NOTES

Introduction

1. “The Pekin And Ollie Demsey [sic] Always Make Good,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 21, 1909.

2. The Freeman documented performances of “Some of These Days” by blues pioneers including Estelle Harris (“Notes From The Savoy Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 24, 1910); Trixie Smith (J. Chicken Rell [sic] Beaman, “Notes From Airdome, Tampa, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1911); and Willie and Lula Too Sweet (Geo. Slaughter, “Lyre Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911).

“Lovie Joe” was sung by Bessie Smith (“The American Theater Jackson, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 18, 1911), Trixie Smith (J. Chicken Rell [sic] Beaman, “Notes From Airdome, Tampa, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1911); Estelle Harris (“Notes From The Savoy Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 24, 1910); and the Too Sweets (Geo. Slaughter, “Lyre Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911).

“I Got the Blues, But I’m Too Mean to Cry” was done by Bessie Smith (“Theater News Of Rome, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1913); and String Beans (“Penographs Caught of Butler “String Beans” May at the Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 16, 1914). Other conspicuous “ragtime-cum-blues” hits from this period include Shelton Brooks’s “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone” and “All Night Long,” and Irving Berlin’s “Stop That Rag” and “Grizzly Bear.”

3. Howard W. Odum, “Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes,” Journal of American Folk-Lore 24, no. 93 (July–September 1911): 255–94; 24, no. 94 (October–December 1911): 351–96.

4. David Evans, Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 35.

5. Odum does not include blues among his “three general classes” of Negro songs (“Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes,” 259); neither does he use the term “blues” to describe any of the songs he transcribed or collected (see Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs,” and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz [Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007], 25–26).

6. For other perspectives on the songs Odum collected, see Evans, Big Road Blues, 35–37; David Evans, “Formulaic Composition in the Blues: A View from the Field,” Journal of American Folklore, no. 120 (Fall 2007): 482–99; and Marybeth Hamilton, In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions (London: Jonathan Cape, 2007), 32–39.

7. African American newspapers of years 1899–1909 preserve a copious enumeration of the black stage repertoire; nowhere in these reports is there mention of a blues song. The generic term “blues” first appeared in print in 1909, on the sheet music cover of Robert Ebberman’s publication of Robert Hoffman’s arrangement of the song “I’m Alabama Bound”: “Also Known As The Alabama Blues” (see Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me’: Sheet Music, Southern Vaudeville, and the Commercial Ascendancy of the Blues,” American Music 14, no. 4 [Winter 1996]: 406–8), reprinted in David Evans, ed., Ramblin’ on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002], 53–55).

8. Twelve-bar and/or “AAB” verse patterns, while sometimes present, were not necessarily part of the earliest published blues. For an early consideration of the twelve-bar structure as a building block in the blues, see Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 26, 1914, quoted in Abbott and Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me,’” 87.

9. Evans, Big Road Blues, 58.

10. Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 4.

11. There are, however, numerous interviews and some published autobiographical reminiscences of this era, which we found useful.

Chapter 1

1. Mainstream daily papers in several locales also published instructive ads and articles, but without the overview embedded in the Freeman reportage it would be impossible to assess the scope or direction of black vaudeville entertainment in early-twentieth-century southern parks and saloon-theaters. For background information on the Indianapolis Freeman see Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889–1895 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002), xii–xiii.

2. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 24, 1902.

3. “Route,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1899; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 7, 1899. James Bland, “Close dem Windows” (Boston: White, Smith & Co., 1897); George R. Wilson, “When a Coon Sits in the Presidential Chair” (Milwaukee: C. K. Harris, 1898). “Bring You Back” may be Ben Harney’s “You May Go but This Will Bring You Back” (New York: F. A. Mills, 1898).

4. A Freeman report of July 12, 1902, mentions “Buddie Glenn, of Texas, with his many years experience.”

5. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 14, 1905; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1905.

6. For more on Charles Wright and other male coon shouters, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 23–24.

7. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 4, 1899, lists Minnie Williams, Sallie Cottrell, Flora Williams, Lillian Casey, Laura Hayes, Hattie Carter, Louise Shannon, Mamie Wilson, Mamie Clark, Fannie Settles, Estelle Freeman, Bettie Watson.

8. Reports in “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14; November 4, 1899, enumerate the Little Solo’s musicians: Sidney Ostes, solo B♭ cornet; Ed Walker, tenor; Wm. Matthews, baritone; Nelson Turner, solo alto; G. B. Rhone, slide trombone; Prof. Evans, clarinet; Bud Glenn, snare drum; and John Green, bass drum. G. B. Rhone, leader of orchestra; Edw. Walker, pianist; Wm. Matthews, trombone; Prof. Evans, clarinet; Prof. Anderson, B♭ cornet; and Nelson Turner, double bass. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right for more on Anderson and Rhone.

9. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 8, 1900.

10. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 27, 1900.

11. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 12, 1900; “Solo Theatre Notes, Houston Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 25, 1900.

12. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 27, 1900.

13. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 18, 1899.

14. Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 87–107.

15. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 8, 1900. According to “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 22, 1900, the members of Rhone’s Olympic Theater orchestra were Eugene Hester, John L. Evans, Nelson Turner, Richard J. Anderson, and Harry Oliver.

16. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 22, 1900; January 12, 1901.

17. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 12, 1901. The report went on to note: “The other top liners in our company are: Della Harris, Fannie Settle, Louise Shannon, Jessie Alexander, Hattie Payton, Birdie Smith, Emma Smith, Ferdonia Smith, Rosa Franklin, George Washington and Eddie Wilson.”

18. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 12, 1901.

19. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 26, 1901.

20. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 17, 1901.

21. See Wayne W. Wood, Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage (Jacksonville: University Press of Florida, 1996), 87.

22. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 29, 1899. For more on Pat Chappelle’s life and career, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 248.

23. 1897 Jacksonville City Directory.

24. “Pat Chappelle,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 30, 1900.

25. The Exchange Garden Theater was first mentioned in the Indianapolis Freeman on May 19, 1900. It was not listed in the Jacksonville City Directory until 1903.

26. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 19, 1900. Sam Robinson, described in this report, may or may not be the vaudeville entertainer by the same name, who teamed with Baby Mack from 1923 to 1926 and recorded several blues titles for OKeh in 1925 and 1926. Two of those titles are reissued on Document DOCD-5390.

27. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1902.

28. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 28, 1903.

29. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905; Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 230, 410.

30. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

31. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 21, 1905.

32. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 20, 1900.

33. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 18, 1900.

34. According to the Evening Metropolis (Jacksonville), January 1, 1904, cited in Peter Dunbaugh Smith, “Ashley Street Blues: Racial Uplift and the Commodification of Vernacular Performance in La Villa, Florida, 1896–1916,” diss., Florida State University, 2006, John M. Robinson participated in a “New Year’s Eve and Emancipation celebration” at Mason Park January 1, 1904, in the capacity of choral director of the Stanton School in Jacksonville.

35. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 29, 1900.

36. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 4, 1902.

37. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

38. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 24, 1901; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 5, 1903; October 27, 1906.

39. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 29, 1900. Skits produced at the Exchange Garden in 1903 included “A Trip to Africa,” “Uncle Primus, the Fiddler,” and “Strangers in Ragville” (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29; September 26; December 5, 1903).

40. Jacksonville City Directory, 1904; 1905. It seems O’Toole died shortly after opening the Little Savoy, and was succeeded by a relative, Walter G. O’Toole.

41. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 12, 1904; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1905.

42. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 1, 1905.

43. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 24, 1903.

44. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 22, 1905. The nature of the venue, an “open air stage” in a public park, may account for the high attendance number.

45. 1905 Jacksonville City Directory.

46. For more on Beulah Henderson, “America’s Only Colored Lady Yodeler,” see Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, “America’s Blue Yodel,” Musical Traditions, no. 11 (Late 1993).

47. “Lincoln Park,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 13, 1908.

48. In an interview with Butterbeans and Susie (Jodie and Susie Edwards), conducted in 1960 in connection with their Festival label LP from that year (reissued on GHB BCD-135), Butter and Susie remembered “Poor Boy” as a pioneer vaudeville blues singer.

49. “Lincoln Park, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 23, 1908.

50. Ibid.

51. “Frank Crowd,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 24, 1910.

52. “The Globe Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 8, 1910.

53. “The Globe Theater At Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 21, 1910.

54. Ads, “The Central Concert Hall,” Tampa Morning Tribune, August 10; September 7, 1899.

55. Ads, “The Central Concert Hall,” Tampa Morning Tribune, August 10; 15; 22; 29, 1899.

56. “The Buckingham Theater,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 14, 1900. The statement appears in a letter signed by “Chappelle & Donaldson.” See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right for more on Arthur “Happy” Howe.

57. Ads, “The Central Concert Hall,” Tampa Morning Tribune, August 15; 22; 29; September 1, 1899. This early mention of the title “Sugar Babe” is evocative, but its claim of originality is impossible to verify. Published variants and recorded versions of “Sugar Babe” by musicians of both races span the course of the twentieth century; from “What Are You Going to Do When the Rent Comes Round,” recorded in London, England, in 1906 by African American entertainer Pete Hampton (Beka Grand 9821), to “Chattanooga Sugar Babe,” recorded in 1998 by American traditional guitar virtuoso Norman Blake (Shanachie CD 6027). “Sugar Babe” was said to be “One of the most attractive musical numbers” of Cole and Johnson’s 1907–8 musical comedy “The Shoo-Fly Regiment” (“At the Theater—Lyceum Theatre,” [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] Patriot, November 9, 1907 [America’s Historical Newspapers, News-Bank]); “About The Theaters,” Evening Press [Grand Rapids, Michigan], March 6, 1908 [America’s Historical Newspapers, NewsBank]. See also R. Emmet Kennedy, More Mellows (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1931), 159–60; and Guthrie T. Meade Jr., with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade, Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music (Chapel Hill: Southern Folklife, 2002), 505.

58. “Took the Floor,” Tampa Morning Tribune, September 28, 1899; “Two Very Popular Theaters,” Tampa Morning Tribune, May 5, 1900; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 5, 1906.

59. Ad, “The Buckinghan [sic],” Tampa Morning Tribune, March 13, 1900.

60. See Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 92; Ragged but Right, 227.

61. Ad, “Buckingham Theatre and Saloon” and “The Mascotte,” Tampa Morning Tribune, December 27, 1899.

62. Ad, “Fowler’s Minstrels,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 14, 1900.

63. “The Buckingham Theater: A Tip to the Public,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 14, 1900.

64. The name “Mascotte” referred to a two-stack, three-masted steamship that served in the Spanish-American War and is represented on the official seal of the city of Tampa. Ed Johnson, “Good Luck Symbol in Tampa’s Official Seal,” Tampa Morning Tribune (undated clipping, University of South Florida Library, Tampa).

65. “Two Very Popular Theatres,” Tampa Morning Tribune, May 5, 1900.

66. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 21, 1900.

67. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 28, 1900.

68. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 7, 1900.

69. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 19, 1900. Levy may have been the composer of “Sassafras Rag,” published in 1905 (Chicago: Arnett-Delonais Co.) as by “J. Levy.”

70. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 14, 1900.

71. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 24, 1900.

72. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 21; May 5, 1900.

73. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 22, 1900.

74. For a detailed account of the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 248–90.

75. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 7, 1900.

76. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 15, 1900.

77. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 5, 1902.

78. Ad, Tampa Morning Tribune, November 25, 1900.

79. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 8, 1900.

80. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, March 1, 1902.

81. “Ben Hunn on the Colored Performer,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 19, 1902.

82. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 22, 1902.

83. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 26, 1901.

84. Ad, “The Mascotte Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 4, 1902.

85. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 5, 1902. In black theatrical parlance, when “the ghost walks” the performers get paid (see Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 108). The Douglass Club was an African American “headquarters for members of the theatrical profession” in New York City (“Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 29, 1900). The reference to the “Buffalo spread” is likely intended to describe a banquet put on by an African American actors’ organization of the time, the “Benevolent Order of Colored Professionals, more familiarly known as the Buffaloes” (“B. O. of C. P. Sermon,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 25, 1899).

86. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1902.

87. “Will H. Dorsey,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 23, 1911; 1900 U.S. Census (Thanks to Pen Bogert).

88. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 6, 1901.

89. R. S. Donaldson, “Dirty Performers,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 24, 1902.

90. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 21, 1904. The proprietor of the Red Fox was A. N. Rushing.

91. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 30; August 6, 1904. It was noted in the August 6 report that Kennedy “celebrated his 27th birthday on the 20th of July.”

92. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 14, 1905.

93. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1905.

94. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 7, 1906; ad, “The Budweiser Theater, Tampa, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 28, 1906.

95. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 2, 1906.

96. “Budweiser Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 23, 1906.

97. “The Budweiser Theater, Tampa, Florida,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 17, 1906: Dorsey, piano and violin, with S. B. Foster, violin and cornet; George Rhone, violin and trombone; Frank Hopkins, violin and baritone; Tomas Ponce Reyes of Havana, cello and cornet; Walter Mitchell, tuba and double bass; Clarence “Piccolo” Jones, flute and piccolo; Harvey Purnsley, clarinet; R. J. Anderson, cornet; Amos Gilliard, trombone; Pearl Moppin, trombone; and Freddie Goodwin, traps.

98. Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 290.

99. Helen Gordon Litrico, “The Palace Saloon” (Fernandina Beach: Land & Williams, 1981).

100. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 5, 1901; 1901 Fernandina City Directory, reproduced in Nassau County Genealogist, Summer 2001; Fall 2001. Information concerning John Collie appears in the fall edition, 78.

101. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 3, 1902.

102. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 17, 1902.

103. Willie Mae Ashley, unpublished manuscript, quoted in Jan H. Johannes Sr., Yesterday’s Reflections II (Jacksonville: Drummond Press, 2000): “The 1895 census listed 1,391 colored and 1,120 whites in the City of Fernandina.” A facsimile of the 1901 Fernandina City Directory, reproduced in Nassau County Genealogist, Summer 2001; Fall 2001, contains twenty-three pages of citations for black residents and sixteen pages for whites.

104. Jan H. Johannes Sr., Yesterday’s Reflections II, 34.

105. Teen K. Peterson, Nassau County Public Library, Fernandina Branch, and James Cusick, Curator, Florida History, Smathers Library, University of Florida, conversations with Doug Seroff, April 2003.

106. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 4, 1903.

107. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 3, 1903.

108. “Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 13, 1908.

109. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 29, 1902.

110. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 3, 1903.

111. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 23, 1903.

112. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 20, 1903.

113. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1904.

114. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 23, 1904.

115. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 22, 1902.

116. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 248–49.

117. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 24, 1903.

118. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 19, 1903.

119. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 4, 1906. Tenia Mizell was no doubt singing the Herbert Ingraham song “I’ll Be Back in a Minute, But I Got to Go Now” (Chicago: Will Rossiter, 1906), a coon song that swept the black vaudeville and minstrel show routes that summer.

120. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1906.

121. “Notes From Havana,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1906.

122. Harry Bradford, “The Colored Vaudeville Artist In Cuba,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 11, 1909.

123. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 10, 1903.

124. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29, 1903.

125. Letters from T.O.B.A. Manager Sam E. Reevin to C. H. Douglass, March 10 and 23, 1925 (Douglass Business Records Collection, Middle Georgia Archives, Washington Memorial Library, Macon, Georgia). See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 303–4 for more about Bob Russell.

126. The precise location of Lincoln Park has not been established. According to Charles J. Elmore, All That Savannah Jazz (Savannah: Savannah State University Press, 1999), 54, it was located in West Savannah.

127. Goette’s Savannah city directories of 1902, 1903, 1905, 1906.

128. Savannah Tribune, April 26, 1902.

129. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 24, 1902.

130. Ibid.

131. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 8, 1902.

132. “An Excellent Manager,” Savannah Tribune, November 8, 1902. A Tribune editorial on May 2, 1903, went so far as to chastise “those men [who] would crowd around bar rooms conducted by those of an opposite race, passing those of colored men in doing so.”

133. Savannah Tribune, January 24, 1903.

134. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 25, 1903.

135. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 20, 1903.

136. Walter L. Crampton, “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 2, 1904.

137. “Under the Present Jim Crow Law, ‘Cut Out’ Lincoln Park,” Savannah Tribune, March 9, 1907.

138. “Mr. Whiteman To Be In Charge Of Lincoln Park,” Savannah Tribune, March 15, 1919; “Lincoln Park Improved,” “J. A. Jackson’s Page,” Billboard, March 18, 1922. The Billboard article states: “W. J. Whiteman, the manager of Lincoln Park, Savannah, Ga., announces that the oldest resort in that State will be opened for the season on April 16.… Price’s Jazz Band and the Black and Tan Orchestra have both been engaged to enliven things.” According to Elmore, All That Savannah Jazz, 54–57, jazz bands provided music at Lincoln Park during the 1920s.

139. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 8, 1902. According to Elmore, All That Savannah Jazz, 4: “In 1893 … Charles W. Lawson operated a saloon on 41 West Broad Street, and advertised it as the finest saloon and concert hall in the city at which concerts were held nightly, featuring the most popular songs.”

140. 1900 U.S. Census. Thanks to Sharon Lee, Bull Street Library, Savannah.

141. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 28, 1902.

142. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1902; ad, “Mrs. Stiles New Pleasure Palace Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1902.

143. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 8, 1902.

144. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 20, 1902.

145. Ibid.

146. “Still Another Enterprise,” Savannah Tribune, November 27, 1909.

147. Editorial, Savannah Tribune, January 1, 1910.

148. Elmore, All That Savannah Jazz, 39.

149. “Seen Only By A Favored Few,” Macon Telegraph, March 2, 1894. The park was on Ocmulgee Street, now Riverside Drive. It was located at the edge of the Pleasant Hill District, a middle-class black community that dates back to Reconstruction. Pleasant Hill is on the National Register. Ocmulgee Park seems to have disappeared during the 1930s, and has since become a subdivision known as Holton. Thanks to Muriel McDowell-Jackson, Middle Georgia Regional Library, Macon.

150. “Opening of the Pavilion,” Macon Telegraph, May 6, 1894.

151. “To Open Easter Sunday,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 4, 1908.

152. The beautifully renovated Douglass Theater on Martin Luther King Boulevard, near the corner of Cherry Street in Macon, was reopened in January 1997. It currently hosts live performances, films, lectures, etc. To learn more, go to www.douglasstheatre.org.

153. C. H. Douglass, “Managing A Negro Theatre,” “Report of the Sixteenth Annual Convention of the Negro Business League,” 1915. Thanks to Muriel McDowell Jackson, Middle Georgia Regional Library, Macon, Georgia.

154. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10, 1905; April 21; 28, 1906.

155. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10, 1905.

156. “Ocmulgee Park,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 14, 1906.

157. In 1932 Collier and Douglass became in-laws. Douglass’s son, Charles H. Douglass, Jr., married Collier’s daughter Henrietta. Thanks to Muriel McDowell-Jackson for providing this information, and for research assistance in the Douglass Business Records Collection.

158. Minnie D. Singleton, “Chas. Collier Famed Showman Final Rites Today at 4 P. M.,” Macon Telegraph, October 4, 1942. The 1912 Macon City Directory lists Charles Collier’s business as “soft drinks.”

159. “Ocmulgee Park, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 30, 1908. Personnel of the Ocmulgee Park orchestra included Piccolo Jones, piano and director; E. B. Dudley, first violin; Walter H. Childs, cornet; Amos L. Gilliard, trombone; Walter Law, double bass; John Clark, traps; Irvin Dickson, clarinet; Charles Crenshaw, second cornet.

160. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1910.

161. “Chas. Collier’s Aggregation At Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 13, 1910.

162. “Playing To Packed Houses,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 30, 1910.

163. “Ocmulgee Park, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 27, 1910. Mamie Payne broke into the profession as a child, in an act headed by her famous parents Ben F. Payne and Susie Payne. See Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 372–73.

164. “Ocmulgee Park, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910; “Collier’s Amusement Factory, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 19, 1910.

165. James DeCosta, “Ocmulgee Park, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 15, 1911. Following the death of Prof. Eph Williams in 1921, Charles Collier became sole owner and pilot of the Silas Green From New Orleans Company, a role he retained until his death in 1942. To learn more, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 306–55.

166. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 4, 1902. Other performers on Florida and Georgia’s turn-of-the-century black vaudeville stages who were specifically designated in Freeman reports as “coon shouters” or “coon song singers,” or otherwise identified as performing coon songs, include Richard Barnett (“Stage,” December 22, 1900), Hattie Bluford (“Stage,” October 5, 1901; August 9, 1902), Anita Borden (“Stage,” September 9, 1905), Pauline Cottrell Crampton (“Stage,” December 20, 1902), John W. Dennis (“Stage,” June 14; August 30, 1902; March 7; 14; April 25; September 5; October 10; November 7; 14; 1903; April 30; June 4; July 2, 1904), Vergie De Owens (“Stage,” February 14, 1903), Maggie De Voe (“Stage,” March 7; April 25, 1903), Wingie Donaldson (“Stage,” April 5, 1902), Mae Fisher (“Stage,” June 15; July 13, 1901), Trixie Ford (“Stage,” July 13, 1901), James J. Helton (“Stage,” January 11, 1902), May Lange Hicks (“Stage,” April 13, 1901; December 5, 1903), Grace Hoyt (“Stage,” November 8, 1902), Fred W. Johnson (“The Stage,” June 27, 1903), Annie Jones (“The Stage,” February 22, 1902), Joseph A. McMurray (“Stage,” April 21; May 5, 1900), Tina Mizell (“Stage,” December 20, 1902), Lucy Pettus (“Stage,” January 11, 1902), Lizzie Roberts (“The Stage,” April 14; 28; May 19, 1900), Paul Simmons (“Stage,” April 5, 1902), Carrie Smith (“The Stage,” April 21; May 19, 1900; June 22, 1901), and Lillie Wheeler (“Stage,” June 22; July 13; August 24, 1901; November 1, 1902).

167. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 28, 1900; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 13, 1901; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 24, 1905.

168. Selections from Jessie Thomas’s 1900–2 repertoire include “Ain’t That A Shame,” “Go Way Back and Sit Down,” “I’ve Got Troubles of My Own,” “Fare Thee Honey, Fare Thee Well,” “Please Don’t Take No Ten Cent Drink On Me,” “Every Darkey Had a Raglan On,” and “If I Ever Get Back To Tennessee” (“Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 26; November 9; December 7, 1901; June 14; December 20, 1902).

169. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 18, 1900.

170. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 19, 1900; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 27, 1902.

171. J. W. Seer, “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910. For more about Carrie Hall, including an extensive list of her stage repertoire, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right.

172. Cleveland Gazette, January 19, 1895 (America’s Historical Newspapers, NewsBank); “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1899.

173. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 14, 1900; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 23, 1901; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 6; November 14, 1903.

174. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 18, 1900.

175. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 10, 1904.

176. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 19; August 18; November 24, 1900.

177. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 23, 1901.

178. Roy Acuff, “Charmin’ Betsy,” ARC 7–02–53, recorded 1936. In 1928 Jim Jackson recorded this song under the title “Going ’Round The Mountain” (Victor 38525, reissued on Document DOCD-5115). Jackson’s recorded repertoire from 1927 to 1930 preserves many early-twentieth-century songs and references. For more on Jackson’s historically referential recordings, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged But Right. Other early race recordings of “Charming Betsy” include the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, “She’s Coming Round the Mountain,” Brunswick 7119, and Henry “Ragtime Texas” Thomas, “Charmin’ Betsy,” Vocalion 1468, both from 1929. For additional “hillbilly” recordings of “Charming Betsy,” see Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, Country Music Sources, 504.

179. Pen Bogert, “African American String Bands and Brass Bands in Louisville 1835–1900,” unpublished paper, presented at “Crossroads” Conference, Middle Tennessee State University, April 19, 1996.

180. Ibid.; Pen Bogert letters to Doug Seroff, March 14, 1994; September 5, 1995.

181. Pen Bogert letter to Doug Seroff, May 4, 2003. For a capsule biography of Whallen, see Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 361.

182. “John H. Whallen,” New York Clipper, March 5, 1892.

183. Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 360–73.

184. “Riverview,” Kentucky Irish American, May 6, 1899. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

185. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1904.

186. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 3, 1914.

187. For more on the Clark family see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 192–96, 365–70.

188. Daphne Duval Harrison, Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988), 170, 173–74.

189. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 16; 30, 1900. The location of the park was revealed in an ad in the Kentucky Irish American, July 13, 1901. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

190. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 30, 1900.

191. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 16; 30, 1900.

192. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 9; 16; 30; July 7, 1900.

193. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1902.

194. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1903. Able’s offerings included “Davy Jones’ Locker,” “A Lock of Mother’s Hair,” “Tildy,” and “Satisfied with Life” (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1903).

195. It was difficult to discover the precise location of Ninaweb Park, because the Freeman never published the address, and there is no mention of the park in Louisville city directories of the early 1900s. Thanks to Pen and Brenda Bogert, who found Ninaweb Park listed in a Louisville city directory from 1935, i.e., after the city limits had expanded southward.

196. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1901.

197. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 22, 1901.

198. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 22; July 27; September 7, 1901.

199. R. W. Thompson, “Tom Logan,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 29, 1906.

200. See Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 130–37, for an account of that tour.

201. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 19, 1903.

202. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 26, 1903.

203. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1904.

204. As early as the spring of 1903, Sarah Dunn (née Martin) was traveling with the Metropolitan Colored Amusement Company of Louisville, under the management of Joe Clark, Jr., in the side show tent of Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Company (“Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 14, 1903; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 16, 1903). Although she is identified as “Sara” on all of her OKeh records and in related advertising copy, U.S. Census reports and other “official” documents consistently state that her given name was “Sarah” (1900 U.S. Census; 1920 U.S. Census [AncestryLibray.com]). See also Pen Bogert, liner notes to “Sara Martin in Chronological Order,” Document DOCD-5395–5398.

205. “Chicago Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 11, 1906.

206. “Shifting Scenes,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 23, 1904.

207. “Tom Logan Dead,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 5, 1908; “Another Chapter Closed,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1908.

208. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 25, 1906: “The party, besides Mr. Able baritone, embraced Miss Nellie Miller, Miss Pollie Tinsley, Messrs. Eddie M. Gray and ‘Bus’ Graves.”

209. “Metropolitan Stock Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 13, 1908.

210. “Stage News,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 11, 1910.

211. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 25; September 12; 19, 1903.

212. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1903.

213. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 26, 1903.

214. Brown’s death certificate claims that he was eighty when he died, January 29, 1939. However, the 1900 U.S. Census Jefferson County, Louisville, enumeration district 43, 1, says that Robert Brown, colored musician, was born March 1863. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

215. Kansas City American Citizen, December 22, 1893. For more on the Falls City Brass Band, see Bogert, “African American String Bands and Brass Bands in Louisville.”

216. For more on Tobe Brown’s musical activities in Kansas City, see Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 315–18.

217. Juli Jones, “Dahomey!—Broadway In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909; Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1912.

218. “Chicago Cullings,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1918. For more on Benjamin L. Shook and his orchestra, see Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 265–70. Brown may have also played with Doc Cook’s orchestra in Chicago (“Chicago Cullings,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 2, 1918).

219. The Indianapolis Freeman reported in its “Stage Notes” column of March 20, 1920, that Brown was “slowly recovering” from a “stroke of apoplexy.” According to his death certificate, Robert L. “Tobe” Brown died January 29, 1939, and is buried in Eastern Cemetery in Louisville (Doug Seroff conversation with Pen Bogert, September 13, 2001).

220. John Randolph, “Lucien Brown,” Storyville, no. 47 (June-July 1973): 176–88. Switching from drums to clarinet and saxophone, Brown recorded as a member of the Dixieland Jug Blowers, Earl McDonald’s Original Louisville Jug Band, and Ma Rainey’s Georgia Band. Early in 1920, Lockwood Lewis served as saxophonist and entertainer with W. C. Handy’s Memphis Blues Band, which also featured William Grant Still on cello and oboe, on a tour of midwestern cities (“Handy’s ‘Memphis Blues Band’ Going Big Through Pennsylvania,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 31, 1920). Lockwood Lewis later recorded with the Dixieland Jug Blowers, Earl McDonald’s Original Louisville Jug Band, The Missourians and Fess Williams Royal Flush Orchestra.

221. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 25, 1903.

222. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 14, 1903.

223. Indianapolis Freeman, January 23, 1904.

224. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 16, 1904. A 1910 retrospective claimed John Goodloe had begun his career with Oliver Scott’s Minstrels and P. G. Lowery in about 1902 (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 24, 1910). Freeman documentation establishes that he traveled with the Great Southern Medicine Company as an “eccentric comedian” for at least one year before arriving at the Blue Ribbon saloon-theater in November 1903 (“Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 19, 1902; June 13, 1903; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 14, 1903). Goodloe was still on the stage in 1925, when he reported from Chillicothe, Ohio, that “everything is going good with the K. G. Barkroot show” (“A Note Or Two,” Chicago Defender, July 25, 1925).

225. “Smart Set Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1906.

226. Sylvester Russell, “Syndicated Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 25, 1905.

227. Caron’s Louisville city directory for 1910. Thanks to Pen Bogert for research assistance.

228. “Tick Houston Theater, Louisville,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910. In seeming contradiction with Tick Houston’s initial proclamation of intent, an August 25, 1911, entry in the Jefferson County, Kentucky Corporation Book states the Ruby Amusement Company was capitalized at $2,100, divided into twenty-one shares, of which seven shares were owned by Alfred Houston and his wife Estella Houston, while the remainder were divided between L. Schang and Clarence Bitzer, white grocers operating in Louisville’s black West End, and Mrs. M. Stoecker, also white. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

229. Pen Bogert letter to Doug Seroff, March 14, 1994.

230. Don Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden, First Man of Jazz (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), 59; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

231. Perhaps the earliest published document of this legend is in Frederic Ramsey and Charles Edward Smith, eds., Jazzmen (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939), 3–6, 13–14.

232. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

233. Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden, 61. A report from Lincoln Park in the Freeman of May 27, 1905, claimed: “From 1200 to 3500 [sic] people attend the performances nightly.” A note on June 10, 1905, stated, “The S. R. O. sign is a common thing.” On June 8, 1907, the nightly attendance was estimated at “from 900 to 1,200 people.” A report on September 19, 1908, said, “We can seat 1,600 people.”

234. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 9, 1904.

235. E. Belfield Spriggins, “Excavating Jazz” (parts 3 and 4), Louisiana Weekly, May 20; 27, 1933, quoted in Lynn Abbott, “Remembering E. Belfield Spriggins, First Man of Jazzology,” 78 Quarterly, no. 10 (n.d.): 19–20. Spriggins further noted that Bush was originally from the town of Plaquemine, Louisiana. Spriggins spelled the last name “Busch.”

236. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1904.

237. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 9, 1904.

238. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1904.

239. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 24, 1905. Published in 1903, “The Preacher and the Bear” proved to be an immensely popular coon song. Arthur Collins recorded it about the same time Anatole Pierre sang it at Lincoln Park, and Sousa’s Band recorded it in 1906. Several “hillbilly” recordings of “The Preacher and the Bear” were issued during the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1937 an excellent version was recorded by the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartette (Bluebird 7205, reissued on Document DOCD-5472). Its resilience was tested as late as 1970, when black singer/comedian Rufus Thomas recorded a lively version for Stax (Rufus Thomas, “The Preacher and the Bear,” Stax STA-0071, 1970). For more, see Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, Country Music Sources, 492–93.

240. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 9; May 7; 14, 1904.

241. Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden, 45. On the basis of information drawn from police reports and city directory listings, Marquis further notes that, “Leda [sic] Chapman was a prostitute who plied her trade at North Liberty and Conti streets in the District. She was eighteen years old in 1900.… Emma Thornton, also eighteen in 1900, probably knew Buddy for a short time when she lived at 2618 Josephine, only a few blocks from his address on First.”

242. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1904.

243. Edgar Malone, lyrics, Ted S. Barron, music, “Billy” (Leo Feist, 1904); Edward Madden, words, Theodore F. Morse, music, “Make a Fuss Over Me,” F. B. Haviland, 1904; Thomas S. Allen, “Scissors to Grind,” Walter Jacobs, 1904. “Billy” was originally sung at the mainstream Avenue Theater in New York in a melodrama called “The Street Singer”; “Make a Fuss Over Me” was a coon song; “Scissors to Grind” took its inspiration from a street vendor’s cry: “Scissors to grind, scissors to grind, bring out everything that’s dull and don’t leave none behind.”

244. “The New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 19, 1913.

245. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

246. “Lincoln Park Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 8, 1907.

247. Advertising placard for “A Grand Pic-Nic and Base Ball Game,” May 23, 1904. The placard promised dancing from 6:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. (John Robichaux Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University).

248. Advertising placard for “A Grand Excursion Pic-Nic,” September 24–25, 1907 (John Robichaux Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University).

249. The final quip is a provocative precursor of the signature refrain “Sing ’em blues,” in the famous, pioneering blues hit of 1912, “Baby Seals Blues.” Between 1919 and 1926, Robichaux led the band at New Orleans’s major T.O.B.A. outlet, the Lyric Theater (Lynn Abbott, “‘For Ofays Only’: An Annotated Calendar of Midnight Frolics at the Lyric Theater, Part I,” Jazz Archivist 17 [2003]: 2–4). Among the members of Robichaux’s band at Lincoln Park in 1909, trumpeter James Williams and trombonist J. Baptiste Delisle are pictured in a late-1890s photograph of Robichaux’s band (Al Rose and Edmond Souchon, New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album [Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967], 180). Banjo/guitarist Arthur “Bud” Scott went on to play on dozens of recordings, including with King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators; drummer Louis Cottrell recorded with A. J. Piron’s New Orleans Orchestra; bassist Henry Kimball recorded with Fate Marable’s Society Syncopators; and clarinetist Lorenzo Tio recorded with Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, A. J. Piron’s New Orleans Orchestra, and others.

250. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1905.

251. Ibid. Magdalene Tartt later recorded for Paramount as Magdalene Tartt Lawrence.

252. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10, 1905.

253. “Elaborate Supper,” Nashville Globe, December 6, 1907.

254. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 7; September 8, 1917.

255. “Coney Island Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 18, 1907.

256. The Indianapolis Freeman of July 7, 1917, notes that Rhoda’s mother, Mrs. C. A. Robertson, had migrated from New Orleans to Los Angeles and “purchased a home, 1468 21st St. She is the well-known founder of the Holy Ghost Catholic Church. Her sister, Mrs. Georgia A. Robertson, is a police officer in the city, the only one of color in the United States.” Rhoda’s brother “Zoo” Robertson eventually settled in Los Angeles, too.

257. “M’Neil Heard From,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1925.

258. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10; 24, 1905; “Lincoln Park At New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 17, 1909; “Lincoln Park At New Orleans, La.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 31, 1909.

259. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10, 1905.

260. “Lincoln Park Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 8, 1907. The Labormen’s Social Club was also identified as the “Labormen’s Union” and the “Laboring Man’s Union Social Club.”

261. “Lincoln Park Auditorium—New Orleans, La.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1907.

262. That Joseph Haywood and Buddy Bartley (Bottley, Botly, Bently, Bodly, etc.) were one and the same person is confirmed by a police report in the daily New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 9, 1906: “Assault to rape—Joseph Haywood, alias Buddy Bartley, $500 bonds” (America’s Historical Newspapers, NewsBank). Thanks to John McCusker for sharing this citation. In later years, Buddy Bartley and Buddy Bolden became tightly intertwined in oral history–driven accounts of New Orleans jazz and its relationship to Lincoln and Johnson parks. In “A Memory of King Bolden,” Evergreen, no. 37 (1965), Danny Barker introduced the character Dude Bottley, brother of the Lincoln Park aeronaut, to serve as a vehicle for his own perspective on Buddy Bolden and the early days of jazz. Barker convincingly reprised Dude Bottley in Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville (London: Cassell, 1998). See also William J. Schafer, “Thoughts on Jazz Historiography: ‘Buddy Bolden’s Blues’ vs. ‘Buddy Bottley’s Balloon,’” Journal of Jazz Studies 2, no. 1 (December 1974); Donald M. Marquis, “Lincoln Park, Johnson Park and Buddy Bolden,” Second Line (Fall 1976).

263. “The Tramp Social Club At New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 8, 1908.

264. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 19, 1909; “Lincoln Park Of New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 31, 1909.

265. “New Orleans Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 14, 1908.

266. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 20, 1901.

267. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 31, 1902. Also noted was the troupe’s “rag-time pianist,” Tony Jackson.

268. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 15, 1901.

269. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 9, 1904. The members of the Olympia Quartette were identified as “L. R. Brown, first tenor; John E. Lewis, second tenor; E. Gant, baritone; A. J. Duconge, bass.”

270. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 24, 1905.

271. “Lincoln Park Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 8, 1907.

272. “Lincoln Park Auditorium,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 19, 1908.

273. “Kenner And Lewis Amusement Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 14, 1908.

274. “New Orleans (La.) Stage Happenings,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 2, 1909.

275. “Opening Of Dixie Park At New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 10, 1909.

276. Advertising placard for “Grand Opening of Dixie Park,” March 27, 1910 (John Robichaux Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University).

277. V. P. Thomas, “New Orleans News,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 17, 1909.

278. “Opening of Dixie Park In New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 10, 1909; “Dixie Park Auditorium, New Orleans, La.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 24, 1909; “Kenner & Lewis Amusement Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 15, 1909; “Dixie Park Auditorium, New Orleans, La.,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 5, 1909. “Ziz,” or “zizz,” was a buzzword of the era before “jaz,” or “jazz.” With the Georgia Up-to-Date Minstrels at the end of 1898, Julius Glenn and A. T. Gillam closed the olio with “their new act entitled ‘Zizz’ which keeps the audience in an uproar” (“Fine Negro Talent,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 24, 1898). A feature of the 1903 edition of P. G. Lowery’s vaudeville show was the Zizz Quartet (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 4, 1903). In 1911 the team of Andrew Trible and Jeff DeMount advertised themselves as “De Boys Wid De Ziz,” featuring “The Famous Ziz Rag” (Ad, “Oh Look who’s Here,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 1, 1911; “Passing Show At Washington, D. C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 22, 1911). The Dixie Park announcement of April 24, 1909, identified Sweetie Matthews as “Lue Sweetie Matthews.”

279. “Allen’s Troubadours,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 24, 1909.

280. “Allen’s Troubadours,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 19, 1909; “Allen And Allen At The Pekin Theater, Savannah, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910.

281. “Allen’s Troubadours At Lincoln Park, New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 5, 1909.

282. “Allen’s Troubadours,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 19, 1909.

283. “Allen & Allen At The Air Dome, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 12, 1910.

284. “Lincoln Park, New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 26, 1909.

285. “Lincoln Park At New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 3, 1909.

286. Ibid.

287. “Lincoln Park At New Orleans, La.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 14, 1909.

288. Abbott, “Remembering Mr. E. Belfield Spriggins.”

289. W. P. Bayless, “Passing Show At Washington, D. C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 7, 1911. Graham may have been the source of the Memphis Jug Band’s 1928 recording “Whitewash Station Blues” (Victor 38504; reissued on Document DOCD-5022).

290. John H. Williams, “New Orleans,” Chicago Defender, June 5, 1915.

291. Kenner and Lewis’s travels of 1909–11 were well covered in the Freeman, beginning with “Kenner And Lewis Amusement Company At Pensacola,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 9, 1909; and ending with “McKinner Street Theater, At Augusta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 22, 1911.

292. Jelly Roll Morton, 1938, quoted in Bill Russell, “Oh, Mister Jelly”: A Jelly Roll Morton Scrapbook (Copenhagen: Jazz-Media, 1999), 45. Also see Lawrence Gushee, “A Preliminary Chronology of the Early Career of Ferd ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton,” American Music 3, no. 4 (Winter 1985): 389–412. Freeman citations of October 9, 1909, and August 20, 1910, document appearances of the Kenner and Lewis Amusement Company at the Belmont Street Theater in Pensacola. The 1910 engagement reportedly lasted eight weeks.

293. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 3, 1911.

294. W. M. Benbow, “What’s What Down In New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 16, 1915.

295. Frank A. Young, Jr., “‘Papa Lew,’ Famous Cakewalker, Expires,” Louisiana Weekly, February 17, 1940.

296. Jennette M. Green, “Mr. Russell Corrected On His Knowledge Of J. Ed Green’s Career,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 12, 1910.

297. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1901.

298. Ibid.; “From Ben Hunn,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 29, 1901.

299. “Death Defeats Thomas Kinnane,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 3, 1910.

300. “Jim Kinnane Is Dead After Colorful Life,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 12, 1930.

301. Ibid.

302. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 11, 1901.

303. Two weeks prior to opening at the Rialto, Elliot and Hill were identified as the manager and musical director, respectively, of the Royal Pavilion on State Street, Chicago (Ad, “The Royal Pavilion,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 11, 1901).

304. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1901.

305. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 15, 1901.

306. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 22, 1901.

307. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 6, 1901.

308. Kinnane is brought to notice on several early race records. Southern vaudevillian Willie Jackson’s 1926 recording “Old New Orleans Blues,” Columbia 14136-D, reissued on Azure AZ-CD-13, advised: “You ever go to Memphis, stop down at Jim Kinnane’s / That’s a place where monkey women will learn just how to treat a man.” In 1929 an eponymous recording by blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes, “Roosevelt Blues,” OKeh 8776, reissued on Document DOCD-5116, posed this question: “Have you ever been to Memphis and stopped at Uncle Jim Kinnane’s?” Whereupon Sykes alleged: “He will pay more for a woman [than] any farmer will pay for land.” Similarly, another blues pianist, Rufus “Speckled Red” Perryman, recommended stopping by Jim Kinnane’s in his 1930 recording “Speckled Red’s Blues,” Brunswick 7164, reissued on Document DOCD-5052; Delta blues artist Louise Johnson mentioned “Jim Kinnane’s,” as well as “Church’s Hall,” in her 1930 recording “On the Wall,” Paramount 13008, reissued on Document DOCD-5157; and guitarist Robert Wilkins added to the legend with his 1935 recording “[I wish I was down at] Old Jim Canan’s,” originally unissued Vocalion, released on Document DOCD-5014.

309. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 15; 22, 1901.

310. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1901.

311. Ibid.

312. Ad, “Lew Hall’s Ragtime Opera Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 27, 1901.

313. “Reminiscences Of The Colored Profession,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 11, 1905. The 1872 touring party was said to have included Warren Fisher, Tom Gwinn, Billy Baxter, Bob Mahoney, Tina Mahoney, Matt Reynolds, Bob Bacon, Howard King, Ike Simond, “and a few others.” See also Eugene Kerr Bristow, “Look Out for Saturday Night”: A Social History of Professional Variety Theater in Memphis, Tennessee, 1859–1880 (diss., University of Iowa, 1956), 104–5.

314. Planter’s Journal, September 15, 1906, quoted in Church and Church, The Robert Churches of Memphis, 14–15.

315. “Memphis Herald,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 10, 1901.

316. Ibid.; “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1901. Memphis comedian Johnny Green and stage manager J. Ed Green are two different people.

317. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1901.

318. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 14, 1901.

319. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 12, 1901.

320. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 9, 1901.

321. After 1906, Desoto Street below Madison was renamed South Fourth Street. Thanks to David Evans.

323. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 8, 1902.

324. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 22, 1902.

325. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 1, 1902.

326. Ibid.

327. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 18, 1902.

328. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 12; 26, 1902.

329. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, for more about Green’s productive career as stage manager for the Smart Set Company (1904) and Ernest Hogan’s Rufus Rastus (1905–6).

330. “Pekin Theater At Memphis Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 3, 1909; “The Pekin At Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909.

331. “The Pekin Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1909.

332. “The Pekin At Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 15, 1910. The Pekin band had expanded to four pieces; Walter Williams remained on cornet, Murray Smith came in on piano, Ed Butler switched to trombone, and Dick Thomas replaced Harry Jefferson on traps.

333. Memphis City Directory for 1909.

334. “The New Royal Theatre, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 11, 1908; Memphis City Directories for 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912.

335. “The Royal Theater Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 21, 1908; “Royal Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 19, 1908; “Royal Theater, Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 26, 1908; “Memphis Theater Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 23, 1909; Jas. Edw. Simpson, “Memphis Stroll,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 20, 1909; James Edw. Simpson, “Memphis Stroll,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 6, 1909; “Royal Stock Company, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 20, 1909; “Royal Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 3, 1909.

336. Cuba Austin recorded with such influential bands as McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, the Chocolate Dandies, and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra (Brian Rust, Jazz Records A-Z 1897–1942, 1970 [New Rochelle: Arlington House Publishers, 1978]). In 1925 a report from McKinney’s Syncos (later McKinney’s Cotton Pickers) declared that their “outstanding feature this season is the drummer Cuba Austin, who is also a clog dancer worth mentioning” (“McKinney’s Syncos,” Chicago Defender, August 8, 1925).

337. “Theater Royal, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 2, 1910.

338. “Royal Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 9, 1910.

339. “Theaters At Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 10, 1908.

340. For confirmation that Long Willie Too Sweet is Willie Perry and Lula Too Sweet is Susie Johnson, see “Gem Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 28; December 19, 1908.

341. “Gem Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 4, 1909.

342. “Generoso Barrasso Is Taken By Death,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 8, 1935.

343. “Mrs. Rosa Barraso [sic], 79, Dies At Home,” Memphis Press Scimitar, December 26, 1938.

344. James E. Simpson, “Memphis Stroll,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 6, 1909.

345. “Amuse U Theater, Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 18, 1909. The Amuse U’s four-piece pit band consisted of Prof. Jackson, piano; Will Blake, cornet; Jack McDowell, bass; and Alexander Dukes, drums.

346. “The Amuse U Theater No. 2, At Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 6, 1909.

347. “Profession At Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 29, 1910.

348. Alexander Dukes was the father of “Little Laura” Dukes (1907–1992), for many years a member of Will Batts’s South Memphis Jug Band and other Memphis string bands. In the 1970s Laura Dukes told interviewers that when she was five years old (ca. 1912), her father “put me on a stage with a lady that had a show here in Memphis. Her name was Laura Smith…. The first song that I sang was ‘Balling the Jack.’” “The show wasn’t but one block from Beale. That was at Fourth and Gayoso.” Fourth and Gayoso was the site of Fred Barrasso’s Savoy Theater (Fred J. Hay, ed., Goin’ Back to Sweet Memphis—Conversations with the Blues [Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001], 162–63; Little Laura Dukes interviewed by Robert Springer, “I Never Did Like to Imitate Nobody,” Blues Unlimited, no. 125 [July–August 1977]: 20; Harris, Blues Who’s Who, 163).

349. “Savoy Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 16, 1910; “Savoy Theatre, Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 18, 1910.

350. “The Sandy [sic] Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1910.

351. At least one precedent venture was noted: in 1907 the Gayoso Amusement Company operated an amusement park “for Colored people only” at 14 Central Avenue, which included a stage for vaudeville shows, known as the Central Avenue Colored Airdome Theater (ad, Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1907).

352. “Arcade Theater, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 11, 1909.

353. “Warns The Performers,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 20, 1912.

354. The Mule (Perry Bradford), “Atlanta Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29, 1914. Under the heading “Who Bailed Bailey?” the Pittsburgh Courier of June 6, 1925, reproduced an article from a Chattanooga daily indicating that Charles P. Bailey had been arrested in that city and “lodged in jail on a charge of drunkenness. Bailey is said to have had on his person when arrested diamonds aggregating 22 karats, two quarts of whiskey and a pair of brass knuckles and a large roll of ‘greenbacks.’”

355. Ethel Waters with Charles Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Garden City: Doubleday, 1951), 165.

356. Juli Jones, “Negro Theatres,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 13, 1909: “I have before me proof that there are 112 Negro theatres managed and controlled by Negroes…. Chicago has the largest; Knoxville, Tenn., New Orleans, La., Richmond, Va., Memphis, Tenn., Washington, D.C., Louisville, Ky., and Columbus, Ohio, have houses that can play any ordinary show. The other houses in different States are mostly 5 and 10 cent theatres, vaudeville and moving pictures. This showing proves the old proverb, ‘From little acorns big oaks grow.’”

First Interlude

1. J. Ed. Green, “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 18, 1901.

2. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29, 1903; May 21, 1904. Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, They All Played Ragtime: The True Story of an American Music (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950), 154. It would appear that this information was supplied by Glover Compton.

3. Sylvester Russell, “Robert T. Motts Dead,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 15, 1911; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 4, 1904; ad, Indianapolis Freeman, July 2, 1904.

4. R. T. Motts letter to Elwood Knox, in “Actors And Actresses Club,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 3, 1906.

5. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 7, 1906; “Robert T. Motts Dead.”

6. “J. Ed. Green,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 11, 1908.

7. These block ads ran weekly from December 22, 1906, through March 1907.

8. “Solving The Problem,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 2, 1907; “Cincinnati Will Have Stock Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 23, 1907.

9. Juli Jones, Jr., “Chicago Show Items,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1908.

10. Ad, “Plays To let On Royalty,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 15, 1906; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 9, 1907.

11. Ad, Foster Music Supply, Indianapolis Freeman, May 15, 1909; Bradford, “What The Colored Vaudevillians Are Doing In New York And The East,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 23, 1909; Carey B. Lewis, “Stroll Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 31, 1913.

12. Juli Jones, Jr., “Chicago Vaudeville,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 15, 1908. The name “Dahomian Stroll” harkened back to the Dahoman Village exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, and also to Williams and Walker’s 1902 musical comedy hit In Dahomey. A much later report credited Sylvester Russell with coining the famous nickname (“Sylvester Russell Dead,” Chicago Defender, October 11, 1930).

13. Juli Jones, “State Street Proper,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 24, 1907.

14. Juli Jones, “Well, Dahomey,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 9, 1909.

15. Juli Jones, “‘Dear Old Dahomey’ In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 23, 1909.

16. Juli Jones, Jr., “Gloriously Great Dehomey!” Indianapolis Freeman, August 21, 1909; “Dehomey!—Broadway in Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909.

17. Juli Jones, “Glorious Dehomey,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 12, 1909.

18. “Chicago Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 8, 1908; Juli Jones, “Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1908; Sylvester Russell, “Eighth Annual Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 9, 1909.

19. “Pekin Stock Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 13, 1909.

20. “Pekin Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 11, 1908; A. E. Christy, “Pekin Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 11, 1908.

21. Alberta Christy, “Pekin Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 18, 1908.

22. Juli Jones, Jr., “Chicago Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 19, 1908; Julie [sic] Jones, “Chicago Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 31, 1908. Sylvester Russell later insinuated that Brooks was merely “serving as an usher for the Grand … when Green picked him up.”

23. “Vaudeville Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1908.

24. “Pekin Stock Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 13, 1909; Sylvester Russell, “A Review Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 17, 1909. For information on other productions of the season, see “‘The Chambermaid,’” Indianapolis Freeman, April 3, 1909; “‘The Idlers,’” Indianapolis Freeman, April 10, 1909.

25. Juli Jones, “Glorious Dehomey,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 12, 1909.

26. Juli Jones, “My Hot Dehomey!” Indianapolis Freeman, July 3, 1909.

27. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 21, 1902; November 8, 1902; Juli Jones, “Dehomey From End To End,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 10, 1909.

28. Juli Jones, “Dehomey In Its Glory,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 17, 1909.

29. Juli Jones, “Dehomey In Uproar,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 24, 1909; “Sylvester Russell’s Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909. According to Sylvester Russell, “The J. Ed Green Enterprises,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 23, 1909, the name “Chester” was an abbreviated version of Green’s turn-of-the-century stage cognomen, “The Bronze Chesterfield.”

30. Juli Jones, “Dehomey In Uproar,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 24, 1909.

31. Ad, “Chester Amusement Co.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 4, 1909.

32. According to Juli Jones, Sr. [sic], “Dehomey The Big Works,” July 31, 1909, “The midnight show given by the Stroll actors in honor of Bobby Winston and Rube Foster has brought about wonders. From the outlook we may see a real Negro Showman organization that will be worth while.” In “The J. Edward Green Enterprises,” Sylvester Russell confirmed: “two recent benefits given at midnight for a ball player and a performer respectively, met with such unexpected success that an actor organization … was established.”

33. Juli Jones, Jr., “Gloriously Great Dehomey!” Indianapolis Freeman, August 21, 1909.

34. “Roll On, Dehomey, Roll,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 11, 1909.

35. “The J. Edward Green Enterprises.”

36. “Roll On, Dehomey, Roll.”

37. Juli Jones, “Dehomey!—Broadway In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909.

38. “Roll On, Dehomey, Roll.”

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Juli Jones, “Dehomey In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 18, 1909; “Dehomey!—Broadway In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1909.

42. Juli Jones, “Dehomey In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 18, 1909.

43. “Dear Old Dehomey In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 9, 1909.

44. “Dehomey In An Uproar,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 16, 1909.

45. Sylvester Russell, “Bert A. Williams In ‘Mr. Lode Of Koal,’” Indianapolis Freeman, October 16, 1909.

46. “Dehomey In An Uproar.” The “third class booking agent” was probably Frank Q. Doyle. The “two big theatrical politicians of Dehomey” may have been Duke Brannon (possibly Brennon, or Brennan), current manager of the Grand Theater, and Chicago booking agent Charles O. Harding. Early in 1911, Sylvester Russell wrote of a similar meeting “which was held at the booking office of Charles O. Harding, a white booking agent, January 24th, in which he and Duke Brennon (white) manager of the Grand … made an effort to control the bookings of colored theaters in the middle West, in favor of the two Grand Theaters, as against the little Monogram Theater on the next block, which is doing a thriving business.… Harding and Brennon disagreed, and decrepitating its possibility.… Prominent performers have recently complained that white booking agents of the ‘small time’ are getting entirely too insolent” (Sylvester Russell, “Musical and Dramatic,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 11, 1911).

47. “Dehomey In An Uproar.”

48. Juli Jones, “Dahomey In Peace,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 23, 1909.

49. Juli Jones, “Old Dehomey!” Indianapolis Freeman, October 30, 1909.

50. Sylvester Russell, “Tenth Annual Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 25, 1909.

51. “Sylvester Russell Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 4, 1909.

52. Sylvester Russell, “Robert T. Motts Dead,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 15, 1911.

53. For a book-length treatment of the Pekin Theater, see Thomas Bauman, The Pekin: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black-Owned Theater (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014).

54. The last installment appeared without fanfare on February 12, 1910.

55. “Foster’s Moving Pictures,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 9, 1913; “Foster’s Colored Moving Pictures,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 23, 1913; “The Vineyard Of Photo Plays,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 20, 1913. In 1926 Tim Owsley claimed that “The first Race motion picture was [William] Foster’s production, ‘The Railroad Porter’” (Tim Owsley, “Now,” Chicago Defender, June 5, 1926). Foster demonstrated an interest in movies as early as 1907, when he made “a successful tour of the South with the Gans-Nelson pictures,” i.e., film footage of the classic September 3, 1906, title bout between the African American lightweight boxing champion Joe Gans and Battling Nelson of Denmark (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 9, 1907). Temporarily abandoning his filmmaking ambitions, Foster (as “Juli Jones”) worked for many years as sports writer for the Chicago Defender. In the mid-1920s he relocated to Los Angeles. Finally, in 1929, he “was appointed as a director at Hollywood for the Pathe Movie corporation.” A news report said “Foster’s first picture is almost completed. ‘Black and Tan’ [is] the name he has given it” (“Bill Foster Gets Chance to Enter Movies,” Chicago Defender, June 1, 1929).

56. “Notes From The Airdome Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910.

57. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 11, 1909; “Dahomey In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910; Sylvester Russell, “J. Ed. Green Overtaken By Death, Which Suddenly Claimed Its Own,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 26, 1910.

58. “J. Ed Green Passes Away,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 26, 1910.

59. “J. Ed Green Probably To Have A Benefit,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1910; “J. Ed Green Passes Away.”

60. Cary B. Lewis, “Last Tribute Of Respect Paid J. Ed. Green,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 5, 1910.

61. Jennette [sic] M. Green, “Mr. Russell Corrected On His Knowledge Of J. Ed Green’s Career,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 12, 1910. Green’s burial was delayed several days in order for his staunchest supporter, S. H. Dudley, to be present (“Last Tribute Of Respect Paid J. Ed. Green”).

62. The Stroller, “National and Local Theatrical and Stage Notes,” Chicago Broad Ax, October 14, 1911.

Chapter 2

1. The 1900 U.S. Census gives “Aug 1891”; the 1910 U.S. Census gives “abt 1894”; May’s World War I Draft Registration card gives “26 May 1891” (Ancestry Library.com). His death certificate, for which his older sister Blanche apparently provided the data, gives August 18, 1894. While generally classified as “Colored” or “Black,” the 1910 U.S. Census called him “Mulatto,” and his World War I draft registration card says his eyes were blue.

2. Montgomery, Alabama, city directories 1902–7. See Doug Seroff and Lynn Abbott, “The Life and Death of Pioneer Bluesman Butler ‘String Beans’ May: ‘Been Here, Made His Quick Duck, And Got Away,’” Tributaries, no. 5 (2002). Thanks to Joey Brackner, Folklife Program Manager, Alabama State Council on the Arts, for research assistance.

3. Joseph Nesbitt interviewed by Doug Seroff, May 27, 1991.

4. Ibid. Nesbitt’s testimony reverberates in a song titled “Street Piano” from Butterbeans and Susie’s 1960 Festival label LP (Festival M-7000, reissued on GHB BCD-135). The album notes credit the song to “LeMay,” probably a misnomer for Butler May.

5. “Benbow’s Chocolate Drops, Pensacola, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 10, 1909.

6. “Benbow’s Chocolate Drops At Pensacola, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 17, 1909. Regarding “Prof. Noner Barras,” a subsequent report (“Kenner & Lewis Amusement Co. At Pensacola, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 30, 1909) cites “Prof. N. Barrios.”

7. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 8, 1909.

8. “Kenner And Lewis Amusement Company At Pensacola,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 9, 1909.

9. “Kenner & Lewis Amusement Co., at Pensacola, Fla,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 30, 1909; “Kenner And Lewis Amusement Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 13, 1909. Alfred Bryan, words, Maxwell Silver, music, “Music Makes Me Sentimental (Blame the Music, Don’t Blame Me)” (New York: F. A. Mills, 1908).

10. For information on Howard’s tenure with Tolliver’s Smart Set, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right (where he is indexed as H. B. Howard).

11. “The Luna Park Theater, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 18, 1909.

12. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 25, 1909. Another correspondence, from the Unknown Theater in Pensacola, said Willie Owens was “scoring nightly with the late coon rage, ‘I’m Just Crazy About the Woman with the Mary Jane’” (“The ‘Unknown’ Theater Becomes Well Known,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910). And at the Dreamland Theater in Opelika, Alabama, later that spring Beatrice Howe was singing “Black Man, It’s After Hours, and You Can’t Come In” and “I Love to Wear My Mary Janes ’Cause They Fit Me Like a Perrene” (“Dreamland Theater, Opelika, Alabama,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910).

13. “Luna Park Theater, Atlanta, Georgia,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 29, 1910.

14. “Luna Park On Top,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910.

15. “Luna Park, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910.

16. “The Globe Theater At Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 21, 1910.

17. “Luna Park Theater, Atlanta, Georgia,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 16, 1910.

18. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, September 2, 1911.

19. “Luna Park Theater, Atlanta, Georgia,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 16, 1910. E. Ray Goetz, words, Ford T. Dabney, music, “Oh! You Devil Rag” (New York: Shapiro, 1909).

20. “The Exchange Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 27, 1909.

21. “The Exchange Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 1, 1910; “The Exchange Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 22, 1910. Earl C. Jones, words, George W. Meyer, music, “Whistle and I’ll Wait for You” (New York: Maurice Shapiro, 1908).

22. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 6, 1910.

23. “The Queen Theater, Montgomery, Ala.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 27, 1910.

24. “Belmont Street Theatre, Pensacola, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 17, 1910.

25. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910.

26. “Temple Theater, New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 12, 1910.

27. In Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz” Jelly Roll Morton (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950), 143–44, Morton gives this agglomerated recollection of his circa 1909–12 activities: “Myself, I was glad to get out of Memphis with the Number One company on the Barrasso circuit.… Buster Porter was the main comedian, until he was later replaced by String Beans and Sweetie May.… The show was a hit and we toured for two years, although I quit from time to time because I could make more money catching suckers at the pool table.… Finally, in Jacksonville, my girl friend, Stella Taylor, got dissatisfied and so I quit, too.” Among the other members of the Alabama Rosebuds, Edna Landry Benbow made blues recordings during the 1920s as Edna Hicks (They are reissued on Document DOCD-5428 and 5431). Leroy White was a black vaudeville comedian/producer whose career can be traced into the 1940s. In 1935 and 1936 he toured with Ida Cox (“Ida Cox Tops In Stage Hit,” Chicago Defender, August 10, 1935; “Ida Cox Starred By R.K.O.,” Chicago Defender, April 25, 1936). He is not the same person as white minstrel performer Leroy “Lasses” White.

28. “The Amuse Theatre, Vicksburg, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 10, 1910.

29. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 21, 1911.

30. “Pekin Theatre,” Savannah Tribune, January 7, 1911.

31. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 4, 1911; Lou Hall, “The New Savoy, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 11, 1911.

32. “Majestic Theater, Hot Springs, Ark.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 8, 1911.

33. Tim E. Owsley, “Write Up Of All The Theaters Of Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 13, 1911.

34. Ibid.

35. “One shiver from Murphy, one comic step in dancing and one comedy scene with his wife Miss Francis, and you are sure that he is very good, but when you hear him sing his own original songs, you are fully aware that there is but one Bert Murphy” (“Musical And Dramatic,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 11, 1911).

36. Sylvester Russell, “Bert Murphy Dead,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 13, 1917. For more on Murphy’s claim to “He’s in the Jail House Now,” see Jocelyn R. Neal, The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Legacy in Country Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009).

37. Lou Hall, “James Sisters,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 20, 1911.

38. Sylvester Russell, “Untimely Death Of String Beans,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1917.

39. Juli Jones, “My Hot Dehomey!” Indianapolis Freeman, July 3, 1909.

40. See Juli Jones, Jr., “Chicago Show Items,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1908; Juli Jones, Jr., “Chicago Vaudeville,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 15, 1908.

41. Waters with Samuels, 77.

42. As late as 1926 it was written: “The Monogram Theater, carrying on a vaudeville policy, is packing and jamming them in at all shows. There is but little doubt that this is the best paying proposition anywhere on the T.O.B.A. Circuit.… [manager] Miller can always rely upon the folks from Chittling Switch to keep the wolf away from the doors” (Observer, “Shots From The Lake Shore,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 1, 1926).

43. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 12, 1911.

44. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 20, 1912.

45. Sweatman and Reeves played together on “Maple Leaf Rag,” an unnumbered cylinder recorded ca. 1903–4 for the Metropolitan Music Store, Minneapolis, Minnesota. See Mark Berresford, That’s Got ’Em!: The Life and Music of Wilbur Sweatman (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), 43–44. Sweatman’s recorded output, 1916–35, is reissued on Jazz Oracle BDW 8046.

46. Gary [sic] B. Lewis, “At The Chicago Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910.

47. The Gale Piano Company and the offices of the Chicago Defender were also located at this strategic address.

48. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, October 22, 1910. Notably, Dorsey arranged many of Shelton Brooks’s early hits for publication. According to Cary B. Lewis, “At The Chicago Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 17, 1910: “Dorsey came to Chicago two years ago. For one year and a half he has been at the Monogram as musical director. Having a natural aptitude for music, he began to make it a study. Later he opened an office at 3159 State street and went into the business of arranging songs. Since that time he has been connected with Shelton Brooks … He has arranged the music for ‘Some of These Days,’ ‘When the Sun Goes Down,’ ‘Mum’s a Word,’ ‘Chief Bunga Boo,’ ‘Juel,’ and ‘Just Whisper One Sweet Word to Me.’ … He has three other songs in preparation by Shelton Brooks.”

49. Cary B. Lewis, “At The Chicago Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 19, 1910.

50. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 30, 1909; Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 20, 1911; Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, 329.

51. The song was apparently a variation of Will Marion Cook’s “It’s Hard to Find a King Like Me,” which was featured in Williams & Walker’s 1905–6 “Ethiopian comic opera,” Abyssinia (Carle B. Cooke, “Professional Letter From New York,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 7, 1905).

52. “‘String Beans’ A Riot In Lexington,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1911.

53. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 27, 1911.

54. “Cincinnati Theatres,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 3, 1911.

55. “Cincinnati, O., Show Shop News,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 10, 1911.

56. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago’s Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 1, 1911.

57. “Lyre Theater Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 29, 1911.

58. “The Lyre Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 5, 1911.

59. “Allen And Allen At The Pekin Theater, Savannah, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910. A coon song with a similar theme—“You all can have your yaller gals, Creoles and Octoroons … Gimme a kitchen mechanic for mine”—was introduced by Williams and Walker in their 1903 musical comedy production In Dahomey (Tom Logan, “I’ll Take a Kitchen Mechanic for Mine” [New York: Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., 1902]). G. W. Allen’s up-to-date take was recorded twice in 1922 by a black vocal harmony group, the Excelsior Quartette, as “Kitchen Mechanic Blues” (OKeh 8033 and Gennett 4881, both reissued on Document DOCD-5288). “Kitchen Mechanic Blues,” recorded by Clara Smith in 1925, is an unrelated song.

60. “Billy Kersands’ Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 25, 1910.

61. “Down In Dixie Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 5, 1910. “Casey Jones” is a topical ballad about a turn-of-the-century train wreck. It was recorded as early as 1909 by Billy Murray and the American Quartette (Victor 16483) and subsequently by many white and black artists (Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, Country Music Sources, 44–45). “Casey Jones” was performed in southern vaudeville by Virginia Liston (“At The New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 3, 1913); Laura Smith (“The Cincinnati Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 8, 1911); Tom Young (“Ivy Theater, Chattanooga, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 20, 1910); and Buzzin’ Burton (“The Alabama Blossoms At Corinth, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 19, 1910). String Beans performed “Casey Jones” in New Orleans at the Temple Theater (“Temple Theater, New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 12, 1910).

62. See Abbott and Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me,’” 53–55.

63. Maggio’s composition is unrelated to the 1901 Chris Smith and Elmer Bowman composition by the same name.

64. “Cincinnati Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 19, 1911.

65. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1911.

66. “May And May,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1911.

67. Ibid. Charles O. Harding was an influential white booking agent. See Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 16, 1911.

68. “‘String Beans’ A Riot In Lexington,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1911.

69. “Lyre Theatre, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 30, 1911.

70. Henry “Ragtime Texas” Thomas, “Fishing Blues,” Vocalion 1249, 1928, reissued on Yazoo CD 1080/1; Lovin’ Spoonful, “Fishing Blues,” Do You Believe in Magic, Kama Sutra LP 8050, 1965; Taj Mahal, “Fishing Blues,” Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home, Columbia LP CS9924, 1969.

71. “Still Making Good,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 28, 1911.

72. “Cincinnati Theaters—The Pekin And Gaiety,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 21, 1911.

73. Ibid.

74. “Still Making Good.”

75. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 18, 1911.

76. Ibid.

77. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 25, 1911.

78. “Russell’s Chicago Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 18, 1911.

79. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 2, 1911.

80. “Cincinnati Theaters—The Pekin—The Gaiety,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 2, 1911; “Cincinnati News—Theaters And Otherwise,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 16, 1911.

81. George Slaughter, “The Lyre Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 13, 1912. Nothing is known of Charles May beyond the fact that he was not one of String Beans’s brothers.

82. Geo. Slaughter, “May And May,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 13, 1912.

83. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 24, 1912.

84. “Globe Theater—Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912.

85. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1912. The allusion to Ethiopia and the phrase “stretched forth his hand” references Psalms 68:31: “And Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch forth her hands to God.” Among African Americans, it prophesied “a grand and glorious future for the race” (“Stepping Stone To Success,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 13, 1893). The passage was brought to life on an early Freeman masthead (see Abbott and Seroff, Out of Sight, xiii). In 1915 it graced the cover of W. C. Handy’s “Hail to the Spirit of Freedom.” David Evans, who has conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia, reports that it is widely cited by modern Ethiopians, “sometimes humorously to refer to begging” (David Evans letter to the authors, August 13, 2015).

86. Sylvester Russell, “Musical And Dramatic,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 8, 1912.

87. “The New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 15; 22, 1912.

88. Sylvester Russell, “Musical And Dramatic,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 17, 1912.

89. Butler May, “How To Get A Good Write Up,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1912. Dago & Russell’s (or Russell & Dago’s) was a popular State Street cabaret.

90. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1912.

91. Cary B. Lewis, “Editor Abbott’s Visit,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 14, 1912.

92. Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 91.

93. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 21, 1912.

94. K. C. E., “The New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1912.

95. K. C. E., “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1912.

96. Will E. Skidmore and Renton Tunnah, “Pray for the Lights to Go Out” (Little Rock: Skidmore Music, 1916).

97. “Pray for the Lights to Go Out,” words by Gene Cobb, music by O. F. Tiffany, July 28, 1915; “Pray for the Lights to Go Out,” words by Clyde Olney, music by Clarence Woods, September 18, 1915. Thanks to Wayne Shirley.

98. Other titles in Skidmore’s “Deacon Series” include “It Takes a Long, Tall Brown Skin Gal to Make a Preacher Lay His Bible Down,” “Somebody’s Done Me Wrong,” and “When I Get Out of No-Man’s Land (I Can’t Be Bothered with No Mule).”

99. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right.

100. “Pray for the Lights to Go Out,” George O’Connor, Columbia A2143, 1916.

101. See Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, Country Music Sources, 498.

102. Hambone Willie Newbern, “Nobody Knows (What the Good Deacon Does),” OKeh 8679, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5003. An ad for the Perry Bradford Music Publishing Company, Indianapolis Freeman, November 17, 1917, listed “There’s No One Knows What Deacon Jones Did Do, Ah Lawd, When the Lights Went Out,” described as “a down home shout.”

103. “Pray for the Lights to Go Out,” Golden Gate Quartet, Columbia 37499, 1947, reissued on Document DOCD-5638. Orlandus Wilson notes from a conversation with Doug Seroff, April 8, 1994; Orlandus Wilson interviewed by Doug Seroff, February 24, 1995.

104. O. H. Daniels, “Criterion Theater, Kansas City, Mo.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 28, 1912.

105. “From May And May,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 4, 1913.

106. Cary B. Lewis, “Music And Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 11, 1913.

107. Cary B. Lewis, “Music And Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 18, 1913.

108. Carey B. Lewis, “The Grand Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 25, 1913.

109. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 17, 1913; “New Orleans (La.) Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 31, 1913.

110. Block ad, “Look What Has Happened,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 5, 1913.

111. “String Beans Takes A New Partner,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 19, 1913.

112. Ibid.

113. Walker W. Thomas, “Pensacola, Fla., Theatrical News,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1913.

114. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, January 24, 1914.

115. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 17, 1914.

116. May and May, “Essie [sic] May, Butler May,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 24, 1914.

117. “New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 24, 1914.

118. “The New Crown Garden Theatre, Tim E. Owsley, Prop.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 31, 1914.

119. T. E. Price, “Bessemer, Ala.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 31, 1914.

120. M. R. Smith, “May & May Will Head Big Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 7, 1914.

121. “The Pekin, The Lincoln, Cincinnati, Ohio,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 7, 1914.

122. “The Pekin, Dayton, Ohio,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 21, 1914.

123. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 28, 1914.

124. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 7, 1914.

125. Herbert T. Meadows, “St. Louis News,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 21, 1914.

126. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 28, 1914.

127. “‘String Beans,’ Comedian of Color, Much Sought,” Louisville Herald, March 26, 1914. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

128. Docket 85099, Jefferson Circuit Court, Common Pleas Branch, Commonwealth of Kentucky. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

129. “With the Law and the Lawyers,” Louisville Leader, April 18, 1914. Thanks to Pen Bogert.

130. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 16, 1914.

131. In writing Butler May’s obituary, Billy E. Lewis finally spelled it out: “He was said to be at times cruel to women; it may be so, but he was fine among men” (Billy Lewis, “String Beans Passed,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1917).

132. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 25, 1914.

133. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 21, 1914.

134. Abbe Niles, “Notes to the Collection,” in W. C. Handy, ed., Blues: An Anthology (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1926), 43. Race recordings of “Blind Man Blues” include Katie Crippen, Black Swan 2003, 1921, reissued on Document DOCD-5342; and Sara Martin, OKeh 8090, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5396. Also related are Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Bad Luck Blues,” Paramount 12443, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5017; and the “answer song” by Hattie Hudson, “Doggone My Good Luck Soul,” Columbia 14279-D, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5163. Thanks to David Evans.

135. “String Beans Stopped The Cars,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 2, 1914.

136. “At The New Crown Garden Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 16, 1914.

137. Marshall and Jean Stearns, “Frontiers of Humor: American Vernacular Dance,” Southern Folklore Quarterly 30, no. 3 (September 1966): 228–29. In a 1960 interview with Herb Abramson, Jodie “Butterbeans” Edwards also likened String Beans to Ray Charles.

138. “At The New Crown Garden Theatre.”

139. “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 30, 1915.

140. “What’s Doing on the Dudley Circuit,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 23, 1914.

141. Arthur Porter, “Cincinnati, O. Theatricals,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 23, 1914.

142. Price & Porter, “Cincinnati, Ohio Theatrical Budget,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 30, 1914.

143. Clay Price and Arthur Porter, “Cincinnati (O.) News,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 6, 1914.

144. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 13, 1914.

145. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 20, 1914.

146. “The Arrants,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 14, 1914.

147. “Billing The Arrants,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 14, 1914.

148. The Mule, “Atlanta Show Shop,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29, 1914.

149. “Billy Arnte Not Dead,” Chicago Defender, December 30, 1922.

150. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 18, 1914; “Champion Theatre, Birmingham, Alabama,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 25, 1914.

151. The Mule, “Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1914.

152. “String Beans, the Big Noise—People Mad to See Him,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 8, 1914.

153. The Mule, “Atlanta Show Shops,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 11, 1914. Cow Cow Davenport, a conspicuous heir to the early vaudeville blues treasury, recorded “What It Takes” for Gennett in 1925 (unissued).

154. Mule Bradford, “The Good Book Says ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal,’” Indianapolis Freeman, October 16, 1915.

155. “Mule Bradford Says String Beans Stole His Song,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 26, 1917.

156. “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 30, 1915. Baby Mack continued to chart a successful career. She recorded for OKeh in 1926, accompanied by Louis Armstrong and Richard M. Jones. She also recorded duets with Sam Robinson. Her solo recordings and some of the duets are reissued on Document DOCD-5390.

157. Block ad, “Hey There! Where?” Indianapolis Freeman, September 5, 1914.

158. “Champion Theatre, Birmingham, Ala.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 10, 1914.

159. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 10, 1914.

160. “New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 29, 1913; “Miss Ella Goodloe Now On Successful Vaudeville Tour,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 20, 1913.

161. “Champion Theatre, Birmingham, Ala.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 10, 1914.

162. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 31, 1914.

163. Ibid.

164. Columbus Bragg, “On And Off The Stroll,” Chicago Defender, October 31, 1914.

165. Price & Porter, “Playing Cincinnati, O.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 7, 1914.

166. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 5, 1914. The article by “another newspaper man” has yet to be unearthed.

167. Butler May, “String Beans Denies He Used Smut In Chicago,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 12, 1914.

168. Will M. Lewis, “Annual Review Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 16, 1915.

169. W. Kid Jines, “Weekly Reviews From Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 12, 1914; “What’s What On The S. H. Dudley Circuit,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 26, 1914.

170. “Cincinnati (O.) Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 6, 1913.

171. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 25, 1913.

172. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 14, 1914. Both notices appeared simultaneously in the same column.

173. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 19, 1914.

174. J. H. Gray, “Gibson’s New Standard Theatre, Philadelphia,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 9, 23, 1915.

175. Lester A. Walton, “‘Stringbeans’ In A Clean Act; Carita Day Shines Brilliantly,” New York Age, January 21, 1915.

176. “‘Stringbeans’ A Riot,” New York Age, January 28, 1915.

177. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 20, 1915.

178. Porter & Brown, “Cincinnati News,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 20, 1915. The full title of Minor’s song was alternately given as “If Luck Don’t Change, There’s Going to Be Some Stealing Done” or “If Luck Don’t Change, There’ll Be Some Stealing Done” (“The Union Theater, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 20, 1912; The Mule, “Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1914; “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 18, 1916). As early as 1907, this same title was credited to David D. Smith, a comedian and quartet singer with the Billy Kersands Minstrels (“The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 12, 1907; “Billy Kersands Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 25, 1908). Blind Willie McTell’s 1929 recording, “Love Changing Blues” (Victor 38580, reissued on Document DOCD-5006) seems to be related to these earlier titles.

179. “String Beans And Sweetie May And Gray And Dunlop At Star Theatre Pittsburgh,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 3, 1915.

180. “Gray & Dunlop Great Favorites At Philadelphia,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 17, 1915.

181. “Gibson’s New Standard Theatre, Philadelphia, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 17, 1915.

182. “Gibson’s New Standard Theatre, Philadelphia, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 24, 1915.

183. S. H. Dudley, “What’s What On The S. H. Dudley Circuit—Week of May 10, 1915,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 15, 1915.

184. “What’s What On The S. H. Dudley Circuit—Week of April 26, 1915,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 1, 1915.

185. L. B. Mound, “Movies And Vaudeville At The Douglass Theatre, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 26, 1916; see Waters with Samuels, 75.

186. “‘Stringbeans’ In Town,” New York Age, May 27, 1915. The “airship” reference harks back to Ernest Hogan, who in 1907 abandoned his most successful musical comedy production Rufus Rastus mid-season in order to pursue a delusory hot air balloon enterprise. For more about this, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 51.

187. “Dudley Bookings Good Attractions,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 12, 1915.

188. “‘Happy Days,’” New York Age, June 10, 1915.

189. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 20, 1915.

190. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 12, 1915. For more on Whitney, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right.

191. Billy E. Jones, “New York News,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 19, 1915.

192. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 26, 1915.

193. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 3, 1915.

194. “Mule And Jeanette Bradford Drawing Large Crowds At Gibson’s Standard Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 31, 1915.

195. “Stage Gossip,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 7, 1915.

196. Frank Montgomery, “Frank Montgomery Very Much Alive,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 14, 1915.

197. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 14, 1915.

198. “Stage Gossip,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 28, 1915; H. Woodard, “See The Attractions At The Douglass, Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 18, 1915.

199. Mr. Wm. Benbow, “Wm. Benbow And String Beans At Tampa Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 18, 1915.

200. Butterbeans and Susie, “Get Yourself A Monkey Man, Make Him Strut His Stuff,” OKeh 8147, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5544; Viola McCoy and Billy Higgins, “Get Yourself A Monkey Man And Make Him Strut His Stuff,” Vocalion 14912, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5417.

201. Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926), 173.

202. See Madelyn Greene & the 3 Varieties, “Sally Won’t You Come Back (to Our Alley),” Bluebird 11126, 1941.

203. “The Exchange Theater At Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 6, 1909; “Colored Aristocracy Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 29, 1910.

204. Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon, “Fan It,” Banner 32524, 1928; Vocalion 1257, 1929, both reissued on Document DOCD-5258.

205. Herbert T. Meadows, “St. Louis Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 30, 1915.

206. “String Beans Packs Booker Washington In St. Louis,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 6, 1915.

207. “Big Times At The Crown Garden, Indianapolis, This Week,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 13, 1915.

208. Viola McCoy, “I Don’t Want Nobody (That Don’t Want Me),” Vocalion 14818, 1924; Viola McCoy and Billy Higgins, “I Don’t Want Nobody (That Don’t Want Me),” Ajax 17069, 1924, both reissued on Document DOCD-5417.

209. Ida Cox, “I Love My Man Better Than I Love Myself,” Paramount 12056, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5322.

210. Ida Cox, “Any Woman’s Blues,” Paramount 12053, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5322; Bessie Smith, “Any Woman’s Blues,” Columbia 13001-D, 1923, reissued on Frog DGF-41. Other recordings that include the “better than I love myself” refrain include Anna Bell, “Every Woman Blues,” QRS R7007, 1928, reissued on Document 5375; Texas Alexander, “98 Degree Blues,” OKeh 8705, 1929; Skip James, “Cherry Ball Blues,” Paramount 13065, 1931, reissued on Yazoo CD 2009, and more (see also Michael Taft, Prewar Blues Lyric Poetry: A Web Concordance, http://www.dylan61.se/michael%20taft,%20blues%20anthology.txt.WebConcordance/framconc.htm). Two later renditions of “I Love My Man Better Than I Love Myself” by Cow Cow Davenport’s last wife Peggy Taylor are preserved on home-recorded acetates made sometime during the 1940s; issued on Document DOCD-5586. Cow Cow accompanies Taylor on piano.

In their 1926 book, Negro Workaday Songs, Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson used the “I Love My Man” stanza to “illustrate generally the interplay between the folk blues and the formal blues.” They cite a recording of “Any Woman’s Blues” as its source (Odum and Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs, 1926), 25–26.

211. “Queen Theatre, Chattanooga,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1916.

212. “Palace Theatre, Augusta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 10, 1918.

213. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, November 20, 1915.

214. “String Beans And His High Life Set,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 18, 1915.

215. “Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle Visit Lafayette Theatre,” New York Age, December 9, 1915.

216. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, January 1, 1916.

217. Ibid.; J. H. Gray, “Gibson’s New Standard Theater, Philadelphia, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 8, 1916.

218. J. H. Gray, “Gibson’s New Standard Theater, Philadelphia,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 22, 1916.

219. “Model Stock Company At Dallas, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 29, 1911.

220. Ad, “Stringbeans,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 5, 1916.

221. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1916.

222. Billy Lewis, “String Beans Still At Washington Theater, Indianapolis, Ind.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 21, 1916.

223. “String Beans In Chicago Turning Them Away,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1916.

224. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1916.

225. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1916.

226. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1916.

227. Ad, “Stringbeans,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1916.

228. Ad, Indianapolis Freeman, March 18, 1916, identified Archie Jones thusly. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 231, for more about Archie Jones’s “Hebrew impersonations.”

229. “String Beans And Company A Big Hit In Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 4, 1916.

230. “String Beans At The Ruby Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 11, 1916.

231. Buddie (S. A.) Austin, “The 81 Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 18, 1916.

232. “String Beans Still Holds His Reputation,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 25, 1916. See also Ralph Matthews, “Clarence Muse Writes Book On Theatre,” Baltimore Afro-American, July 23, 1932.

233. “Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 1, 1916.

234. “The 81 Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 18, 1916.

235. Waters with Samuels, 89.

236. “String Beans And Benbow,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 5, 1916; “String Beans And Benbow’s Big Review Packing The Booker Washington Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 19, 1916.

237. “Woolen’s [sic] Bon Tons,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 26, 1916. For more about Wooden’s Bon Tons, an offshoot of Alexander Tolliver’s Big Show, see Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right.

238. Baby Benbow was a woman of many aliases: Robbie Lee Peoples, Robbie Lee Cox, Baby McGarr, Baby Ali, Baby Carre, and others. According to one source, her maiden name was Margaret Barbara Lee Carr (Bob Eagle and Eric S. LeBlanc, Blues—A Regional Experience [Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013], 508). While the matter could be clearer, it is most likely that she was the artist who recorded for OKeh in 1923 as Baby Benbow (OKeh 8098, reissued on Document DOCD-5506).

239. “String Beans And Benbow.”

240. “The String Beans And Benbow’s Big Review In Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 26, 1916.

241. Ibid.

242. “String Beans And Benbow.”

243. Ibid.

244. “The String Beans And Benbow’s Big Review In Indianapolis.”

245. “About Beans And Benbow Co.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 26, 1916.

246. “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 9, 1916.

247. Chas. T. Kirkman, “Detroit Theatrical News,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1916.

248. “String Beans And Benbow,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14, 1916. The Crown Garden was renamed the Washington Theater following renovation in 1916.

249. Ibid.

250. Ibid.

251. “String Beans And Benbow,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14, 1916. Overstreet does not appear to have traveled with the Review.

252. Billy Lewis, “String Beans And His Future,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14, 1916. Testimony to the potency of String Beans’s personal style was provided by Jelly Roll Morton, who informed Alan Lomax that: “[String Beans] always wore a big diamond in his front tooth. He was the first guy I ever saw with a diamond in his mouth, and I guess I got the idea for my diamond from him” (William Russell, “Oh, Mister Jelly”: A Jelly Roll Morton Scrapbook [Copenhagen: JazzMedia, 1998], 50; “Unrecorded Interview Material and Research Notes by Alan Lomax, 1938–1946” [PDF file on Disc 8 of Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax, Rounder 11661–1888–2, 2005], 189).

253. Billy Lewis, “String Beans Still At Washington Theater, Indianapolis, Ind.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 21, 1916.

254. Billy Lewis, “String Beans And Benbow,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 21, 1916. This review identified the remaining members of the Beans and Benbow Review as Ethel Hudson, Marie Burton, Marion Taylor, Ethel Williams, Roy Rush, Willie Rush, Harold Williams, and Jerry Reed. The latter four constituted the company quartet.

255. Russell, “Oh, Mister Jelly,” 50–51. Compare with “Unrecorded Interview Material and Research Notes,” 189.

256. “Morton & Morton,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 13, 1914.

257. Sylvester Russell, “Musical And Dramatic,” Chicago Defender, April 22, 1911.

258. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 7, 1911.

259. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 5, 1912.

260. Ibid.; Cary B. Lewis, “Byron Brothers Have Return Engagement at the Grand …,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 5, 1913; “Ruby Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 26, 1913; “Dramatic Notes,” Chicago Defender, November 1, 1913. In 1922, Tony Langston wrote: “Shelton Brooks, now recognized by the fair-minded as the Race’s leading comedian … is a classic in blackface. Shelton Brooks is the only artist in vaudeville who is able to hit with a single, using a piano.… As a story teller Mr. Brooks has no superiors and the beauty of his work lies in the fact that he is original throughout.… He sings songs of his own composition.” (Tony Langston, “Shelton Brooks Is Feature at the Avenue …,” Chicago Defender, April 22, 1922).

261. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1916; “String Beans,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 19, 1916.

262. “Routes,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 28, November 4, 1916; “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 4, 1916.

263. Jode, “Cincinnati, O., Show Talk,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 2, 1916.

264. Ibid.

265. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 30, 1916.

266. J. H. Gray, “Gibson’s New Standard Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 20, 1917.

267. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 3, 1917.

268. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 17, 1917.

269. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 24, 1917.

270. Ibid.

271. “Big Vaudeville Bill At Washington Theater, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 31, 1917.

272. “Vaudeville Still Going Big At Washington Theater, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 7, 1917.

273. “String Beans Takes Old Cincinnati, Ohio, By Storm,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 7, 1917.

274. Ibid.

275. Billy Lewis, “The Smart Set Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 21, 1917.

276. “Cincy Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 14, 1917.

277. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 3, 1917. Blanche “Billie” Young was the namesake daughter of famed minstrel performer “Clever” Billy Young (“Stage Gossip,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 28, 1915). She is probably the Billie Young who recorded with Jelly Roll Morton in 1930 (Robert M. W. Dixon, John Godrich, and Howard Rye, Blues & Gospel Records 1890–1943, 4th ed. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997], 1069). Chicago Defender reporter Bob Hayes noted her death in his “Here And There” column of May 4, 1940. For more on Billie Young, see “Secrets of Love, Struggles, Disappointments and heartbreaks of Comedienne Revealed in Diary,” “Billie Young Took Name From Father,” Baltimore Afro-American, January 9, 1932 (Black Studies Center, ProQuest), noted in Eagle and LeBlanc, Blues: A Regional Experience, 406. For more on the third member of the original Jazz Girls, Eloise Johnson, see “Eloise B. Scott remembers a Great theatrical era,” Daily Defender, December 24, 1975; and “88 Year Old Eloise Scott Remembers Vaudeville,” Pittsburgh Courier, January 21, 1978 (Black Studies Center, ProQuest).

278. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 2, 1917.

279. Jack Trotter, “New York Notes of Stage And Sport,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 16, 1917.

280. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen And Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 2, 1917.

281. “String Beans And Benbow,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 5, 1916.

282. Block ad, “New Lincoln Theatre,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 16, 1917.

283. “‘Stringbeans’ Joins C. W. Park’s Colored Aristocrats,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 21, 1917.

284. Ibid. See also Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right.

285. Block ad, “All Next Week—the original Smart Set Co.,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, June 30, 1917; “The Smart Set,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, June 30, 1917.

286. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 18, 1917.

287. William B. Smith, “Colored Aristocrats Makes [sic] Effort To Quiet Race Riot,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 1, 1917.

288. Ibid.

289. David P. Dorsey, “Pittsburgh (Pa.) Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 1, 1917.

290. “The Blue Grass State,” Chicago Defender, September 8, 1917.

291. Ad, Nashville Globe, September 7, 1917; “Theatricals,” Nashville Globe, September 14, 1917. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 148–49, for more about this engagement.

292. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 29, 1917. “Pork Chop’s” (or “Pork Chops’s”) real name was Roy Gibson (“J. A. Jackson’s Page,” “The Walter L. Main Band And Minstrel,” Billboard, May 27, 1922; “J. A. Jackson’s Page,” “Here And There Among The Folks,” Billboard, September 16, 1922).

293. Jodie and Susie Edwards interviewed by Herb Abramson and others, 1960 (Hogan Jazz Archive via GHB Foundation). Press reports suggest that the first time Edwards and Edwards appeared as a team was March 1917 at the Douglass Theater in Macon, Georgia, as members of the Tolliver Smart Set (Belfair [sic] Washington, “Tolliver’s Big Show,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 24, 1917; Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 149).

294. “String Beans In Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 6, 1917.

295. “A Note Or Two,” Chicago Defender, October 20, 1917.

296. “A Note Or Two,” Chicago Defender, November 3, 1917.

297. “A Letter,” Chicago Defender, November 17, 1917.

298. “Famous Comedian Passes Away. Butler May, A Native of Montgomery, Dies In Jacksonville, Fla.,” Montgomery Emancipator, November 24, 1917. The house where the funeral was reportedly held has since been demolished, the property absorbed into the campus of Alabama State University. Thanks to Joey Brackner.

299. “‘String Beans’ May Famous Comedian Dies in Florida,” Montgomery Times, November 21, 1917.

300. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Stage Notes And Other Comment,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 15, 1917.

301. Frank S. Reed, “The One And Only ‘String Beans’ Laid To Rest At His Home In Montgomery, Ala.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 1, 1917.

302. W. M. Benbow, “A Tribute To My Pal ‘String Beans,’” Indianapolis Freeman, December 1, 1917.

303. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 1, 1917.

304. “Final Curtain Rings Down on 3 Actors,” Chicago Defender, November 24, 1917.

305. Eleanor Wilson Morton, “A Tribute,” Chicago Defender, December 8, 1917.

306. “Note Or Two,” Chicago Defender, August 27, 1921; “The Standard,” Chicago Defender, August 30, 1924; Bob Hayes, “Here and There With Bob Hayes,” Chicago Defender, September 15, 1928. See also “‘Bonnie Bell’ Drew Is Dead,” Chicago Defender, March 25, 1944 (Black Studies Center, ProQuest).

307. Bob Hayes, “Here and There With Bob Hayes,” Chicago Defender, February 28, 1942 (Black Studies Center, ProQuest).

308. “Edwards And Edwards,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 26, 1918.

309. Jodie and Susie Edwards interviewed by Herb Abramson and others. Jodie Edwards claimed that southern theater owners were resistant to the idea of billing him as “Butterbeans”: “they wouldn’t do it. Because they was afraid that if we get to drawing, we wanted that big money, and they didn’t want to do it, so they wouldn’t do it for a year. We’d go back to them towns, and they wouldn’t bill us like that.” Newspaper commentaries from the period in question tend to bear out his assertion.

310. “At The Star,” Pittsburgh Courier, November 17, 1923.

311. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 6, 1918.

312. “Theatrical News Of The Metropolitan Theater, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 6, 1918; “What The Show Folk Are Doing In Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 6, 1918.

313. “Butter Beans & Hawthorne,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 9, 1918.

314. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Seen and Heard While Passing,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 1, 1917. For example, Butler May is not included in Sheldon Harris’s Blues Who’s Who, A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1979).

315. Abbe Niles, “Ballads, Songs And Snatches,” The Bookman 67, no. 3 (May 1928): 290–91, noted with commentary in Elliott S. Hurwitt, “Abbe Niles, Blues Advocate,” in Evans, ed., Ramblin’ on My Mind, 115–16.

316. In light of other things that Morton told Lomax about String Beans during the Library of Congress interview, it is unfortunate that Lomax did not delve further. Lomax’s Mister Jelly Roll mentions String Beans only once in passing (143). For additional mentions of String Beans in the Morton-Lomax interview sessions, see Russell, “Oh, Mister Jelly,” 46–52; “Unrecorded Interview Material and Research Notes,” 187–89, 199.

317. Marshall and Jean Stearns, “Frontiers of Humor,” 227–35.

318. See Seroff and Abbott, “The Life and Death of Pioneer Bluesman Butler ‘String Beans’ May”; Abbott and Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me.’”

319. Marshall and Jean Stearns, “Frontiers of Humor,” 238. Ethel Waters accurately identifies String Beans as Butler May in His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 89.

320. The Titanic went down on April 15, 1912. Beans’s “Titanic Blues” was first noted in Walker W. Thomas, “Pensacola, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1913.

321. Abbe Niles, “Ballads, Songs and Snatches,” The Bookman 67, no. 3 (May 1928): 290–91.

322. Dorothy Scarborough, From a Southern Porch, 1919, quoted in Roger D. Abrahams, preface to 1963 reprint edition of Dorothy Scarborough, On The Trail Of Negro Folksongs (1925; Hatboro: Folklore Associates, 1963), vi–vii.

323. Essential studies of “Shine and the Titanic” are included in Roger D. Abrahams, Deep Down in the Jungle: Negro Narrative Folklore from the Streets of Philadelphia (1963; Chicago: Aldine, 1970), and Bruce Jackson, “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me”: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974). David Evans draws on these sources to define “Shine” as “a sort of black Everyman” (Big Road Blues, 292).

324. As interpreted by blues-minstrel Jim Jackson (“Traveling Man,” Victor 38517, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5115):

The policeman got right in after this man,

He run and jumped on the Titanic ship

And started up that ocean blue.

He look out and spied that big iceberg,

And right overboard he flew.

All the white ladies on the deck of that ship

Said that man certainly was a fool.

But when that Titanic ship went down

He’s shooting craps in Liverpool.

In Luke Jordan’s recording of “Traveling Coon” (Victor 20957, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5045), the black protagonist is identified as “Shine.” For more on “Traveling Coon,” see Paul Oliver, Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 93–95. For a guide to country music recordings of “Traveling Coon”/“Traveling Man,” see Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, Country Music Sources, 510.

325. R. W. Thompson, “Short Flights,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 20, 1912.

326. Robert Johnson, “Walking Blues,” Vocalion 03601, 1936, reissued on Columbia C2K 46222; Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Change My Luck Blues,” Paramount 12639, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5019.

327. Sippie Wallace, “Off and On Blues,” OKeh 8197, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5399; Sodarisa Miller, “Broadway Daddy Blues,” Paramount 12261, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5497; Edmonia Henderson, “Brownskin Man,” Paramount 12095, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5513; Eva Taylor, “Everybody Loves My Baby,” OKeh 8181, 1924, reissued on Classics 679; Trixie Smith, “Everybody Loves My Baby,” Paramount 12249, 1925, reissued on Document DOCD-5333.

328. Jenkins and Jenkins, “Sister, It’s Too Bad,” Columbia 14100-D, 1925, reissued on Document DOCD-5481; Clara Smith, “I’m Tired of Being Good,” Columbia 14117-D, 1925, reissued on Document DOCD-5366.

329. The Pine Mountain Boys (Dock Walsh and Garley Foster), “Wild Women Blues,” Victor 23592, 1931.

330. Peg Leg Howell, “Papa Stobb Blues,” Columbia 14238, 1927; and “Fairy Blues,” Columbia 14356-D, 1928, both reissued on Matchbox MBCD-2004.

331. Blind Blake, “Panther Squall Blues,” Paramount 12723, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5025; Barbecue Bob, “She Moves It Just Right,” Columbia 14546-D, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5048; Feathers And Frogs, “How You Get That Way,” Paramount 12812, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5370.

332. Rob Robinson and Meade Lux Lewis, “I Got Some of That,” Paramount 13028, 1930, reissued on Document DOCD-5314.

333. Charley Jordan, “Got Your Water On,” ARC 6–06–61, 1936, reissued on Document DOCD-5099.

334. Trixie Butler, “Take It Easy Greasy,” Bluebird 6392, 1936, reissued on Document DOCD-5295. A much later allusion crops up in Arthur “Big Boy” Spires, “About to Lose My Mind,” Chance 1137, 1953: “She got eyes like diamonds / Her teeth shine just the same / She got a Elgin movement / And hair like a horse’s mane.”

335. “The Dixie Theater, Charlotte, N. C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 26, 1910.

336. Davenport and Carr, “Alabama Mis-Treater,” OKeh 8306, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5141.

337. Cow Cow Davenport, “Alabama Mistreater,” Vocalion 1227, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5141.

338. Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll, 144–45.

339. Cleo Gibson, “I’ve Got Ford Movements in My Hips,” OKeh 8700, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5471.

340. R. T. Hanen, “She’s Got Jordan River in her Hips,” Victor 23288, 1931, reissued on RST BDCD-6015.

341. Washboard Sam, “River Hip Mama,” Bluebird 9039, 1942, reissued on Document DOCD-5176.

342. Count Basie, as told to Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues (New York: Random House, 1985), 98.

343. Stanley Crouch, “Body and Soul,” in Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979–1989 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 245.

344. Buddy Guy, “American Bandstand,” Chess (originally unissued), 1963. It is included on MCA/Chess CHD2–9337.

345. “Ship-Wreck Blues” seemingly appropriates the melody of “Titanic, Fare Thee Well.” Compare it with Virginia Liston’s 1926 recording of her stage hit of 1913, “Titanic Blues” (Vocalion 1031). The melody of “The Long Lost Blues” is likewise recognizable as “Keep A-Knocking.”

346. Haenschen’s Orchestra, “Sunset Medley,” Columbia Personal 60782, 1916, reissued on Archeophone 1003 (this unique recording, which features a piano accompanied by traps, unites “A Bunch of Blues” with “Babes in the Woods”); Handy’s Orchestra of Memphis, “A Bunch of Blues,” Columbia A-2418, 1917, reissued on Memphis Archives MA7006; Original Memphis Five, “A Bunch of Blues,” Edison 51246, 1923.

347. Billie Young, “When They Get Lovin’ They’s Gone,” Victor 23339 (take 2), 1930, reissued on Document DOCD-5573.

348. David Evans letter to the authors, August 7, 2015.

349. Charlie Davenport, “Atlanta Rag,” Gennett 6869, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5141.

350. Cow Cow Davenport, “Cow Cow Blues,” Vocalion 1198, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5141. String Beans’s influence on Davenport is also manifest in Davenport’s well-documented piano dance stage act, which he almost certainly appropriated from Beans’s famous dancing pianologue. See Ernest Session, “The Lyric,” Chicago Defender, October 20, 1923; Gang Jines, “Turpin’s House,” Chicago Defender, May 2, 1925.

351. The figure appears at the beginning of George H. Tremer’s “Spirit Of ’49 Rag” (Gennett 6242, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5590), in a declaratively ragtime setting. Examples of blues piano recordings that begin with the “String Beans Blues” theme include pianist Jimmy Flowers’s introduction to Frankie Jaxon’s 1929 hit “Fan It” (Vocalion 1257, reissued on Document DOCD-5258); and Pinetop Burks’s “Sun Down Blues” (Vocalion 04107, 1937, reissued on Document DOCD-5232).

352. Examples range from Q. Roscoe Snowden’s restrained 1923 piano solo “Deep Sea Blues” (OKeh 8119, reissued on Document DOCD-5336), to Clarence Profit Trio, “Down Home” (Brunswick, 1939, originally unreleased, issued on Document DOCD-5656), to Texas barrelhouse blues pianist Wilson “Thunder” Smith’s post–World War II recording “Little Mama Boogie” (Aladdin 166, 1946, reissued on Imperial LP 9180), to white ragtime specialist Johnny Maddox’s 1950s showpiece “Johnny Maddox Special” (Dot 15021, 1952, reissued on Dot LP 3000). “Johnny Maddox Special” may be the latest recorded example of the “String Beans Blues” theme. In a 2014 conversation with Doug Seroff, Maddox was unable to identify the source of his inspiration for the lick. The same figure is heard on Sammie Lewis & Mandy Randolph’s 1923 recording “I Got Another Lovin’ Daddy” (Gennett Special 11427, reissued on Document DOCD-5481).

353. Moon Mullican, “Grandpa Stole My Baby,” King 1244, 1953, reissued on Western LP 2001.

354. “Jim Jackson’s Jamboree—Part I,” Vocalion 1428, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5115. The figure is also present in several of Speckled Red’s own recordings, including “House Dance Blues” (Brunswick 7137, 1929) and “St. Louis Stomp” (Bluebird 7985, 1938), both reissued on Document DOCD-5205.

355. Charlie Spand, “Mississippi Blues,” unissued Paramount test pressing, 1929, released on Document DOCD-5150; “Moanin’ The Blues,” Paramount 12856, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5108. Note that the String Beans figure does not appear on the issued take of “Mississippi Blues” (Paramount 12917, reissued on Document DOCD-5108).

356. Blind Blake (with Charlie Spand), “Hastings St.,” Paramount 12863, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5108.

357. See Blind Blake, “Too Tight Blues No. 2,” Paramount 12824, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5026. Blake uses the same figure on “Too Tight,” Paramount 12431, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5024. Variations can also be heard on Blake’s “Tampa Bound,” Paramount 12442, 1926; and “Stonewall Street Blues,” Paramount 12431, 1926, both reissued on DOCD-5024. See also Chris Smith’s liner notes to Document DOCD-5277, regarding the “String Beans Blues” introduction to “Hometown Skiffle—Part II,” Paramount 12886, 1929.

358. Johnny Dunn’s Original Jazz Hounds, “Hawaiian Blues,” Columbia A3729, 1922; Edith Wilson (accompanied by Johnny Dunn’s Original Jazz Hounds), “What Do You Care (What I Do),” Columbia A3674, 1922; both tracks reissued on JSP CD 1522–2. A central theme in “Bluin’ The Blues” (music by H. W. Ragas [New York: Leo Feist, 1919]), recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1918 (Victor 18482, reissued on Jazz Heritage CD 525840), is built around a reductive interpretation of the “String Beans Blues” motive.

359. Daddy Stovepipe, “Tuxedo Blues,” Gennett 6212, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5166.

360. Dallas String Band, “Sweet Mama Blues,” Columbia 14290, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5162.

361. The “String Beans Blues” figure is prominent in Blind Lemon Jefferson’s first recording “Got The Blues.” According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell in The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (New York: Harper Collins, 1992, 44), “This recording exploded like a bombshell on the fledgling blues scene in 1926. Sales of over one hundred thousand were rumored.”

362. Blind Lemon Jefferson’s birth year is given as 1893 or 1897 (Alan Governar, “Blind Lemon Jefferson: The Myth and the Man,” Black Music Research Journal 20, no. 1 [Spring 2000]: 7). String Beans continued to perform until shortly before his death in November 1917, but there is no documentation of him ever performing in Texas. Lack of evidence notwithstanding, String Beans may have appeared in Texas, or Jefferson may have witnessed String Beans performing in the neighboring states of Arkansas or Louisiana.

363. David Evans wrote of Blind Lemon: “he must have had plenty of opportunities to listen to pianists and jazz musicians in theaters and clubs and to translate their musical ideas into this solo-guitar idiom” (“Musical Innovation in the Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson,” Black Music Research Journal 20, no. 1 [Spring 2000]: 96).

364. Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Got The Blues,” Paramount 12354, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5017; “Corinna Blues,” Paramount 12367, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5017; “Black Snake Moan,” OKeh 8455, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5018; “Mean Jumper Blues,” Paramount 12631, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5019; “That Crawling Baby Blues,” Paramount 12880, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5020; “Rambler Blues,” Paramount 12541, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5018; “Hangman’s Blues,” Paramount 12679, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5019; “Lock Step Blues,” Paramount 12679, reissued on Document DOCD-5019; “That Black Snake Moan No. 2,” Paramount 12756, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5020; and “Dynamite Blues,” Paramount 12739, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5020. All contain adaptations of “String Beans Blues.”

365. “Rock Island Blues,” Vocalion 1111, 1927; “Furry’s Blues,” Victor 38519, 1928; “Good Looking Girl Blues,” Vocalion 1132, 1927; “Black Gypsy Blues,” Vocalion 1527, 1929. All four recordings are reissued on Document DOCD-5004.

366. Sam Collins, “New Salty Dog,” Banner 32311, 1931, reissued on Document DOCD-5034; Kid Prince Moore, “Honey Dripping Papa,” ARC 6–09–56, 1936, reissued on Document DOCD-5180; Edward Thompson, “Seven Sisters Blues,” Paramount 12873, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5165; Blind Boy Fuller, “Cat Man Blues,” Vocalion 03134, 1936, reissued on Document DOCD-5091 (take 1) and DOCD-5092 (take 2).

367. Ishman Bracey, “Left Alone Blues,” Victor 21349, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5049.

368. Mississippi Sheiks, “Church Bell Blues,” OKeh 8876, 1930, reissued on Document DOCD-5084; Tommy Griffin, “Hey Hey Blues,” Bluebird 7179, 1936, reissued on Document DOCD-5426.

369. Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks), “Cloudy Sky Blues,” Columbia 14205-D, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5046; “Goin’ Up The Country,” Columbia 14316-D, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5046; “Meat Man Pete,” Columbia 14412-D, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5047.

370. Jack Kelly and His South Memphis Jug Band, “Highway No. 61 Blues,” Banner 32844, 1933, reissued on Document BDCD-6005.

371. Big Bill, “Selling That Stuff,” Champion 16395, 1932, reissued on Document DOCD-5050; Buddy Moss, “Misery Man Blues,” Banner 33267, 1934, reissued on Document DOCD-5124; Little Hat Jones, “Little Hat Blues,” OKeh 8794, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5161; Arthur Pettis, “Two Time Blues,” Victor 21282, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5158.

372. William Harris, “Keep Your Man Out of Birmingham,” Gennett 6661, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5035. Paul Oliver’s liner notes to this CD point out that “Keep Your Man Out of Birmingham” “was based on Priscilla Stewart’s ‘Jefferson County Blues’” (Paramount 12402, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5476). Song lyrics are almost identical, but the melody and time of the two pieces are dissimilar; and Priscilla Stewart’s version, with piano accompaniment, bears no trace of “String Beans Blues.”

373. Mattie Delaney, “Down the Big Road Blues,” Vocalion 1480, 1930, reissued on Document DOCD-5157.

374. Buddy Boy Hawkins, “Shaggy Dog Blues,” Paramount 12489, 1927, reissued on Document DOCD-5035.

375. David Evans, “Musical Innovation in the Blues Of Blind Lemon Jefferson,” 108.

376. Freddie Spruell, “Tom Cat Blues,” Paramount 12665, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5158; Pearl Dickson, “Little Rock Blues,” Columbia 14286, 1927, reissued on DOCD-5159.

377. Kansas Joe [McCoy], “I’m Going Crazy,” Vocalion 1705, 1932, reissued on Document DOCD-5216; Shorty Bob Parker, “Rain and Snow,” Decca 7526, 1938, reissued on Document DOCD-5180; Josh White, “Low Cotton,” Oriole 8267, 1933; reissued on Document DOCD-5194. White also plays variations on “String Beans Blues” on “Black And Evil Blues,” Melotone 12537, 1932; “Greenville Sheik,” ARC 6–05–63, 1932; and “Blood Red River,” Oriole 8267, 1933; all reissued on Document DOCD-5194.

378. John Lee, “Alabama Boogie,” Federal 12054, 1951; Munroe Moe Jackson, “Move It On Over,” Mercury 8127, 1949; both tracks are reissued on Document DOCD-5223. Munroe Moe Jackson is an alias for country music comedian–bass fiddle player Andy Boyett, who was at one time a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Thanks to Richard Spottswood.

Chapter 3

1. “The Lewis Stock Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 29, 1910.

2. “People’s Theater, Houston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 5, 1910.

3. “People’s Theater at Houston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 30, 1910; “Alabama Chocolate Drops,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1910.

4. “Palace Theater, Houston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 18, 1910.

5. “Palace Theatre, Houston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 16, 1910.

6. “Lyric Theater, Shreveport,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 8, 1909.

7. “World Beaters’ Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 24, 1909.

8. Baby F. Seals, “You Got to Shake, Rattle and Roll, or My Money Ante [sic] Gwine” (New Orleans: L. Grunewald, 1910); “You’ve Got to Shake, Rattle and Roll, or My Money Ain’t a-Gwine,’” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910.

9. “People’s Theater, Houston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 26, 1910.

10. “The Palace Theater At Houston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 2, 1910; “Ruby Theater, Galveston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 28, 1910; “Palace Theatre, Houston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 16, 1910.

11. “Ruby Theater, Galveston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 7, 1910; “Ruby Theater At Galveston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 21, 1910.

12. “Ruby Theater, Galveston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 28, 1910.

13. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 6, 1910.

14. “The Pekin Theater, Savannah, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 27, 1910.

15. “The Stage,” June 23, October 6, 1906; “The Florida Blossoms,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 11, 1908.

16. J. Harry Jackson, “The Stage,” March 3, 1900; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 6, 1906; “Richards & Pringle’s Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 21, 1907; “The Florida Blossoms,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 11, 1908.

17. Paul Carter, “The Colored Audience,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912. The song lyric “I had a good gal, but the fool laid down and died” appears in a 1928 recording titled “Banjo Blues,” by Peg Leg Howell and Eddie Anthony (Columbia 14382-D, reissued on Document MBCD-2005), an African American guitarist and a fiddler, who reportedly played for tips on Atlanta’s Decatur Street (see Sheldon Harris, Blues Who’s Who for more about Peg Leg Howell). Their “Banjo Blues” is derivative of the “Dallas Blues,” a pastiche of “floating blues verses” set to a simple piano score (Lloyd Garrett, words, and Hart A. Wand, music, “Dallas Blues” [Chicago: Frank K. Root, 1918]). However, the “had a good gal” verse does not appear in the published version of “Dallas Blues” (see Abbott and Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me,’” for more about “Dallas Blues”). The whole verse, as recorded by Howell and Anthony: “I had a good woman but the fool laid down and, I mean down and, I mean died. / I had a good woman but the fool laid down and died. / I got the banjo blues and I’m too darned mean to cry.”

18. “Luna Park, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910.

19. “Palace Theatre, Houston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 16, 1910.

20. Bessie Smith, “Weeping Willow Blues”/“The Bye Bye Blues,” Columbia 14042-D, 1924, reissued on Frog CD DGF42. Paul Carter and Charles H. Booker, words; Charles H. Booker, music, “A Woman Gets Tired of One Man All the Time” (Memphis: Yancy & Booker Music, 1920); “Carter & Mitchell,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 6, 1920.

21. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 16, 1904.

22. “The Cincinnati Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 17, 1910; “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 17, 1911. When the Goats sponsored a “ramble” at the Pekin Theater in August 1911, Love and Love were on the bill (“Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 26, 1911).

23. “The Maceo Theater, Columbia, South Carolina,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 19, 1910.

24. “The Loves Make Good In Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 28, 1912.

25. “Garden Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 15, 1911.

26. “Ruby Theater—Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 7, 1911.

27. Geo. Slaughter, “G. E. C.’s Benefit, Louisville,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14, 1911.

28. “The Bill At Dudley’s Theater, Washington, D.C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 20, 1912; “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 3; 10, 1912; “What’s What On The Dudley Circuit,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 20; 27; August 3; 17, 1912.

29. “The Loves Make Good In Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 28, 1912.

30. “Atlanta (Ga.) Theatricals,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 14, 1913; “The Central Theater, Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 14, 1913; “Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1913.

31. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 23, 1913.

32. J. W. Seer, “Globe Theatre, Jacksonville,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 24, 1910; “Globe Theater, Jacksonville,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 8, 1910.

33. Baby F. Seals, “Bijou Theater, Greenwood, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 21, 1911.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 4, 1911.

37. Tim E. Owsley, “Theaters In Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 3, 1911.

38. “The One Billy M’Clain In Europe,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 15, 1911.

39. Baby F. Seals, “Discussing Billy M’Clain’s Letter,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 12, 1911. Seals alludes to a letter written to the Freeman the previous year by Billy Henderson (“Recommends Wide Berth,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 11, 1910). Henderson complained that the manager of the People’s and Palace theaters in Houston, with the cooperation of the local police, had prevented his troupe from leaving town, and forced them, against their will, to extend their engagement at the theater.

40. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 16, 1911.

41. K. C. E., “Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 6, 1912.

42. “Why Criticism Helps The Profession,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 13, 1912. Freeman commentaries reveal that William Rainey had been using Seals’s original song-skit “Woman Pay Me Now.”

43. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 27, 1912.

44. Baby F. Seals, “Seals Replies To Well-Known Critic,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 10, 1912.

45. “The Successful Career of Baby F. Seals,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 27, 1912.

46. C. Marshall, “At Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 3, 1912.

47. K. C. E., “Crown Garden, Tim Owsley Manager,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 17, 1912; “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 2, 1912.

48. Sylvester Russell, “Baby Seals At The Monogram,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 2, 1912.

49. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 9, 1912.

50. “Seals and Fisher Heard From,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 6, 1912.

51. “Cincinnati, Ohio,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 13, 1912.

52. “Frank Hendon Informs Stage Struck [Girls],” Indianapolis Freeman, April 13, 1912.

53. Cartoon, “Seals & Fisher Playing Before White Audiences,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912; “Baby F. Seals And The Managers,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912; Jas. H. Price, “The Olio, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912.

54. “Why Seals & Fisher Are In Nashville,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 11, 1912.

55. “Twelfth Avenue Theater, Nashville, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 25, 1912.

56. Ad, “Majestic Theatre, Nashville,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 1, 1912. The performers Seals specifically solicited had all been part of his Bijou Theater adventure in Greenwood, Mississippi, two years earlier.

57. David D. Smith, “Nashville (Tenn.) Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 27, 1912.

58. “Booker Washington Airdome, St. Louis, Mo.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 14, 1912.

59. “Criterion Theater, Kansas City, Mo.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 28, 1912.

60. K. C. E., “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 5, 1912.

61. Baby F. Seals, “Baby Seals Blues” (St. Louis: Seals & Fisher, 1912).

62. Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll, 148.

63. “The New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 12, 1912.

64. Frank Hendon, “Informs Stage Struck Girls,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 26, 1912.

65. “News From Yankee Robinson’s Annex Band, With Yankee Robinson’s Three Ring Circus,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 9, 1912.

66. “Notes From J. C. O’Brien’s Famous Georgia Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 11, 1914.

67. “The Team of Jenkins and Jenkins,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 1, 1913.

68. “New Lincoln Opera House, Galveston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 12, 1913.

69. Walter S. Fearance, “St. Louis, Mo.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 23, 1913; “Galveston, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 6, 1913; “Alcazar Theater, Galveston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 20, 1913.

70. Charles Anderson, “Sing ’Em Blues,” OKeh 8124, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5380; Ida Cox, “Mama Doo Shee Blues,” Paramount 12085, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5322; Teddy Grace, “Mama Doo-Shee,” Decca 2603, 1939.

71. Ethel Finnie, “Don’t You Quit Me Daddy,” Ajax 17015, 1923, reissued on RST JPCD-1521–2; Sara Martin, “Don’t You Quit Me Daddy,” OKeh 8166, 1924, reissued on RST JPCD-1501–2; Ida Cox, “Mister Man—Pt. 2,” Paramount 12275, 1925, reissued on Document DOCD-5324; Peg Leg Howell, “Fo’ Day Blues,” Columbia 14177-D, 1926, reissued on Matchbox MBCD-2004; Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Long Lonesome Blues,” Paramount 12354, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5017; Papa Charlie Jackson, “Mumsy Mumsy Blues,” Paramount 12366, 1926, reissued on Document DOCD-5625; Hound Head Henry (accompanied by Cow Cow Davenport), “Hound Head Blues,” Vocalion 1209, 1928, reissued on Document BDCD-6040; Alura Mack, “Old Fashioned Blues,” Gennett 6767, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5189; Joe Calicott, “Traveling Mama Blues,” Brunswick 7166, 1930, reissued on Document DOCD-5002; Mississippi Moaner (Isaiah Nettles), “It’s Cold In China Blues,” Vocalion 03166, 1935, reissued on Document DOCD-5157; Jesse Thomas, “D Double Due Love You,” Miltone 232, 1948; Memphis Slim, “The Come Back,” United 156, 1953. The phrase “double do love you” does not appear in Memphis Slim’s 1959 remake version, “The Comeback,” Vee Jay 343.

72. Bessie Smith, “Preachin’ the Blues,” Columbia 14195-D, 1927, reissued on Frog DGF44. Other recorded references to lyrics associated with “Baby Seals Blues” are heard in Ida May Mack’s “Mr. Moore Blues,” Victor 21690, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5321; Dora Carr’s “Bring It On Home Blues,” OKeh 8130, 1924, reissued on Document DOCD-5375; and Milton Sparks’s “No Good Woman Blues,” Decca 7066, 1934, reissued on Document DOCD-5315. In 1922 Ray Prisby of Youngstown, Ohio, marketed a blues song titled “Sing ’Em,” published by the Refousse Music Publishing Company of New York (“J. A. Jackson’s Page,” “Here And There Among The Folks,” Billboard, July 22, 1922).

73. “Memphis (Tenn.) Show Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 1, 1913.

74. “Making Them Laugh At Atlanta, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 15, 1913; “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 22, 1913; “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 22, 1913.

75. “Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 12, 1913.

76. “Baby Seals Plays His Home Town,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 21, 1913.

77. Ad, “Gayety Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 26, 1913.

78. “Seals And Fisher Return To America,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 23, 1913.

79. “At The Olio In Louisville,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 30, 1913.

80. “Seals And Fisher At Winchester, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 13, 1913.

81. Baby F. Seals, “Things Beneficial To Performers,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 18, 1913.

82. “What’s What On The S. H. Dudley Circuit,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 25, November 1; 8; 15; 22, 1913.

83. The Wolf, “Washington, D. C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 25, 1913.

84. Will Lewis, “A Review Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 27, 1913.

85. “With Sprouting Horns Baby Seals Becomes A Full Fledged Elk,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 7, 1914.

86. Bradford and Ward, “New York To Have Commission To Censor Artists,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 21, 1914.

87. W. M. Benbow, “What’s What Down In New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 16; 23, 1915.

88. Wm. Benbow, “What’s What Down In New Orleans,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 30, 1915.

89. W. A. Davis, “Lincoln Theatre, Galveston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 27, 1915.

90. “Hippodrome Theatre, Galveston, Texas,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 5, 1915.

91. “The Johnson-Fisher Stock Company Spring Record Breaker,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 2, 1917; Eugene Anderson, “Metropolitan Theatre, Memphis, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 3, 1917; “Broadway Theater Opens,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 8, 1918; “Johnson-Fisher Co.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 7, 1918.

92. “Harlem Girls In New Revue,” Chicago Defender, October 15, 1927.

93. “Baby Franklin Seals Writes Four New Songs,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 17, 1915.

94. Baby F. Seals, “Things Performers And Managers Should Think About,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 7, 1915.

95. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 2, 1915.

96. “Baby Seals, Passed Away,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 5, 1916. “Blaine” is possibly a corruption of the abbreviation for Birmingham.

97. A search of the records of the State of Alabama Department of Public Health in 1994 failed to find any document recording the death of H. Franklin Seals in Alabama. Later, there was another “Baby” Seals, comedian Ernest “Baby” Seals, who was prominent in black vaudeville during the 1920s and enjoyed some celebrity in the 1960s as Pigmeat Markham’s “second banana” (Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham, Here Come The Judge! [New York, Popular Library, 1969]). In a 1961 interview, Ernest “Baby” Seals claimed to be a nephew of the original H. Franklin “Baby” Seals (Marshall and Jean Stearns notes from interview with Ernest Seals, March 1, 1961 [Center for Jazz Studies, Rutgers University]).

98. “Colored Singers And Players To Fame And Fortune By Discs,” Variety, August 2, 1923; “Fame And Fortune—‘Blues’ on Discs Making Race Composers Rich,” Chicago Defender, October 6, 1923.

99. Tim Owsley, “Now,” Chicago Defender, October 2, 1926.

100. K. C. E., “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 5, 1912.

101. Charles Anderson, “Sing ’Em Blues,” OKeh 8124, 1923, reissued on Document DOCD-5380.

102. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 31, 1914. In His Eye Is on the Sparrow, Ethel Waters claims to have been the “first woman—and the second person—ever to sing” “St. Louis Blues” professionally. She said she was inspired to feature it after having heard it sung by “Charles Anderson, a very good female impersonator” (Waters with Samuels, 72).

103. W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues (New York: Macmillan, 1941), 123.

104. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 24, 1915. “St. Louis Blues” is one of the unissued titles from Anderson’s final OKeh recording session in 1928.

105. Sylvester Russell, “Charles Anderson A Great Singer,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 13, 1913.

106. “Columbia And Dunnick Theaters, Indianapolis—James L. Nicholson, Manager,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 29, 1916.

107. “Handy, Music Composer,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 22, 1917.

108. “Wooden’s Bon Tons Captured Charlotte by Overwhelming Majority,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 6, 1917.

109. “Smart Set Show Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 21, 1917.

110. Billy Lewis, “Vaudeville Still Holding at the Washington Theatre, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 17, 1917.

111. Ibid. The 1900 U.S. Census lists this African American family in Birmingham: James Anderson (1878 Alabama) husband; Frances Anderson (1872 Alabama) wife; Charles Porter (1891 Alabama) stepson (AncestryLibrary.com). According to “Hits And Bits,” Chicago Defender, May 9, 1931, Charles Anderson’s mother’s given name was Frances.

112. “Memphis Theater Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 23, 1909.

113. “Theater Royal of Memphis,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 15, 29, 1910.

114. “The American Theater Jackson, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 18, 1911; Wayne Burton, “The Show Is A Success,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 9, 1911.

115. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 24, 1912.

116. “The New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1912.

117. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 2, 1912.

118. “St. Louis, Mo.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 23, 1913. Anderson’s recorded versions of “Sleep, Baby, Sleep,” OKeh 4980, 1923, and “Yodle Song—Coo Coo” [sic], OKeh 4980, are both reissued on Document DOCD-5380.

119. “New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 13, 1913.

120. “At The Unique Theater, Detroit, Mich.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 13, 1913.

121. In an edgy memo in the Freeman, Coleman Minor accused Anderson of stealing his song, “and tell[ing] the people you are the author of it” (“At The Crown Garden Theatre, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 2, 1915; Coleman Minor, “Lincoln Theatre, East Liberty, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 25, 1915).

122. “Stage Gossip,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 5; 19, 1916.

123. “Charles Anderson’s Indianapolis Follies At Pittsburgh, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 2, 1916.

124. “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 11, 1916.

125. “Vaudeville This Week At The Washington Theatre, Indianapolis—A Bill Of Good Attractions—Good Houses Ruling Regardless Of The Frosty Weather,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 17, 1917.

126. “News Of The Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 14, 1917.

127. Sylvester Russell, “Musical And Dramatic,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 24, 1917.

128. Seymour James, “Pittsburgh Theater News,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 23, 1918. For more on Anderson’s early experiments as a “‘yodeler blues’ singer,” see Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, “America’s Blue Yodel,” Musical Traditions, No. 11 (Late 1993): 2–11.

129. “Jacksonville Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 16, 1910.

130. For example, an 1892 dispatch from Helena, Arkansas, made it known that “W. Cleveland, the colored ventriloquist, in company with Dr. McNeal, was in the city … performing on the public square. He is known as the best colored ventriloquist in the South” (“A Colored Ventriloquist,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 2, 1892).

131. This birth date for Woods is derived from a statement in “Jacksonville Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 16, 1910: “He is only twenty-two years old.”

132. “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 17, 1908; “Plant Juice Vaudeville Co.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 5, 1908.

133. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 6; 20; April 3, 1909.

134. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 24; May 8, 1909.

135. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 22, 1909.

136. “Plant Juice Medicine Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 24, 1909.

137. “Muskogee, Okla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 14, 1909.

138. “Jacksonville Theatrical Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 16, 1910.

139. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 6, 1911.

140. Billy [sic], “The New Crown Garden Theater Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 2, 1911.

141. “How Woods Became a Great Ventriloquist,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 23, 1911.

142. “Gossip of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 27, 1912.

143. Sylvester Russell, “Stage Notes and Stroll News,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 12; 26, 1914.

144. “Rex Theater Has Grand Opening,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 10, 1912.

145. “The New Circle Theater, Philadelphia,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1912.

146. “The New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 1, 1913.

147. Sylvester Russell, “Johnnie Woods Takes Foremost Rank as a Ventriloquist,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 24, 1913.

148. Ad, Savoy Theater, Memphis, Indianapolis Freeman, April 26, 1913; ad, Star Theater, Savannah, Indianapolis Freeman, May 17, 1913; ad, Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Indianapolis Freeman, May 24, 1913; “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 14, 1913; Cary B. Lewis, “Miller And Lyles Return To The Grand,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 12, 1913.

149. Walter Fearance, “At The Booker Washington Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 19, 1913.

150. Cary B. Lewis, “Baboons At The Grand,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 26, 1913.

151. Verner Massey and Little Tommy, “To Mr. Jonnie [sic] Woods,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 26, 1913.

152. “Sam Evans, Ventriloquist, and His Doll,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 6, 1913; “Sam Evans, Ventriloquist,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 27, 1913.

153. Will Lewis, “A Review Of the Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 27, 1913.

154. Indianapolis Freeman, January 10, 1914.

155. Sylvester Russell, “Johnnie Woods, Ventriloquist, at the New Monogram,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 1, 1914.

156. “The New Crown Garden Theatre,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 29, 1914.

157. Sylvester Russell, “Stage Notes and Stroll News,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 6, 1915.

158. “The Whitman Sisters And Johnny Wood [sic] At the Washington Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 3, 1917.

159. “Johnny Woods Sick,” Chicago Defender, June 2, 1928; Sylvester Russell, “Sylvester Russell’s Review,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 4, 1928.

160. Salem Tutt Whitney, “Timely Topics,” Chicago Defender, August 4, 1928.

161. Tim Owsley, “The Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 27, 1913.

162. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 17, 1912.

163. “The Profession At Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1910.

164. Tim E. Owsley, “At The New Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 11, 1913.

165. “The New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 21, 1912.

166. “Cincinnati Theatres,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 3, 1911.

167. Walker W. Thomas, “Pensacola, Fla. The Belmont Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 22, 1911; “Cincinnati Theaters,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 5, 1911.

168. “Gossip Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 26, 1911; Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 2, 1911; Sylvester Russell, “Musical And Dramatic,” Chicago Defender, September 2, 1911. “A Fat Gal Am the Best Gal, After All” resonated with African American performers. At the Monogram Theater in 1912, Billy Mills’s “song, A Fat Gal Am the Best Gal After All,’ was immense” (Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 20, 1912); and with Rogers’s Greater Shows in 1915, Jessie Tolliver was “pleasing the people singing a fat ‘gal’ is the best ‘gal’ after all” (Sam McReynolds, “Rogers’ Greater Shows,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 28, 1915).

169. Geo. Slaughter, “Lyre Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911.

170. “Auditorium Theater, Philadelphia, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 26, 1912.

171. “Acts Of The Week At The Crown Garden, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1911.

172. “Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1911.

173. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 14, 1911.

174. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 21, 1911.

175. J. D. Howard, “At the Theaters In Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 11, 1911.

176. K. C. E., “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 14, 1912.

177. Tim Owsley, “The Crown Garden Theater,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 27, 1913.

178. Although the original 1912 sheet music edition of “The Memphis Blues” informed that it was “better known as ‘Mister Crump,’” Handy did not commit the “Mister Crump” lyrics to “The Memphis Blues” melody in a sheet music publication until 1949. See Abbott and Seroff, “‘They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me,’” 84–88.

179. Will Lewis, “A Review Of The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 27, 1913.

180. L. B. Maund [sic], “Macon, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 4, 1916.

181. In 1923 news came from Detroit that, “Mrs. Lula Too Sweet, wife of Willie Too Sweet, an actor, died last week after a serious illness of some time” (Henry D. Garnett, “Michigan,” Chicago Defender, July 28, 1923 [Black Studies Center, Pro-Quest]).

182. “Stage Gossip,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 30, 1916; “Lee’s Creole Belles At Summer Theater, Paris, Tex.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 13, 1917; “Lee’s Kentucky Troubadors [sic] Meet With Great Success,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 12, 1917; “News of the Players,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 3; 24, 1918.

183. Sylvester Russell, “Chicago Weekly Review,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 14, 1918.

184. K. C. E. (Elwood Knox), “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 14, 1912. Newspaper reportage confirms that Too Sweet performed the following original song parodies during 1911 and 1912: “Lovey Joe,” “Some Of These Days,” “Fat Gal Is De Best Gal After All,” “Nothing New Under the Sun,” George M. Cohan’s “Yankee Prince,” “You’ll Never Know What A Good Fellow I Have Been ’Till I Have Gone Away,” “Monkey Rag,” and “Everybody’s Doing It” (Geo. Slaughter, “Lyre Theater, Louisville, Ky.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911; “Acts Of The Week At The Crown Garden, Indianapolis,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 23, 1911; J. D. Howard, “At The Theatres In Indianapolis—Bert Williams A Big Feature In The Follies,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 4, 1911; K. C. E., “New Crown Garden,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 14, 1912; ad, Indianapolis Freeman, September 21, 1912).

185. “Cincinnati, O., Theatricals,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 28, 1912.

186. “At The Theatres In Indianapolis—Bert Williams A Big Feature In The Follies.”

187. “Gang” (Henry Jines), “Washington Theater,” Chicago Defender, April 28, 1923; “Whitmans At Monogram,” Chicago Defender, July 30, 1927. Recordings credited to “Papa Too Sweet,” probably attributable to Willie “Too Sweet” Perry, include Papa Too Sweet (accompanied by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey), “(Honey) It’s Tight Like That”/“Big Fat Mama,” OKeh 8651, 1928, reissued on Document DOCD-5073; and Vance Dixon and His Pencils (vocals by Papa Too Sweet), “Laughing Stomp,” Columbia 14608, and “Pete, the Dealer in Meat (Meat Man Pete)”/“Who Stole the Lock?,” Columbia 14673, all three recorded in 1931, reissued on RST JPCD-1519–2.

188. Odum, “Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes,” 374.

189. Ibid., 256.

190. Ibid., 257.

191. Ibid., 374. A similar approach is demonstrated on race records such as Charley Patton’s “Tom Rushen Blues,” Paramount 12877, 1929, reissued on Document DOCD-5009; and Sleepy John Estes’s “Lawyer Clark Blues,” Bluebird 8871, 1941, reissued on Document DOCD-5016.

192. “Pastime Theater At Athens, Georgia,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 14, 1910.

193. “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 22, 1910.

194. “The Pastime Theater, Athens, Georgia,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 15, 1910; “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 22, 1910; “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 26, 1910.

195. “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 29, 1910, February 12, 1910; “Pastime Theater Hitting Them Hard,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 12, 1910.

196. “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 19, 1910. The reference suggests Young may have been singing “Alabama Bound.”

197. “Ivy Theater, Chattanooga, Tenn.,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 20, 1910.

198. “The Dixie Theater, Charlotte, N. C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 26, 1910.

199. “Pekin Theatre,” Savannah Tribune, January 7, 1911.

200. “Pekin Dots,” Savannah Tribune, February 18, 1911.

201. “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 11, 1911. A retrospective by Julian Bagley suggests “Hug up Close to Jack Johnson” was probably a parody of the popular “Grizzly Bear.”

202. “Pastime Theater, Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911; “Pastime Theater—Athens, Ga.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 16, 1911.

203. “Globe Theater—Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 27, 1912.

204. “Rex Theater Has Grand Opening,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 10, 1912.

205. “The New Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 27, 1913.

206. Julian E. Bagley, “Moving Pictures in an Old Song Shop,” Opportunity 5, no. 12 (December 1927): 369–72. Thanks to David Evans.

207. “Notes From J. H. Mahoney’s Mobile Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 19, 1916.

208. “Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 17, 1903; “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 28, 1903.

209. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, July 1; August 5, 1905.

210. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 17, 1906; January 19, 1907.

211. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 2; August 4; September 8; October 20, 1906; July 11, 1908.

212. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 23, 1906.

213. “Tick’s Big Vaudeville,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 19, 1908.

214. Cecil Mack, lyrics, Chris Smith, music, “You’re in the Right Church but the Wrong Pew” (New York: Gotham-Attucks Music, 1908).

215. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, May 8, 1909.

216. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 12, 1909.

217. “Barrasso’s Stock Company, Vicksburg, Miss.,” Indianapolis Freeman, October 1, 1910.

218. “The Stage,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 17, 1910. Williams’s clever quip about “going where the weather suits my clothes” had come forth that same year as the title of a popular sheet music hit: Dave Clark, words, Albert Gumble, music, “I’m Going Where the Weather Suits My Clothes” (New York: Jerome H. Remick, 1910). Thanks to Wayne D. Shirley.

219. “Globe Theater, Jacksonvile [sic], Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, December 31, 1910; J. W. Seer, “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 21, 1911.

220. “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 25, 1911.

221. Tim Owlsey [sic], “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 11, 1911; “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla,” Indianapolis Freeman, March 11, 1911.

222. Frank Crowd, “The Globe Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.,” Indianapolis Freeman, April 1, 1911.

223. “Notes From The Blue Steel Stock Company, With The Argyle Show,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 12, 1914.

224. “J. L. Williams, Sensational Trombonist,” “The Florida Blossom Show,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 14, 1915. J. L. Williams and J. H. “Blue Steel” Williams are two different people.

225. Ibid. See Abbott and Seroff, Ragged but Right, 290–306, for more about the Florida Blossom Minstrels.

226. “Notes From Florida Blossom’s Company,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 1, 1916.

227. “Notes From J. H. Mahoney’s Model Mobile Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, June 17, 1916.

228. “Notes From J. H. Mahoney’s Mobile Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 19, 1916.

229. “Notes From J. H. Mahoney’s Mobile Minstrels,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 2, 1916.

230. “The Dixieland At Charleston, S.C.,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 13, 1917; “Stage Notes,” Indianapolis Freeman, January 20, 1917.

231. Seymour James, “Pittsburgh Theater News,” Indianapolis Freeman, February 16; 23, 1918; Jules McGarr, “Pittsburgh Theater News,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 24, 1918; Baby L. McGarr, “Pittsburgh Theater News,” Indianapolis Freeman, August 31, 1918.

232. D. P. Dorsey, “Theatrical Notes From Pittsburgh, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, September 20, 1919.

233. “The New Star Theatre, Pittsburg, Pa.,” Indianapolis Freeman, November 20, 1920.

234. “Blue Steel Williams Dead,” Chicago Defender, October 31, 1925.