Don Deadric Robey (November 1, 1903 – June 16, 1975) was an American record label executive, songwriter, and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for developing the careers of many rhythm and blues artists in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first African American record mogul, 10 years prior to Berry Gordy's Motown label (though the first Black-owned label, Black Swan Records, belonged to Harry Pace in the 1920s). Robey was notorious for his controversial business practices; he reputedly used criminal means, including violence and intimidation, as part of his business model, though he was held in high regard by some of the musicians who worked for him. He was credited with writing or co-writing many of the songs recorded by Duke/Peacock artists, either under his real name, or under the pseudonym of Deadric Malone. However in many cases, he was merely a publisher and was not involved in the writing. Many other label owners paid little for songs and controlled the publishing, but Robey was one of the few to disguise the real writers, making it nearly impossible to assess who wrote what on Duke, Peacock, Back Beat, and his other labels. Early life and career Robey was born in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas, United States, to a Jewish mother Gertrude and an African American father Zeb Robey, a chef.<ref name=salem>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bNIN6UB5G_EC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22evelyn+johnson%22+robey&source=bl&ots=GlTIA3wP99&sig=NLjN3ASJjqK5TywXAfvpE1OsCHA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=t6QvVeSBC8mO7Qa05YGoDw&ved=0CDwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=robey&f=false James M. Salem, The Late, Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R & B to Rock 'n' Roll'''], University of Illinois Press, 2001, pp. 53–57</ref> His grandfather Franklin, the son of a plantation owner and a slave from South Carolina, had settled in Houston where he practiced medicine and lived in the town's Third Ward. Don Robey left school early, he claimed to pursue a gambling career. Although he claimed to have lived almost all his life in Houston, there is evidence that he spent some time in his teens working on a cotton farm with his mother, and later worked as a dock laborer in Galveston. He also lived in Los Angeles, where he set up his first nightclub. Blues Hall of Fame: 2014 inductees . Retrieved April 16, 2015 By the age of 20, he had married and fathered a son. After returning to Houston Don Robey worked as a sales representative for a liquor distributor. During the early and