Rhythm and Blues Jazz Handbook, edited by Thurston Moore

Title

Description

Box 2 Folder 33: "Now this one, which is number 33, is a gem. It is the actual 1952 Rhythm and Blues Jazz Scrapbook edited by Thurston Moore. Published in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952. Copywrited and patented, but we still copied every page - all 43 - for researchers since it's unlikely another document exists that consolidated so much information on Black radio announcers from 1952. We made a copy of it as well in here. This was given to us by Tommy Cox, and I know we have an oral history by him... and he was a big fan of WJLD and Bob Umbach during the Atomic Boogie Hour. He was a white gentleman, and he told us that he visited Bob Umbach at the Bessemer location on the Super Highway and he told him to go out and get the Rhythm and Blues Encyclopedia. And that’s just what he did, he ordered it, and he got it, and he donated it to us. We made him a copy; we made us a copy. It is a masterpiece. What it has not only are fabulous pictures of performers, some of which you would never see in a million years, but also the personnel at various radio stations that were playing rhythm and blues both black and white. It is just without comparison. I do not know whether or not they put out anything for each year, but it’s just… Here’s Tommy Small, Dr. Jive. I remember him from WWRL in New York City. That’s…he’s certainly young there. But the Dr. Jive shows were a big deal at Palisades Amusement Park. But I mean you can go through here and see some of the great producers like Johnny Otis, performers like Peppermint Harris, Dinah Washington, it goes on and on and on. It’s just an absolute super duper gem of a piece. There is our own Roy Wood up in Chicago in 1952. It tells you where he went to school: went to high school, entered Morehouse College, received a Bachelor of Science, after a short time in the government, interested in radio. He enrolled in Columbia University, received a Master’s degree. This was a real professional, and on and on and on. Look at this guy, Joe Bostick. WLIB in New York, the Harlem Serenade. Isn’t that great, all those phones? It is a piece of work. Here’s WDIA the first all-black staffed radio station in the United States. The Spirit of Memphis, there’s Nat Williams, Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas, it is beautiful. And in fact in here is a picture of the staff at WBCO and there is Faush. Now Faush in BCO, that’s not Erskine Faush, that’s his brother William Faush. You have all the players; there’s a picture we have here with Sugar Daddy Dawkins and Honey Brown and it talks about all these folks. It says Bruce Payne the Jet Pilot of Jive. In radio logs it may only list the Jet Power of Jive, well now we know who’s the DJ at the time. Anyway, just a beautiful contribution to the library. I see there is a picture of the Swallows; when are you going to see that? So thank you Tommy Cox. The folder contains several copies of the WBCO page from this scrapbook. We’ll move that along."