Peacock Records

The plaque gives Don Robey the label; the man and his partner had longer stories. Born in Houston in 1903, Robey promoted ballroom dances, ran the Harlem Grill in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, and opened the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club in 1945. Evelyn Johnson, his assistant, filled often unacknowledged roles at his club, labels, Buffalo Booking Agency and Lion Publishing for more than twenty years; Roger Wood called her "the true genius." Robey was frequently accused of unethical and even violent dealings, and she often stood between him and his artists. He died in 1975.

What the plaque says

Peacock Records DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY, THE MASS-MARKET RECORDINGS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSICIANS WERE GROUPED UNDER THE TERM "RACE MUSIC," REGARDLESS OF THEIR MUSICAL GENRE, AND THESE MUSICIANS WERE MARKETED STRICTLY TO AFRICAN AMERICAN LISTENERS. IN 1949, A DECADE BEFORE THE BIRTH OF MOTOWN RECORDS, NIGHTCLUB OWNER DON D. ROBEY (1903-1975) SIGNED BLUES MUSICIAN CLARENCE "GATEMOUTH" BROWN TO A MANAGEMENT CONTRACT AND THEN DECIDED TO CREATE HIS OWN RECORD LABEL BECAUSE OF HIS DISSATISFACTION WITH THE TRADITIONAL "RACE MUSIC" MARKETING OFFERED BY THE MAJOR RECORD LABELS. ROBEY'S PEACOCK RECORDS SOON OUTGREW AN OFFICE LOCATED AT 4104 LYONS, SO HE CONVERTED HIS FORMER DINNER CLUB, THE BRONZE PEACOCK AT 2809 ERASTUS, INTO A LARGER RECORDING STUDIO AND RELOCATED IN 1953. DURING THAT SAME YEAR, ROBEY ADDED DUKE RECORDS IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE TO HIS HOLDINGS AND CREATED BACK BEAT RECORDS AS A PEACOCK SUBSIDIARY. THE ACQUISITION OF DUKE RECORDS BROUGHT ROBEY THE CONTRACTS OF SEVERAL WELL-KNOWN ARTISTS, INCLUDING WILLIE MAE "BIG MAMA" THORNTON AND JOHNNY ACE. THE BELLS OF JOY AND THE FIVE BLIND BOYS OF MISSISSIPPI WERE AMONG MANY OF PEACOCK'S GOSPEL GROUPS. MUCH OF THE SUCCESS OF DUKE-PEACOCK RECORDS CAN BE CREDITED TO THE SYSTEM OF UTILIZING NUMEROUS RECORDING STUDIOS, PRODUCTION PLANTS, AND DISTRIBUTORS AROUND THE COUNTRY TO REACH THE GREATEST NUMBER OF ARTISTS AND CUSTOMERS. THE RESULTING PROMINENCE WITHIN THE RECORD BUSINESS LED TO THE PURCHASE OF THE PEACOCK, DUKE, BACK BEAT AND SURE SHOT LABELS BY ABC DUNHILL IN 1973, AND TODAY PEACOCK RECORDS IS REMEMBERED AS A PIONEERING MINORITY RECORDING FIRM. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 2.8 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 3.5 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 4.0 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Rothko Chapel — 4.8 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church — 0.2 mi
• Mount Pleasant Baptist Church — 0.5 mi
• Mount Vernon United Methodist Church — 0.8 mi
• The Frenchtown Community — 0.8 mi