Blue Book Publications Inc.

Help

Electric Guitars

Select Manufacturer Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

See Paramount & Orpheum.

In the late 1890s, William L. Lange was a partner in Rettberg & Lange, a major East coast banjo producer and distributor. Lange expanded the company into the William L. Lange Company in the early 1920s, and supplied the C. Bruno & Son distributor with both Paramount and Orpheum banjo lines. In 1934, Lange debuted the Paramount guitar series - and some of the models were built by the C.F. Martin guitar company. Lange was quick to add Orpheum-branded guitars, and some of those models were built by Chicago's Kay company.
Lange's company went out of business in the early 1940s, but New York distributor Maurice Lipsky resumed distribution of Orpheum guitars in 1944. By the late 1940s, the Paramount guitar line was distributed by Gretsch & Brenner. Source: Tom Wheeler, American Guitars.