"W C Handy's Bad Dream"). Anyway, W C Handy is arguable the 'father of the blues' not because he was the first to play blues but before recording was common, music was sold as sheet music, and WC Handy was trained in music and could render his ideas in a musical score. More on Handy when we get to Tutwiler.
The Daisy Theatre was a popular movie house in the '20's. Bessie Smith came here for the opening of her short movie, St. Louis Blues, in 1929.This is one of the interesting pieces of information in Steve Cheseborough's Blues Traveling, which I am indebted to for the plan of this trip and which I will be quoting often as we travel.
I used the metaphor of Memphis as a funnel earlier, and there is no doubt of that. The true origin of the blues is lost to us ... surely it predates the first mentions in the late 1800's. But Memphis and New Orleans introduced the world to this most American of art forms. We'll be talking about the Big Easy later. Memphis' unique contribution was the publicizing of Delta blues. The first 'all black' radio station was WDIA, still right here in Memphis. And without Sun Records and Sam Phillips, there wouldn't have been records from Howlin' Wolf, early B.B. King, Mama Thornton. And, yes, Elvis got his start there, relying heavily on blues repertoire. I'll pass by Sun tomorrow on the way out of Town.
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