During the first half of the 20th century, mass-market recordings by African American musicians were grouped under the term "Race Music" regardless of genre and marketed strictly to African American listeners. In 1949, nightclub owner Don D. Robey signed blues musician Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown to a management contract and, dissatisfied with the traditional marketing used by major record labels, created Peacock Records. The company soon outgrew an office at 4104 Lyons, and Robey converted his former dinner club, the Bronze Peacock at 2809 Erastus, into a larger recording studio and relocated there in 1953. That same year he added Duke Records in Memphis, Tennessee, to his holdings and created Back Beat Records as a Peacock subsidiary. The acquisition of Duke Records brought contracts with several well-known artists, including Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton and Johnny Ace, while the Bells of Joy and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi were among Peacock's many gospel groups. Much of the success of Duke-Peacock Records came from its use of numerous recording studios, production plants, and distributors around the country to reach the greatest number of artists and customers. Its prominence in the record business led to the purchase of the Peacock, Duke, Back Beat, and Sure Shot labels by ABC Dunhill in 1973, and Peacock Records is remembered as a pioneering minority recording firm.