The Unknown Superhero. Anonymous watercolor on paper circa 1950 collection Jim Linderman. NOTE: The Amazing Devlin Thompson located the source material! It is apparently the Yellow Jacket, a Marvel creation! Thanks Devlin.
I used to see Sterling Magee
play on 125th Street in Harlem. No, not the Apollo...the STREET. Mr.
Magee was also known as Satan from "Satan and Adam" a salt and pepper
blues duo. It was a regular gig worth taking the A-train for. Satan was
once called "The Fastest Guitar Player in the World" and he might have
been, but his amp was so cheap it all came out like one glorious
distorted note. He used a foot operated drum and cymbal thing while
plugged into a lamppost near the Studio Museum of Harlem.
Satan
also made art, and I spent a day in his apartment while he showed me his
trippy, cosmic, Sun Ra holograms made out of plywood and such. Sorta
like primitive Rubic's cube toys but shaped like stars and each with
their own particular logic only Mr. Satan could interpret. I went with a
friend, he later told me that was the longest afternoon in his life. I
wasn't surprised to learn he had a nervous breakdown not long after,
but what DID surprise me was the extent of his Wikipedia entry! He
never told me he played with a transvestite duo known as "The Illusions
That Create Confusion" but he did mention James Brown and King Curtis,
both which were true. He also made a few early singles and with Adam, a
few LP records but they gave him a better amplifier. Too bad. He
sounded great with the one he carried on a modified shopping cart.
I am pleased to see a new documentary on same! Enjoy it...there aren't many stories like this coming along to be told.
Barefoot Charlie Haas had big feet and big pine trees growing up inside his Barefoot Charlie's Nite Club. There is a photo of him watering his inside trees with a watering can. He also had a working slot machine installed inside a large dead bear. Charlie was the builder, furniture maker and the owner. Charlie passed on in at the age of 79 in 1970, and the wooden joint burned down in 1988. It looks like at least one sizable piece (a table and chairs) resides in the Northern Waters Museum.
Outsider Art Folk Art Sculpture The Catskills Prepare for War! Said to be from New York State. Circa 1930 - 1950? Original Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman
The High Steppers of 52! The unknown sideshow photographer kept good notes too. Seldom does a photograph caption squeeze in so much information. However, the real story isn't the Cetlin and Wilson Shows mentioned. It is the remarkable all African-American cast and crew bringing hot music and dancing to the greater community at a time when the races hardly met.
Here, the High Steppers are performing in Heidelberg, Pennsylvania. Over 60 years later the population of Heidelberg is still 98% white. The kids watching the show had probably never seen anything like it.
The traveling troupe was organized by Jerrie Jackson, shown here in a photograph from the Country Music Hall of Fame collection. Country? Jerrie Jackson was based in Nashville. Ground zero for white country music. Still, there was an active R&B scene in Nashville, and the book A Shot in the Dark: Making Records in Nashville briefly mentions Mr. Jackson's work on the very first release from the legendary Excello Record label. The disc is credited to Willie Lee Patton and "The Charlie Dowell Orchestra" but Martin Hawkins suggests he was really using the Jerrie Jackson Revue as his musicians. Dowell was a tap dancer in the HI / High Steppers and Wilie Lee Patton was in the chorus.
The best source for the High Steppers story is an obscure book The Sound of Applause by Audrey Taylor Henry. Her book claims to be "A History of Medieval and Modern Outdoor Entertainment Forms Introducing Three African-American Showmen" but it is even more. The author had numerous personal connections to the High Stepper members, and she shares stories about an extended black family who grew up on the circuit.
The book has an odd format. Chapters are followed by "quiz questions" as in a textbook. She also has an extensive glossary of carnival terms. A surprising number have African-American roots. These include dance forms such as Krumping, Mess Around, Poppin', Snake Hips and the Tack Annie. Even those in the trade referred to the act as a "jig" show.
Jerri Jackson was born in Georgia in 1907. He learned piano and performed with his church choir, but he likely didn't perform any gospel with the High Steppers Act. Exotic dancers seldom perform in church. He paid his performers well. Members received 50 dollars a week, and in the off seasons were also employed to perform in "ethnic" clubs and the Bijou Theatre in Nashville. He was referred to as the local impresario in Nashville and was active booking and producing acts in the Theater Owners Booking Association which catered to black audiences.
Mr. Jackson's first colored revue was known as The Hip Cats Minstrel Review active in the 1940s.
Billboard Magazine reported in 1951 that "Jerri Jackson's Hi Steppers and the Divena, underwater strip tease show were the leading money earners" in Macon, Ga.
The High Steppers touring stage had signs reading "Rock "N" Roll Special Midnight Ramble" and "Rock 'N Roll with Jerry Jackson's High Steppers" back when the phrase had hardly emerged. In Levon Helm's biography, he credits a similar act known as the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as an influence.
Black showmen operating in the Jim Crow era have not received the attention they deserve. The massive Bear Family box set Nashville Jumps, Blues & Rhythm 1945 - 1955 is a good start. Black in Blackface: A sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows by Henry Sampson is too.
Yes, there were black minstrel shows without white performers in black face. Here is another.
Vintage Figural Croquet Wicket Folk Art. 22" tall. Victory Products, Muskegon Michigan. No Date (circa 1935 - 1940?) Original paint. Collection Jim Linderman
Ted Terry started out as someone else. He was born Dallas Edgman but GIVEN to a family in Canada! I had no idea one could give away their children back then. Dallas became Ted, and he eventually became a member of the Sawtooth Range Riders, a rodeo group who performed on the radio.
In 1937 he and a few band members accepted a $500 bet from a casino owner that he could ride a bull to New York.
The bull he rode over 3,000 miles had two names too. Originally named "Ohadi" which is the reverse of Idaho, the beast seems to have acquired the name "Hitler" on the road. Also on the trip was Skipper the dog, Silver Sally the aging pack horse and other members of the Sawtooth boys. They covered an average of 12 miles a day. The crew reached Times Square in 1940 and won the bet.
There are several entries on the adventure, but one comes from The Backyard Cow: An Introductory Guide to Keeping a Productive Family Cow by Sue Weaver. I'd not ever have learned of the book if it weren't for Hitler Ohadi the Bull.
A ten minute youtube film featuring band member H.G. Wood follows. His amazing photographs document a long lost Western America as well as the amazing trip. The film was produced as part of the Phd work of Janine Curry.
There was a real Jumbo (original name, Mumbo Jumbo) who passed away in 1885. Later, Jumbo became Dumbo, a slur created by Disney. Elephants aren't dumb. This Jumbo represented thread from the Clark's O.N.T. Thread Company. I don't believe Jumbo was paid for his endorsement. Kerr's thread company borrowed the Pachyderm as well.
Pacific Theater Duffel Bag with painted by hand with Pinup. Circa 1945. Collection Jim Linderman From the continuing series Love During Wartime on Dull Tool Dim Bulb
It looks like the young Gregg boy is practicing his calligraphy on the job...and he swoons for Sarah. 19th Century Trade Card with calligraphy and animal drawings. Collection Jim Linderman
Joe Light was an African-American man from Tennessee, but he called himself an American Jew. He spoke his views to the neighborhood by messages posted on his house and shop. Later, he was encouraged to paint. Small works are seen mounted on his antique shop, and a number of paintings owned by the Souls Grown Deep collection can be seen here. Original Photographs of Joe Light Environment c. 1993 by Jim Linderman
