Reverend J.O. Haines
If you don’t know the name J. O. Hanes, don’t feel alone.
Hanes wasn’t a recording superstar. In fact, his portrait label 78 for Paramount, and the several other records from that same session, were the only records he ever made. Quite frankly, Hanes has the distinction of being the only person to be rewarded with a portrait label without having earned fame based on his recording career. So the question becomes: why would Paramount go to the trouble and expense to issue a portrait label for a White evangelical preacher unknown outside of the Birmingham area?
The answer is, Harry Charles.
All recording companies in the 1920s and 1930s relied on regional talent scouts. For Paramount, in the mid-south it was Charles. Whether it was selling pianos, refrigerators, or musical talent, it would always be the thrill of the sale that drove Charles. It was a tough and some time dangerous racket being a talent scout for the recording companies, particularly in the South. But being a native, that’s where Charles thrived. He could easily cross the color line, finding musical talent on both sides of the tracks. In later years Charles would go into radio and television.
From about 1925 until 1929, Charles worked as a talent scout for Paramount, sending up new finds to its recording studios. He was also a record distribution salesman for Paramount, covering the same territory that he did in his talent hunts. Supposedly, Charles wore out a new car every three months during his extensive travels. He based his operations in different southern cities. At one point he operated out of Birmingham. And this is where the Rev. J.O. Hanes comes in.
As a salesman, Harry Charles found it hard to take no for an answer. In trying to introduce the Paramount line of records into a small store in rural Alabama near Birmingham, he was continually rebuffed by the pious owner. It seemed that the songs put out by Paramount relied too heavily on the sin of temptation. So Charles came up with a plan. Knowing of the popularity of the fundamentalist preacher J.O. Hanes in the Birmingham area, Charles convinced the Paramount bosses that Hanes was deserving of a specially-issued record.
Hanes was recorded on Paramount’s Old Time Tunes series, rather than on its “Race” series, and it would be the first of the company’s portrait label 78s to be electrically recorded.
By the time Hanes went into the Paramount studio, “preaching records” had been popular sellers for several years, particularly those by house-rocking Black preachers. Perhaps it was because the big record companies got in on this trend early on and locked up the most popular Black preachers that those efforts made by Paramount seemed at best to be half-hearted. Which makes it more surprising that Paramount would issue a record with a portrait label by a White preacher. But, Paramount put a lot of faith in Charles’ business acumen, and his recommendations.
The Hanes 78 extolled both preaching, as well as singing by a male choir. Once the new record was in hand, Charles took the Rev. R.O. Hanes back to the rural store to inquire as to why it wasn’t selling his records. After Hanes spoke to the owner on the virtues of Paramount records, Charles had a new Paramount client in that little Alabama town.
Hanes would never return to the recording studio. Nonetheless, Paramount had its second portrait label.
Note: According to Kurt Nauck, the Hanes portrait label also appeared on the other released Paramount recordings from the same session.
DISCOGRAPHY:
Abounding Sin and Abounding Grace
Paramount 3057
Chicago, c. September, 1927
A Symphony of Calls.
Paramount 3057
Chicago, c, September 1927
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The following ephemera is from the Bowman collection: J.O. Hanes record and sleeve; and Paramount graphics.
