Dancing On the Edge Journal

Dancing On The Edge Journal
Explorations in Beach and SShag
hag H
istor
Histor
istoryy
Volume 1, Issue 5
March 8, 2010
From the Flipside: Beaches, Music,
and Shag Culture
1938 -- Sol Legare Island’s Mosquito Beach, Charleston, SC
The Hidden History of Shag culture in
Charleston is a jigsaw puzzle.
In coming issues we’ll piece together this
history to show the backdrop and some of
the influences in Charleston’s history.
I first came across a reference to Shag in
a very early yearbook at an exclusively allgirls school. It’s been all but impossible to
get information directly from the school--my
fault, there’s always a way, I just haven’t had
Dancing O
n the E
dge JJour
our
nal
On
Edge
ournal
POB 422
N. M
yr
tle B
each, SC 29597
Myr
yrtle
Beach,
Tel: 843-602-4475
www
.beachshag.com
www.beachshag.com
the time to pursue every avenue--however,
I’ve collected enough to understand that there
is far more than has met my eyes.
Until recently the only black resort in
the Charleston area I’d found referenced was
Mosquito Beach. While researching this story
I heard a PBS show which talked about another. There is almost nothing written about
it in any single place. But I’ve pulled together a few to give a broader perspective to
that one little sentence found in a yearbook,
and to provide some context to what is “missing” in many local histories.
The Post and Courier ran one story on
Riverside Park Beach in 2001 with some broad
references to who played there, but not when.
Following the
Volume 1, IIssue
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Civil War, black
1
freedmen settled on an island
and farmed a former plantation
owned by Charleston planter
Solomon Legare, They were
still growing corn, tomatoes,
cucumbers and okra their in the
1950s.
The most well-known portion of Mosquito Beach knew
its heyday as a thriving oyster
factory in the 1920s and 30s
and apparently still provided
jobs for many in the 50s and
60s. Scant few oral histories say
Mosquito Beach Road is in the bottom left hand corner. Written or oral histories of the Oyster Factory became
Mosquito Beach are nearly non-existent.
known as Mosquito Beach.
Joe “King Pin” Chavis opened the Seaside Grill there
with a jukebox, pool table, and fresh clams and crabs in
1940.
Andrew “Apple” Jackson Wilder built The Boardwalk Harborview Pavilion there in 1953.
Over time Chavis developed other juke joints, some
of whom were the P & J Snack Bar, the Mosquito Lake
Club, Ernie’s Grove, the D& F Club, and Jimmy
Lafayette’s place (name?)
“Apple” Wilder died in 1984 and the Boardwalk
Mosquito Beach on Sol Legare Island is northwest of Folly
Beach at the red-encircled ‘A’. Some accounts describe
it as an area where the ‘rough elements’ congregated.
Others say differently. In a recent online post two fellows discussed the folklore thus,
closed indefinitely, folks said it was never again the same.
Scanlonville: The O
ldest of Charleston
iv
lack
Oldest
Charleston’’s F
Fiv
ivee B
Black
Beaches
In the Mount Pleasant area to the Northeast was
“Ever heard of Mosquito Beach? Where is it? Went
to College with some guys from Chucktown and they
used to say that you should never go to Mosquito
Beach or an area on the Pennisula called ‘Back The
Green’?”
***************************************
“In my youth I often partied at the Casper Club;
nothin' bad out there. Even let buckras in. To get to
Mosquito Beach, go down Folly, then take a right on
Sol Legare Rd. ‘Back of the Green’ refers to the
old Fiddlers Green area. It's where the PD HQ is.
Mother was born in a house there back in the '20s.
Never heard of ‘Chucktown,’ though.”
Dancing On the Edge
2
Scanlonville -- at the red-encircled ‘A’.
Riverside Beach, said to be the earliest of the Black beaches
“One of the most popular and largest joints....was
in Charleston.
Two decades before Riverside Beach opened it was
an air-conditioned night club and motel called White’s
Paradise on Riverside Beach Road, which is now 5th Av-
already staked out as a recreational area for blacks.
An early newspaper story shows that on July 15, 1908
enue in Scanlonville. Soul Singer James Brown made
White’s Paradise his haven years before ‘Papa’s Got A
the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church boarded the
Sappho, a steam ferry on the Cooper, and crossed to
Brand New Bag.’”
(According to the Chicora Research Foundation
Remley’s Point beach for the church’s annual picnic.
Twenty one years later when the Cooper River Bridge
which collected some of this information, ‘Like lots of
Charlestonians who ignored the Sunday Blue Laws, beer
Company opened the Grace Bridge in August 1929, they
simultaneously advertised the Isle of Palms beach for
and wine could be purchased at Riverside -- after church.’)
[Locals considered the Flamingo and Snipes as ‘juke
whites (although it been there for decades) and Riverside for blacks (also there for decades). Perhaps they were
joints’, i.e. groceries where folks could buy bread and
wine and dance as well. White’s Paradise was a night-
reiterating the obvious to promote the bridge as a new
and wonderful public access to both beaches.
club rather than juke joint].
Tom Horton, a historian with the Moultrie News, in-
Riverside Beach opened ‘officially’ on August 2, 1930
offering a dance pavilion, athletics field, bathhouse, play-
terviewed two men this year (2010) who were there,
thankfully.
ground, and boardwalk along the Wando River.
Cooper Bridge Company went bankrupt in 1936
Marion Alston remembered Cab Calloway playing
there during the Depression, singing a special song that
and Charleston County took it over and leased it to several black businessmen in 1941.
night, “Coming to Charleston to see my Old Friend,
Geechie Joe.”
P.J. Green, a cab company owner, and Herbert Chesterfield Frazier, a hotel bellman leased the park from 1944-
D a v i d
Simmons remem-
46 when the lease went to Reliable Oil Company’s Owner
Abraham Washington and cab driver Edward Mitchell.
bered seeing Ella
Fitzgerald
at
Their partnership ended in the 60s, but Washington kept
control of the park until his death in 1975.
White’s Paradise
fronting Chick
That marked the end. The county wanted short term
leases (for fast cash) and the black businessmen didn’t
Webb’s
band.
[Chick, who was
like the terms. Big Bridge company bought it and turned
it into a gated community.
the drummer and
leader of the band,
In an interview, Herbert Frazier made it clear that
Riverside was ‘more than a beach.’
hired Ella in 1935
and he died in June
In his words,
“Riverside’s ability to draw people to Scanlonville in
1939 after which
Ella ran the band
the 1940s and 1950s spawned night spots called juke
joints or piccoloes....Honking cars kicked up dust on
until 1942. One of
their many songs,
Scanlonville’s dirt roads as party goers criscrossed the
community headed to juke joints...”
“Tain’t What You
Do (It’s the Way
“Revelers were in search of a club called Snipes that
locals called Jim Plue (Jim Blue) [aa grocery store / club
Plue], the Flaowned by Jim Snipe also known as Jim Plue
That You Do It,” oft repeated in later R&B tunes, was
the flip side of one of their national hits. Louis Jordan
mingo, Star Light Lounge, Hunt’s Store, the Chitter
Chatter, and Tippin’ In.”
played in Chick’s band as a very young saxophonist before he left to build his gigantic
Volume 1, IIssue
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3
career heading up the Tympani 5].
and Riverside. The historic commission of Mt. Pleasant
Simmons and Alston remembered James Brown play- couldn’t find a fifth Beach claimed by a story in the Post
ing at White’s Paradise long before “Papa’s Got A Brand and Courier some years ago, speculating that perhaps
New Bag’ (other sources say he played there in the 1950s). people were referring to Atlantic Beach in the North
According to them James liked to talk and play baseball Myrtle Beach area or McKenzie Beach in Georgetown.
when he wasn’t onstage. He used to stay at Riverside
There is another reference elsewhere to Frazier Beach,
two or three days at a time, although he only played which claimed that it, Riverside and Peter Miller’s didn’t
there on Sunday nights, so he could play baseball with survive because of black on black hostilities. (Was Frazier
the locals in the afternoons.
Beach related to Herbert Frazier, the bellman who coBrown played at the Savoy in Columbia on Mon- leased Riverside 1944-46?)
days, returning Tuesday to Augusta.
The claim of their demise is at least partly doubtful
because Riverside lasted at least 65+ years.
Performers mentioned so far, with the exception of
James Brown, all played at the Riverside Beach Pavilion.
Brown played at White’s Paradise on 5th Avenue, built
by Henry White and operating from the mid 40s to the
1980s. The former club building was razed just before
Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
Although few, some whites attended performances
at White’s Paradise.
In a 2008 Charleston City Paper interview, Ed Lee
said Riverside Beach had two open-air pavilions and a
boardwalk. (In the black school newspaper, the Avery
Tiger, of May 1949, in a column entitled DID YOU
Riverside Beach’s pavilion and bandstand were wide HAPPEN TO SEE....is a single reference to the boardopen every season from Easter Monday until Labor Day. walk, i.e. “E. Brown and G. Huggins boardwalking at
Other well-known entertainers who played there were Riverside Beach?”
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, B.B.
Ed’s great-aunt, Davarline Frasier-Lee managed the
King, Ivory Joe Hunter, Sam and Dave, Clyde McPhatter, beach for some years. He used to go crabbing on the
Etta James, the Midnighters, and the Platters.
beach on Saturday mornings.
Duke Ellington played there in 1940, four years
Ed remembers White’s Paradise as almost the size of
before Charleston’s legendary ‘Cat’ Anderson, purported a gymnasium “with columns down the side, booths, tables
by many to be the most awesome trumpet player of the and a full bar area....like a 1950s version of the Shriner’s
20th century because of his ability to play the highest hall over there on Patriots Point” [a famous dance hall
notes possible on his horn, and a long string to them to we’ll get to in a future story].
boot.
A well-known local band which played White’s ParaBy the 60s, when there wasn’t any live music, a local dise was the Royal Sultans, pictured above in 1945. The
radio station’s DJs broadcast live from Riverside Beach. Sultans were known locally and throughout South CaroRiverside Beach, allegedly the first and oldest in the lina. In the early 50s they were invited as one of WCSC
Charleston area, is said to be one of five black beaches. TV’s premiers acts in the launching of their new show,
There others were Mosquito Beach, Seabrook Beach, Pe- Talent Parade.
ter Miller’s Rantowles (11 miles south of Charleston),
William Louis Gilliard started the Royal Sultans afDancing On the Edge
4
ter he’d travelled to New York to see his three cousins,
Tip, Tap, and Toe perform in 1938.
Scanlonville, SC, Remley’s Point, and Riverside Beach. Most folks’ homes were along the street which runs
from the middle right of the map to just past the red-circled A. Remley’s Point was straight to the west (as seen in the
line drawing below). In the 30s, 5th Avenue was a dirt road. Remley’s Point was covered in hard-packed white sand
like Sullivan’s Island giving it it’s name Riverside Beach (the river later washed the sand away). Until Grace Bridge
was built in 1929 (recently replaced by a new bridge) folks from Charleston’s black community crossed the harbor in
the evening’s for fun at Riverside Beach which sported a bandstand, ferris wheel, and merry-go-round. Black
entrepreneurs Neddy Mitchell and David Washington [the names Simmons & Alston remembered] took over the
amusement park from the county and were responsible for the pavilion and Riverside Beach Club becoming nationally known. -- Variety magazine announced that Duke Ellington was playing the Riverside Beach Park July 19, 1940.
Scanlonville began historically as a plantation owned by
Clement Lemprier until his heirs sold it in 1836 to Paul
Remley. At one time there was also a Revolutionary war
fortification and earthworks on the riverfront there. Following the Civil War, Remley heirs sold it in 1868 to John
L. Scanlon, a freed black who created the Charleston
Land Company where African Americans could buy half
acre lots. Scanlon’s company was one of four freedmen
cooperatives in this region of South Carolina. There were
two others on Edisto Island and one on Bull Island which
was later lost. On August 13, 1873, the Charleston News
& Courier published a story about the cooperatives entitled “Colored Communism” -- apparently they were used
by African Americans to take
care of one another and
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
Charleston didn’t like it.
5
those instruments to generate other contributions in the
U.S. and abroad.
It’s impossible not to draw comparisons between the
Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston and the Colored Waifs
Home for Boys in New Orleans for two reasons,
1) They both had popular bands which performed
in public.
2) The bands of each produced some well-known
jazz players.
Interestingly, Cat Anderson, who came from the
The Jenkins Orphanage school’s second location, moving
from King Street , was at 20 Franklin Street 1893-1938.
Jenkins band, idolized and followed the career of Louis
Armstrong from the Colored Waifs band, all his life.
The Colored Waifs Home opened in 1911, and accepted 11-year old delinquent Louis Armstrong some-
The Royal Sultans didn’t play just black clubs, they
were the first black unit to play white clubs in the Charles-
time in 1912/3. Louis was out at about the time that
four-year old William Anderson was ushered in to the
ton area--which was often a tough road to travel according to Gilliard. They were the first to play Ielene’s on
Jenkins Orphanage.
William Alonzo ‘Cat’ Anderson was born in
King Street downtown, Andre’s and the Sea Island Club
on Folly Beach.
Greenville, SC in 1916. After his parents died at four,
he was sent to the Jenkins Orphanage.
In 1951 Fletcher Linton and Gilliard were still with
the Sultans. Rock and Roll’s rise in the mid 50s was the
beginning of the end for the Royal Sultans. Gilliard
Whereas Louis Armstrong’s description of life in the
orphanage isn’t particularly notable, except that he
became an auxiliary fireman from 1955 to 1959. By
1980 he was Chief of the Charleston Fire Department. I
learned to play cornet there, Anderson’s story is quite a
bit different.
don’t know exactly when he left the stage, but he was
still leading the group in 1959 for area parties and graduations.
Doin
ickin
oin’’ the Cotton P
Pickin
ickin’’ Charleston
Of the other particularly notable bands from Charleston, the Carolina Cotton Pickers formed by William ‘Cat’
Anderson and his colleagues from Band Number 5 of
the Jenkins Orphanage school.
Legends surround the Jenkins Orphanage band. The
school was formed by former slave Reverend Daniel
Jenkins in 1891. An early innovation with massive impact on the orphanage’s future was the acceptance of musical instruments rather than cash as contributions to
the school. For several decades, the Jenkins band used
Dancing On the Edge
6
William ‘Cat’ Anderson paid little attention to what was
happening in Jazz unless Louis Armstrong did it.
Cat never liked questions about his years in the orphanage. Although there were a couple of stories writ-
Smalls, and St. Julian Bennett Dash (although Dash only
listed playing in the Avery Institute’s Night Hawk Or-
ten about his orphanage experience there was only one
interview in which he finally discussed it.
chestra in his Jr. and Sr. years in 1932 and 1933 in his
self-written biography).
Cat said he was in daily fights with other boys and
that he was whipped regularly for several years. The whip
St. Julian went on to the Alabama State Teachers
College in Montgomery where he played with the Colle-
was apparently one of the standard Orphanage’s standard practices to encourage educational progress. Cat
gians who later changed their name to the Erskine
Hawkins Band. In 1939 St. Julian, Erskine Hawkins
Anderson said he received more than most because he
wasn’t gifted.
and William Johnson co-wrote “Tuxedo Junction,”
Hawkins’ theme song and a huge hit for Glenn Miller.
[There is an angry undertone in Cat’s characterization of his early years. Not surprising.
Smalls played in the Royal Eight, a high school band
in Charleston until he left to travel with the Carolina
I grew up in the Midwest where in the 50s I thought
that whipping was simply the way all boys were molded
Cotton Pickers until he joined Earl Hines in 1942. He
also played with Billy Eckstine 1948-50, then with Earl
to fit into society. In my experience whippings had two
outcomes. 95% of the time they helped develop Obedi-
Bostic until a car accident in 1951. Smalls resume expanded with trombonist Bennie Green, Paul Williams,
ent young man. The other 5% they reinforced the independence and will of ‘troublemakers.’ As it turns out
Clyde McPhatter, Brook Benton for seven years in the
late 50s and early 60s, Dinah Washington, musical di-
the ‘willful’ 5% often discover a deep current of latent
anger later in life that has to be dealt with in one way or
rector for Smokey Robinson, followed by work with Ella
Fitzgerald, then his own Septet and long teaching career
another.]
Cat started out on trombone at the orphanage and
in New York.
The Charleston, SC music scene was rich with black
tried several other instruments before settling on the trumpet. He said he wasn’t good with any of them and that it
bands who played in numerous clubs as well as black
social club and organization picnics.
took a lot of whippings and practice before he could play
even satisfactorily.
In addition to the Royal Sultans, there were the
Metronome All Stars, Carolina Stompers, Royal Enter-
As a oft-whipped boy he concentrated on ‘survival.’
In his case, survival meant to excel on the trumpet. By
tainers, and of course the Night Hawks Orchestra who
often played at the Dart’s Dancing Casino on Bull Street
the time he was playing with Duke Ellington in the 40s
he was a high-notes specialist who easily played an oc-
about four blocks from the Jenkins Orphanage and Avery
Institute.
tave higher than the other players in Duke’s band.
In 1929, Cat began to travel with Jenkins Orphan-
Boat excursions were a popular venue for black bands.
In 1924, Saxton Wilson’s Cruel Five played ‘jazz,
age Band No. 5. After three years the boys changed
their name to the Carolina Cotton Pickers which Cat
razmatazz and rajazz’ on Cooper River boats. The Cruel
Five were a small jazz ensemble drawn from Avery
played with until 1935.
Even though he’d already left to join Hartley Toots
Institute’s Professor William Saxton’s Orchestra formed
in 1921 (the Night Hawks were another Avery Institute
Florida band for a year in ‘36 and then the Sunset Royals until 1942, he is credited as being with the Carolina
jazz band).
There were many venues in which to find these and
Cotton Pickers on their only two recording sessions in
Birmingham, Alabama on March 24 and 25, 1937. Out
other bands:
Hotel James on Spring Street -- for black travelers
of those sessions three records were issued on two labels,
Vocalion and ARC.
The Cotton Pickers spawned a handful of well-known
black players including Jabbo Smith, Freddie Green, Cliff
52-20 Club in Summerville
Grant Hall
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
7
The Carolina Cotton Pickers on one of their travels south to St. Petersburg, Florida in November 1943.
RVA Club in the Neck area
ville, New York City, Chicago, and other cities.
In North Charleston:
Unfortunately their career is hard to track. In Roy
Porter and David Keller’s book, There and Back, is a two
The Zanzibar
Harlem Club
paragraph story about another group in a battle of the
bands at the Dallas, Texas Regal nightclub with the Caro-
Bacardi’s Rose Room
lina Cotton Pickers when Cat Anderson was playing with
them.
As mentioned, the Riverside Beach Park pavilion,
I thought I’d never find a picture of them. But the
one I finally scrounged up is significant in another way.
White’s Paradise, and downtown
Charleston’s Harlston Hall
Lincoln Theater
Dash Hall
Moulin Rouge
Charleston County Hall
RVA Club (later the Village)
Dart Hall (a.k.a. Dart’s Dancing Casino)
On one of their several jaunts to Florida the Cotton
Pickers played in St. Petersburg. My speculation is that
it was on one of those tours that they bumped into Idrees
Dawud Sulieman (Leonard Graham before his Muslim
conversion).
Be Bop trumpeter Sulieman was born in St. Petersburg in 1923, so I’d guess he met the Cotton Pickers on
a jaunt earlier than the 1943 picture of them included
Colonial Cabin
Cadillac Club (mentioned in Frankie McNeill and here.
the Counts’ recent Top 40 song “Drinkin’ Liquor and
He studied for a while at the Boston Conservatory
Tellin’ Lies”),
before joining Earl Hines Orchestra in 1943-44. Later
Kozy Korner
he worked with Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk
Ponderosa
(1947), Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins,
and the D.P.O. Club
and Lionel Hampton before an extensive period spent in
Of all the Charleston bands the Carolina Cotton Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Pickers was the most traveled from the 1930s through
the 1950s playing Los Angeles, New Orleans, JacksonMor
ickin
oree Cotton P
Pickin
ickin’’
Dancing On the Edge
8
The Carolina Cotton Pickers also provided the op- and she looked up and hollered, ‘Ah, sing it, you
portunity for a Topeka, Kansas boy to extend his reper- gatemouth son of a bitch.’” “Gatemouth” Moore was
toire in the 40s.
born.
Gatemouth hooked up with the Carolina Cotton
Arnold Dwight Moore was born in Topeka in 1913.
By 1929 he was singing with the Bennie Moten Band at Pickers in 1940 often playing at Gilmore’s Chez Paree in
the Cherry Blossom Club in Kansas City’s swingin’ 12th Kansas City through to 1945 (the Chez Paree was the
and Paseo section downtown (close by to the equally fa- former Cherry Blossom club where Gatemouth performed
mous 12th Street and Vine and 18th and Vine jazz wa- with the Bennie Moten band 11 years earlier).
tering holes).
They’ve been found at Town Hall in Philadelphia in
At 16, Moore performed alongside two other fellows 1943 as well as the Stardust Inn in Washington D.C.
who joined Moten’s group in 1929, Jimmy Rushing and that year.
At the urging of Herb Abramson in 1945,
Bill (later Count) Basie.
Throughout the 30s Moore toured with Ida Cox’s Gatemouth’s recording career came right after his dates
Darktown Scandals Revue, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, at the Chez Paree on National records. (Abramson went
on to become a co-founder of Atlantic records in the late
40s).
Several of Gatemouth’s tunes, though rare for years,
are now available. Of particular interest to Shag / Bop
enthusiasts are, beginning with his first recording:
“I Ain’t Mad At You Pretty Baby” 1945
“Highway 61 Blues”
“Don’t You Know I Love You”
1947
1947
“Satisfyin’ Papa”
“Hey Mr. Gatemouth”
1947
1947
“GottaWalk”
“I Ain’t Mad At You”
1947
1947
“Willie Mae Blues”
“You’re Having Hard Luck Blues”
1947
1947
Those are all official releases on National or King
records who he joined later. Nine other unreleased tunes
have been put out since, with some of those also with
Shag / Bop interest. y
Arnold Dwight “Gatemouth” Moore
CHAPTER TWO: Hmmm, I Wonder Wher
Wheree those
efer
ences to White Kids SShaggin
haggin
Silas Green from New Orleans, Pork Chop Chapman’s Early R
Refer
eferences
haggin’’ in Charleston
Show, Sammy Green’s Down In Dixie Minstrel’s, Sam Might have had their Origins?
Dale’s Circus, Beckman and Garrity Carnival, Winter
Erlich and Hearts Carnival, King Kolax Band, Nat Cole
group, Erskine Tate Band, and Walter Barnes Band.
It was with Ida Cox’s Darktown Scandals at Atlanta's
Club 81 in 1934 when Dwight acquired his new name.
He was singing “Stardust” on stage when “....[there was]
a little black woman, short and fat, coming down the
aisle, rocking with me as I'm singing. I opened my mouth
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
9
Vintage G
Grroo
oovves
The Rubies left to right in back: Hershey Deville on piano, Sylvester Weatherall lead guitar, Ralph Frank alto
sax, Milton Lazar bass, Rogers Thomas trombone and vocals, Clarence Gallow drums (Clarence wasn’t on
“Kidnapper” or B side “A Thrill,” but recorded with them on their two later records). Kneeling in front, left to
right: Lannis Fontenot lead vocals, Jewell ‘Doug’ Douglas band leader and sax, and Leroy Alfred lead vocals.
Jewell and the Rubies’ big Beach Music hit, “Kidnapper,” is one of three rare gems in the crown of a unique
the kidnapping vein, assuming that someone had stole
their baby.
specialty category in R&B music.
The first was the Coaster’s 1957 “Searchin’” in which
Tavares started rounding up their posse like the Coasters by first calling on Sherlock Holmes, then Charlie Chan,
the lead singer is searching for his baby “every which-away,” invoking along the way several popular detectives
Ellery Queen, Baretta, McCloud, Kojak, Ironside, and
Dirty Harry.
of the day, i.e. Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Sergeant
Friday, Charlie Chan, Boston Blackie, Bulldog
Behind this trio of R&B mystery records invoking
detectives from different eras is an even greater mystery -
Drummond, and of course, like that Northwest Mountie.
“Kidnapper” was second in the series in 1963. The
- was Jewel and the Rubies’ “Kidnapper” an original or a
spin-off record?
third was Tavares’ 1977 “Whodunit” which followed in
When I first talked with Jewell Douglas in July 1980,
he was teaching school and still gigging on weekends
Dancing On the Edge
10
with Horace Smith and the Notebenders playing Basie-
style jazz around Gary, Indiana.
When he learned of the popularity of “Kidnapper”
among Shaggers and Boppers in the Southeast he was
stunned. Stunned that it had been a hit from 1964 to
1980 and he never knew. Given the story that followed
I was surprised he didn’t break down and cry--he’d never
had a hit. Not in his experience.
Jewell Douglas was born December 27, 1924 in Little
Rock, Arkansas. When he was two his parents moved to
Gary, Indiana where he went to school and played trombone in the Roosevelt High School Band.
After graduation he joined the Army just in time for
You said on your letter, the other day,
You don’t care if crime don’t pay,
You got my girl, now you’re on the run,
You want some love, and a whole lotta fun,
Kidnapper, bring my baby back to me,
Kidnapper, you got me in misery.
The FBI is on your trail,
Elliott Ness won’t let you rest,
Have Gun Will Travel is in my pay,
He swears to get you if it takes all day,
Route 66 is in the race,
Perry Mason will take my case,
Hawaiian Eye got you on the run,
“They’ll bring you in,” says Peter Gunn,
Kidnapper, bring my baby back to me,
Kidnapper, you got me in misery,
Kidnapper, bring my baby back to me....
World War II. While serving in Europe he met many
young black men who “really knew their minds and the
directions they wanted to take.” Their focus inspired
Jewell to do something with his own life.
Following his new inspiration after the war, Jewell
enrolled in Xavier College, New Orleans in 1946 (about
15 years after Earl Bostic studied there) and then Southern University in Baton Rouge from 1949-1952.
During his school years he met several notable people.
In the room next to his at Xavier was Lee Allen who went
on to become a noted, although even by New Orleans’
standards, odd and unusual, tenor sax player.
Lee was born in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1927 and raised
in Denver. He was drawn to Coleman Hawkins and
Dexter Gordon as a youth and tried to emulate them in
his high school band.
Lee left Denver on a music and athletic scholarship
to Xavier in 1944. Jewel said Lee was big in football and
basketball and a member of all the social clubs.
On campus, Jewell got to see Dave Bartholomew and
Paul Gayten who Lee later played with out of New Orleans.
Jewell must’ve traveled more than once on weekends
down Highway 10 from Baton Rouge to New Orleans
where he saw Fats Domino, Annie Laurie, Champion Jack
Dupree at the Dew Drop Inn, and sat in with Roy Brown
once on Ramparts Street.
Jewell’s major at the university was social studies and
music his minor, however after graduation he couldn’t
get a social studies teaching position.
Volume 1, IIssue
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11
I strongly suspect he meant the same Lonesome Sunfor awhile, until a friend back down in the Big Easy let down born as Cornelius Green in Donaldsonville to the
him know that the school in Oakdale, Louisiana was look- southeast in 1928.
When I interviewed Jewell in ‘80 and ‘82 I didn’t
ing for a band director and he thought ‘hey, I can teach
He returned to Gary, Indiana to work in a steel mill
know who Lonesome Sundown was. It was an entirely
He started in Oakdale (NW of Baton Rouge, different track of research along which I ran across him
Opelousas, and Ville Platte on the map) in September in the 90s.
Lonesome started gigging with the Clifton Chenier’s
1952 with 14 kids and by December had a band of 35.
band.’
Zodico Ramblers at the Blue
Moon Club in Lake Charles,
Lousiana in 1953, traveling
with the band throughout the
South and over to the West
Coast.
Lake Charles is where he
hooked up with local legend
Jay Miller to record numerous
singles, some with Lazy Lester
on harp.
He left and joined the
Lloyd Renaud Trio in 1955,
working many times at
Domino’s Lounge in Eunice
From there he moved to James Stevens Elementary (see map, SW of Ville Platte). In the late 50s he formed
school in Ville Platte to teach from 1955 to 1965. Al- a five-piece combo working clubs in around Opelousas,
though he was fulfilled as a teacher, Jewell wanted his east of Eunice. That sounds like it was probably the
Night Raiders -- I’ve never heard of another Lonesome
During those ten years Jewell started several little Sundown.
bands, but it was a group of 5th graders he started with
Zing Went the SStrings
trings of the R
ubies
Rubies
in 1955 who became, in 1962, the Rubies.
own band so he could write his own ticket.
Building a band like he wanted was challenging at
All the professional players Jewell knew played by
the time, Jewell wanted string players who could read
music. Everyone he knew of played by ear, there wasn’t a ear, so he couldn’t draw from them. He settled on develcurriculum in southern rural schools with courses on read- oping a chord system to teach some young musicians.
ing music for string players. He knew some who played One was Sylvester Weatherall who lived in Lawtell, east
well by ear, but not to his standards, he wanted the band of Eunice on Highway 190 near Opelousas, and the other
to be able to play for white audiences as well as black, was Milton Lazar, 24 miles away from Ville Platte in
and he thought to do so they’d need to be able to read Opelousas. Jewell drove to pick each of them up, take
charts. He especially wanted someone who could read them to his house to teach and practice, take them home,
and return to his own. That turned out to be a lot of
for string bass and guitar.
Lonesome Sundown and the Night Raiders was one driving.
At the time Jewell’s second wife was hospitalized so
of the groups he gigged with on weekends during that
he had the boys stay at his house. He taught during the
ten-year period.
Dancing On the Edge
day them taught them at home at night, plus provide
12
them spending money. His bills went up and up and he
vocalists Lannis Fontenot and Rogers Thomas, and drum-
needed to get the band on the road to bring in some
money.
mer Clarence Gallow. They all started with Jewell in the
fifth grade.
As it was, a major problem at school moved the tides
of fate in Jewell’s favor.
Sam Hutchinson was hired to drive, although Ralph
Frank handled the wheel when their trailer had to be
In 1960 the Ville Platte school where he taught hired
a new choral teacher -- a beautiful young woman. Every
backed into a tight spot. And Leroy Mouton was hired
as a valet.
boy in the school was so infatuated with her that everybody was soon taking choir, including all the band mem-
But they needed a name. Ralph Frank’s wife, Gloria,
suggested “The Rubies.”
bers.
By the 1961 school year the situation was becoming
While the band practiced for six months before going on the road, Jewell put the pen to a song during the
unmanageable. Although the choir only practiced twice
a week, and the band three times a week, their schedules
day at school, the song was “Kidnapper” and by the time
they were ready to play, they had “Kidnapper” polished.
conflicted so much that the band finally dried up.
Jewell went to the principle and predicted that when
When Jewell and the Rubies hit the club circuit one
of their first gigs was a club in Krotz Springs on High-
the spring 1962 graduation came there wouldn’t be a
school band to play the tradition “War March of the
way 190 between Opelousas and Baton Rouge. They
also landed a job early on in Lafayette (home of some
Priests” for the graduation exercises.
Two months before graduation, Jewell was back in
great Sunday afternoon horse racing) where they found a
studio at La Louisianne records to record “Kidnapper.”
the principle’s office, “see, there’s no band, like I said.”
The principle retorted that Jewell would find a band
Jewell said it took two, all-night recording sessions to get
the song right. The Rubies were exhausted. During
to play for graduation or he’d have no job.
Jewell turned to Hershey Deville, an organ player
their breaks they’d sit in chairs and nod in and out of
sleep until Jewell called them for the next recording take.
he’d taught his chord system, plus Milton Lazar and
Sylvester Weatherall who he’d been teaching at home.
Soon after they travelled to Texas, then to play a prom
in Shreveport--their first truly tough assignment. It was
They had two months to learn the chord changes to play
for the baccalaureate. The principle said it was the best
a totally white school in a time without a trace of integration on the horizon. The Ku Klux Klan was there to
he’d ever heard. Jewell had the core of a new band.
Other Rubies included lead vocalist Leroy Alfred,
stop them playing and the Highway Patrol was there to
stop the Klan.
Threats filled the air and the Rubies never even got
out of their van. Student’s parents were upset that a
black band had been hired, but they paid them anyway
and the Highway Patrol escorted them from Shreveport
to Alexandria.
The Rubies were fairly busy for a couple of years.
Kirby Boudreaux booked them out of Lafayette in high
schools, small clubs, and sororities. Boudreaux also
booked Jimmy Elledge and young John Fred before he
formed the Playboys (Fred’s major song in Louisiana isn’t
“Judy In Disguise With Glasses,” it’s “Shirley” his first
record, released in 1959.
Rubies, l to r: Rogers Thomas, Milton Lazar in the back,
Leroy Alfred, Lannis Fontenot, unknown non-Rubie on
the right.
Jewell and the Rubies recorded three records, all in
1963.
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
13
Jewell and the Rubies recorded three records, all in
1963.
A Thrill
“Kidnapper”” b/w ““A
Thrill””
“Kidnapper
La Louisianne 8041
(as the Precious Stones)
er
Her
eree”
Ann”” b/w “O
“Our
Lovve IIss H
“Candy Ann
ur Lo
La Louisianne 8045
(and again as Jewell and the Rubies)
oB
eed Your Lo
“Days
Go
Byy” b/w “I N
Need
Lovve”
“D
ays G
La Louisianne 8055
‘Daddy-O’, a popular DJ in Baton Rouge played it
a couple of times. Jewell coincided Daddy-O’s airplay
with a couple of drive-byes in his Apache Ten Truck past
his old alma mater Southern University in North Baton
Rouge. On the side of the truck was ‘Jewel and the
Rubies’ which excited the campus, but sooner than expected Daddy-O went to Carrol Rachou, owner of La
Louisianne Records, and asked him for $125 to promote
the record both on the radio at the upcoming Nashville,
Tennessee DJ convention. Rachou declined and DaddyO stopped spinning the record.
Cashbox magazine ran a couple of ads in September
and October 1963 which co-featured the Rubies’ song
along with a new Ray Charles tune. ABC-Paramount
had bought the master from La Louisianne and promoted
it--very briefly.
Jewell didn’t think the song received any other exposure. However, in my recent correspondence in March
of 2010 with J. Richard DesHotels, a music historian in
Mamou, Louisiana who specializes in Cajun and Swamp
Pop music, “Kidnapper” not only played a lot on the
jukeboxes, it was picked up by all the local groups and
recorded by a few as well.
By the way, if you love old photos of juke joints,
you’ve got to see his 10 minute video of Cajun and Swamp
Pop dance halls on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/
I’m not sure why they recorded as the Precious Stones user/Rdezo
There were three local Louisiana bands, three of the
(obviously a spin-off of the Rubies). They were still with
absolute biggest, who recorded “Kidnapper.” The Boogie
the same record company, so it wouldn’t seem to have
Kings, Van Broussard, and Bert Miller and the Swing
been a contractual problem. “Candy Ann” was named
Kings.
after Ann, the manager of the club they played in Krotz
When I was DJing in Baton Rouge in the early 70s I
Springs, one of their very first gigs. When Jewell took it
had to play Van Broussard and the Boogie Kings every
to Ann to hear (in the hopes of getting more gigs there)
night, although I was never asked for, nor did I know of,
she was gone, no longer the manager.
“Kidnapper.”
Their third record didn’t make any noise at all. It
Along with the Greek Fountains, Joe Stampley and
was their first which has become part of legend.
the Uniques and a few others, I was glad to play them.
When “Kidnapper” came out, Jewell’s cousin’s boySwamp Pop is as unique to Louisiana as Beach Music is
friend who managed the Regal Theatre in Chicago played
to the Southeast, and they overlap enormously.
it there some. It also played a little in New Orleans,
Although I have all three, I don’t have the Boogie
New York, and Georgia.
Kings on the original vinyl. Van Broussard’s version was
To Jewell’s disappointment it never got any airplay
on Bayou Boogie Records. I don’t know what label the
on significant radio stations around home.
Boogie Kings recorded it on. And Bert Miller, who used
Dancing On the Edge
to be the premier lead voice with the Boogie Kings, re-
14
corded it on La Louisianne 8114 with his Swing Kings.
My guess it was in ‘64 or ‘65.
Jewell may have had something to do with one other
record. He mentioned being friends with Eddie Bo out
of New Orleans and I ran across this record in a dusty
pile of records once on a junkin’ trip. It lists a Douglas
as co-writer. Maybe.......
history. (There will be a time in the near future, though,
when we’ll delve into the phenomenon of ‘lifting songs’
in the history of recorded music; what it meant in the
early years, and what it came to mean in the 50s and
beyond).
When someone mentions ‘Duke, Peacock, or Back
Beat’ Records, they’re talking about the first entrepreneurial black kind of Blues and Rhythm and Blues.
Don Robey showed up on the black music scene in
Houston in 1945. Until then the big African-American
clubs were the Eldorado Ballroom in Third Ward and
the Club Matinee in Fifth Ward. Then Don Robey and
his partner Evelyn Johnson opened the Bronze Peacock
on Erastus St. and Liberty Road.
Until 1952 or ‘53, the Bronze Peacock offered fine
food by great chefs and upscale entertainment. The turning point came when T-Bone Walker brought along
Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown as a sort of special guest
with his band.
By 1949, Don had added recordings to his repertoire and put them on his new record label, Peacock.
Up to this point this has been a fairly simple, straightforward story. Now for the ‘other side’ of the story.
Was “Kidnapper
“Kidnapper”” Kidnapped?
Jewell said the Rubies recorded it in late ‘62 or ‘63.
I talked with Carol Rachou’s son David again this month
to see if they had the studio logs from those sessions.
They don’t, but David believed his father said they recorded in 1963. That makes sense. La Louisianne would
have had the spring and part of the summer to promote
it, and somewhere along the way ABC-Paramount bought
the master and reissued it on their label as shown with
their ads in Cashbox in fall 1963.
But, wait a minute! There’s more to the story.
Another record came out in 1963 with precisely the
same melody and the same sexy guitar riff opening the
song.
Joe Hinton recorded “You Know It Ain’t Right” in
early 1963 for Back Beat Records, a subsidiary of Duke /
Peacock Records out of Houston. Play Joe’s song side by
side with “Kidnapper” and the only difference is the lyrics. I’m not making any judgement here, just reporting
That’s where you’ll find the original "Hound Dog" by
Big Mama Thornton 1953. Other great Peacock artists
include Marie Adams, James Booker, Little Richard,
Memphis Slim, and former gospel singer Jackie Verdell.
Don also dabbled with jazz on albums by vocalist Betty
Carter and saxophonist Sonny Criss.
In 1952, Robey took over the Duke Records label
out of Memphis.
By 1957, Don added Back Beat as a new sub-label.
Robey asked Joe Hinton who’d been traveling with
the Chosen Gospel Quartet and the Spirit of Memphis
Quartet, to move over from gospel and try some secular
tunes on Peacock in 1958.
Robey moved Hinton over to Back Beat the same
year.
To understand what happened between then and
“You Know It Ain’t Right” one needs to understand Don
Robey and the state of Rhythm and Blues at that time.
When Robey took over Duke records he inherited
Junior Parker and Bobby Blue Bland, former bluesmen
with the Beale Streeters of Memphis.
Volume 1, IIssue
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15
Robey added Joe Scott to create arrangements that
copyright for “You Know It Ain’t Right,” recorded soon
brought the blues uptown with more sophisticated,
swinging arrangements.
after by Joe Hinton on Back Beat 537. It was Joe’s first
record to make the charts. He must have recorded it in
And Robey combined several entertainment industry practices. He had two record labels, a stable of artists, his own record pressing plant, distribution, and promotion company. When artists signed with Duke or
Peacock they got the whole package.
Of course Robey got his as well.
Consider that when an artist, whether songwriter,
singer, or musician showed up on Robey’s doorstep without a manager or agent, they were basically asking Robey
to build a career for them.
In the big leagues, people like Sinatra, Perry Como,
and the few remaining big bands, had agents who took a
percentage of everything they took in.
At Duke and Peacock artists also got ‘representation’
the fall or very early in 1963.
Hinton’s “You Know It Ain’t Right” entered the
and the ‘commission’ was arranged in a different way.
Robey would pay the artist for original compositions,
Cashbox R&B chart April 20, 1963 and went to #15. It
entered Billboard’s R&B chart June 22nd, going to #20
from $20 to $100, and then he owned it. Part of his
offer was that if the song did well he would pay addi-
lasting a total of five weeks.
Billboard magazine announced “You Know It Ain’t
tional royalties.
Without representation, the average new artist
Right” on the front page as a National Break Out song
May 4, 1963 and had it bubbling under the Top 40 at
wouldn’t have had a chance. But Robey offered his way
of greasing the wheels. And he was the first African
#121. On June 1st Hinton’s tune entered Billboard’s
Top 100 at #88 and stayed on the chart for three weeks.
American record mogul before Berry Gordy and Motown
ten years later.
On August 31, 1963 Billboard ran a story announcing that Larry Newton of ABC-Paramount bought the
The way Robey’s accounting worked was to take new
compositions he bought and put them under his main
master of Jewell and the Rubies’ “Kidnapper” from Carol
Rachou with La Louisianne. It never entered the Bill-
pseudonym, Deadric Malone, usually listed on the records
as D. Malone (his other was Wilmer Shakesnider).
board charts.
So how did Bobby Bland’s “Don’t Cry No More”
December 13, 1960, ‘Deadric Malone’ registered a
copyright for “Don’t Cry No More,” a major hit for Bobby
become Joe Hinton’s “You Know It Ain’t Right” and then
“Kidnapper” by Jewell and the Rubies?
‘Blue’ Bland in 1961. It hit the Cashbox R&B chart
July 1, 1961 and went to # 2. And entered Billboard’s
From Don Robey’s perspective the answer is simple
enough. ‘Someone’ brought him “Don’t Cry No More,”
R&B chart on July 24th, also going to #2.
If you have the record, listen. It’s the same melody
he bought it and put his pseudonym on it. It became a
#2 hit. Within a few months, Robey had ‘someone’ write
as “Kidnapper,” with almost exactly the same guitar riff
at the front, albeit more edgy than the Rubies’ smooth
new lyrics (which I assume he paid for, he put his pseudonym on it as well--see D. Malone on the Joe Hinton
guitar. And “Don’t Cry No More” is very fast, about
184 beats per minute (bpm).
record pictured), slowed the song down about 60 bpm
and Joe Hinton re-recorded it. It was a formula that
August 27, 1962, Deadric Malone registered another
worked to an extent becoming Joe’s first charted record
out of the many he had already recorded.
Dancing On the Edge
16
How Jewell picked it up is easy enough to speculate
on. Look at the map here and you’ll see a main highway
However Jewell Douglas arrived to “Kidnapper” the
connects Houston to New Orleans with Beaumont,
Opelousas, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Ville Platte, and Ba-
question remains, ‘how much impact has it had outside
his knowledge of it.
ton Rouge lined up all along Highway 10. This was
To give a complete picture, I’ll have to go through
all three incarnations. The easiest
is “You Know It Ain’t Right.” Since
Hinton’s version there have been,
as far as I know, a couple of blues
groups who added it to their LPs.
“Don’t Cry No More,” however
has had a huge impact on R&B and
Rock which is an indirect testament
to what later became “Kidnapper.”
Notable performers who have
recorded “Don’t Cry No More” include the following:
Roy Head
Anson Funderburgh
Artwoods
deep R&B country mixed with lots of Cajun and Zydeco.
You can be sure that Robey’s distributors hit the
Cate Brothers
Luther Kent
highways every week to distribute new Duke, Peacock,
Back Beat (and later Sure Shot) Records as soon as they
Phil Humphrey
Delta Wires
came out. It’s a slam-dunk that Jewell heard one or both
of those songs. Especially through Floyd Soileau’s store
Denise LaSalle
Boz Scaggs
in Ville Platte.
Floyd’s Record Shop opened in Ville Platte in 1956.
Dynatones
Lucky Peterson
With the help of Ed Manuel a jukebox operator up the
road in Mamou who wanted new French records for his
Joe Medwick
Swingin’ Medallions - 1967
jukeboxes, Floyd launched Swallow Records. By 1996,
Swallow had released 265 45 rpm singles and 151 albums of Cajun French music.
In 1958 he started Jin Records with great local artists such as Clint West, Tommy McLain & the Boogie
Kings, Lil Bob & The Lollipops, Warren Storm, Skip
Stewart, Rockin' Sidney, Rod Bernard, and Johnny Allan
who became contributors and architects of Swamp Pop
music.
I can’t describe just how powerful Floyd’s Record
Shop was. I used to listen to a late-night show out of
Shreveport in the 60s which advertised Floyd’s all the
time. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, my partner with Yesteryear Records and the Wax Museum and I used to buy
from Floyd often.
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
17
plus a particularly interesting version on a CD in in the 2000s lists “Kidnapper” in the repertoire, cred2006 entitled Wake Up Baby, featuring Delbert ited to Van Broussard.
Lil Bob and the Lollipops, another of the Swamp
McClinton and Stan Getz. Next to Stan’s name in parentheses the liner notes state (original). I may not get Pop R&B kings, recorded “You Know It Ain’t Right” on
to the bottom of that before finishing this issue. Does Jin 225 in 1969. I include it here because Lil Bob was
on La Louisianne Records at the same
time as Jewell and the Rubies in ‘63.
There’s no doubt Lil Bob knew Jewell
and the Rubies’ “Kidnapper” but he
elected to record one of its earlier incarnations. Interesting, indeed.
One other Louisiana group, the
Boogie Kings, mentioned earlier, recorded it on their 1996 Swamp Boogie
Blues album. It sounds like they recorded it in 1963, but so far it looks
as if they never recorded it before
1996. However, I’ll bet they did it
hundreds of times. When they were
inducted into the Museum of the Gulf
Coast in Port Arthur, Texas in the late
90s they were cited as having perThanks to Homer Dupuy of Scott, Louisiana, a renowned expert in Swamp
Pop music, for this photo of a ‘recent’ Boogie Kings session. All the people
pictured are legends in their own right and have been entertaining since the
50s. In my early days in Baton Rouge, all these fellas and their groups had to
be played nightly on the radio, jukeboxes, and stages throughout the region-or the DJ would be considered as having been born ‘north of Shreveport.’
formed over 12,000 times since their
inception in Eunice, Louisiana in 1955.
The Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame also
inducted them soon after. The Louisiana Hall of Fame inducted the group
in 1994. Two years later, the South
that designation claim the original version of “Don’t Cry Louisiana Music Association bestowed an award for lifeNo More” or the original Stan Getz? Is there another time achievement on the band.
“Kidnapper” was also recorded by Terry Cobb, Statue
Stan Getz?
“Kidnapper” by the Rubies has had an equally large records, ca. 1967
That brings us to the Carolinas and Virginia where
impact--even though Jewell apparently knew nothing
the following have recorded “Kidnapper” on various alabout it.
Of course Bert Miller and the Swing Kings, men- bums:
The Embers, their 1st album, Embers Roll 11 recorded
tioned earlier, did a version a few months after the Rubies. That was after Bert, one of the original Boogie Kings, live on campus at N.C. State University, 1963
The Flashbacks of Burlington, ca 1972
had left to start his own group.
Earl Dawkins & the Entertainers 1st LP
As best as I can ascertain, Van Broussard, one of the
Plaids did a ‘live’ version
kings of Louisiana Swamp Pop did a version on Bayou
Sheiks of Shag, Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp on their
Boogie 109 listing Jewel Douglas as the writer. Interestingly, Bits and Pieces, a band playing out of Baton Rouge Sheiks of Shag LP
The Attractions of Burlington in the 2000s
Dancing On the Edge
The Part Time Party Time Band on their 2007 Back
18
The Evangeline Club in Ville Platte, Louisiana, headquarters for Otis Smith and His Orchestra and the stage for
countless good times with many great Swamp Pop bands. (Note the Exxon sign -- gas was 55.9 cents / gallon).
to Your Lovin’ CD
formers (i.e. blue-eyed soul and cajun groups).
Then things get even more interesting. In the late
From then the Rubies spread far and wide. Milton
90s the Butch Hargett Project featuring Darryl and Shana was still in Ville Platte in 1980. Ralph taught there too.
rewrote the lyrics again on top of the same melody, titled
it “Heartbreaker” and finally released it in the 2000s.
Hershey was in Ohio,
Lannis in Texas. Leroy
Alfred still lived nearby.
Most recently, Paul Craver released yet another set
of lyrics on fundamentally the same melody with “Sat-
Jewell returned to Indiana as a school teacher and
isfy My Soul.”
played jazz with Horace
Smith and the Notebenders.
Whatever Happened to Jewell Douglas ?
His last gig with them was
June 21, 1981 in Chicago
From 1966 to 1969, Jewell, Ralph, and Leroy of the
Rubies played with the Otis Smith Orchestra at the
Evangeline Club in Ville Platte. That in itself is testament to the chops they must have acquired in their early
years. The Evangeline Club is a *shrine* in Louisiana’s
South Central bayou country for great Swamp Pop per-
Jewell Douglas, 1979.
when he realized his hearing
was too far gone to keep
playing.
y
Volume 1, IIssue
ssue 5
19
In Search of....
Much of Beach Music & Shag History Has
Ended Up Like This or Worse
Roberts Pavilion, North Myrtle Beach (1938--1954), from the beachside the day after Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
(Photo courtesy of Gus Garrison)
Excavating a Legacy
Roberts Pavilion (as The Bowery) from the same angle
as above a few years before Hazel.
Dancing On the Edge
20
Thanks for being part of the excavation--and celebration.
This is a taste of a special article I’ll be
doing on the evolution of Roberts Pavilion. There are many myths surrounding
Roberts, fortunately I’ve been able to dig
up a number of photos which put a lot of
those to rest.
In fact there are tons of ‘myths’ to reopen and re-examine.
If you have a photo or story you’d like
to share with the subscribers of the Dancing On the
Edge Journal, e-mail me at [email protected]
y