that date. And indeed: Black Swan 2008, sung by by Alberta Hunter, was prominently advertised in the September issue of the Talking Machine World.



fixbutte 15th Jul 2022		Black Swan release dates here for the first Black Swan records have to be checked anyway. The first record, Black Swan 2001, came out on May 17, 1921, not in August 1921, see New York 1920s.



Mike Gann 15th Jul 2022		I've edited it to 1921. Maybe I can find something more specific for it.



fixbutte 15th Jul 2022		Not the A-side but the B-side, "Down Home Blues", was a huge hit for Ethel Waters and Black Swan, see uploaded half-page ad from The Talking Machine World, August 15, 1921, calling for a release date change from the current "June 1922" to around July 1921 (or even earlier).



xiphophilos 14th Jul 2022		That's a nice collection of Black Swan label variants. I've rearranged them chronologically with approximate dates.



Mike Gann 14th Jul 2022		Three pairs of A-side and B-side label images added



BigBadBluesMan 2nd Aug 2021



BigBadBluesMan 2nd Aug 2021



BigBadBluesMan 2nd Aug 2021