Instruments Used in Wc Handy St Louis Blues
ST. LOUIS • William Christopher Handy stood before the live microphone of KMOX, raised a cornet to his lips and blew the bouncing melody that made him rich.
Handy also played the "St. Louis Blues" on stations KWK and WIL during a weeklong return to St. Louis in 1932, when most radio entertainment was live. He spoke and played at city schools for black children.
"It's still selling 70,000 copies a year," Handy said of the hit during his radio tour downtown on March 5. "My royalties from it have enriched me more than $500,000 and I'm still drawing them."
W.C. Handy's first visit to St. Louis in the winter of 1893 was all about blues, nothing of riches. Shivering with other homeless men on the cobblestone riverfront, Handy probably did "hate to see that evening sun go down," as the lyrics go.
Handy was born in 1873 in Florence, Ala., and wanted to be a musician despite the admonitions of his father, a Methodist minister. He and four friends went to Chicago in 1892, hoping to break into the business. They didn't.
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He drifted by boxcar to East St. Louis, where he worked two weeks at the Elliott Frog and Switch Works, a manufacturer of railroad equipment, and was cheated out of his pay. (A "frog" is part of a track switch.) He crossed the Eads Bridge and occasionally found day work on the levee but no lodging. For a time, he stayed in the relative comfort of a horse stall at a racetrack. He also slept in a vacant lot at Tucker and Delmar boulevards.
He wandered Targee Street, now the site of the Peabody Opera House, where he probably saw "that St. Louis woman with her diamond rings ... and store-bought hair." In spring 1893, he moved to Evansville, Ind., and finally found work as a musician.
Handy was a successful band leader and composer on Beale Avenue (later Street) in Memphis when he published the "St. Louis Blues" in 1914. He said hard times in St. Louis inspired the lyrics.
But Handy originally called it "Jogo Blues" and renamed it in honor of Russell Gardner, a wealthy buggy manufacturer from St. Louis. Gardner enjoyed Handy's music and tipped him $20 whenever he visited Memphis.
"It became a great favorite of his," Handy said of the song and Gardner.
It also became an enduring national hit. Handy returned to St. Louis several more times, playing at annual black music festivals at Sportsman's Park during the 1940s.
Gardner died in 1938. Handy died in Harlem in 1958 at age 84. Nine years later, Handy's melody inspired the name for a new National Hockey League franchise in St. Louis.
W.C. Handy
W.C. Handy, composer of the "St. Louis Blues," plays his famous melody at St. Louis Sportsman's Park on July 10, 1944, during the American Negro Music Festival. He was 70 at the time of the visit. Handy published the blues hit in 1914 in Memphis, where he had established himself as a musician on Beale Avenue (later Beale Street). He spent the winter of 1892-93 in St. Louis, mainly homeless and jobless -- good enough inspirations for the blues. But he named the song in honor of a wealthy friend from St. Louis, not the hard winter he endured as young man. (Post-Dispatch)
A gathering at Soldier's Memorial in St. Louis on April 10, 1958, two weeks after W.C. Handy died in New York at age 84. Shown are (from left) Nat "King" Cole; Handy's widow, Louise Logan Handy; St. Louis Mayor Raymond R. Tucker; and Pearl Bailey. They participated in a music festival to honor the world premier of a movie on W.C. Handy's life. Handy's first wife, Elizabeth, had died in 1937. He and Louise were married in 1954. (Post-Dispatch)
W.C. Handy (right) is honored by the National Association of Negro Musicians during a convention in August 1947 at Centennial Christian Church, 4950 Fountain Avenue in St. Louis. Pinning a membership badge upon Handy's lapel is Clarence Hayden Wilson, association president. (Post-Dispatch)
W.C. Handy signing copies of his autobiography, "Father of the Blues," during a visit to St. Louis in 1949. (Post-Dispatch)
Russell Gardner on the desk of his steamboat, the Annie Russell. Gardner was successful and prominent in St. Louis and along the river. His brother, Fred Gardner, was Missouri governor from 1917 to 1921. Russell Gardner's buggy factory on the riverfront just south of downtown on Rutger Street. (Post-Dispatch)
Some of W.C. Handy's relatives gather with Mayor Raymond R. Tucker for the dedication of a park in his name in north St. Louis on June 22, 1960. The park is at Euclid and Lexington avenues, near North Kingshighway and Natural Bridge Avenue. Shown are (from left) Charles Handy, brother; William C. Handy Jr., son; mayor Tucker; Louise Handy, widow; Maddie Handy Robinson, sister; and Katherine Handy Lewis, daughter. (Jim Racquets/Post-Dispatch)
Russell E. Gardner, owner of a buggy factory in St. Louis and great fan of Handy's music. He visited Memphis frequently to hear Handy's band play, and tipped him $20 each time. Handy named one of his compositions the "St. Louis Blues" in Gardner's honor. It became a national hit and made Handy rich. Gardner, who later dabbled in automobile sales, died in 1938. (Post-Dispatch)
Russell Gardner's private steamboat, the Annie Russell, on the St. Louis riverfront. Gardner cruised the river on his stern-wheeler and often visited Memphis, where he particularly enjoyed W.C. Handy's music. (Post-Dispatch)
A photo of the cover of Handy's second edition of the sheet music for his greatest hit, "St. Louis Blues." The Post-Dispatch included the reproduction for a story on Handy's life shortly after his death. (Edward J. Burkhardt/Post-Dispatch)
Source: https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/a-look-back-without-w-c-handy-we-might-not-have-known-the-st-louis/article_3fa49a04-72ae-509c-bc29-7f4606086352.html
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