Ollie Potter
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Ollie Potter
Ollie Potter (born 1900 in Louisville, Kentucky – 16 August 1953 Manhattan, New York) was an American female blues singer, notably of Cleveland and New York City, and a dancer, particularly of the shimmy style. Career Potter flourished regionally in Cleveland during the prohibition, on into the Great Depression, from the late 1920s, then relocated in Harlem, Manhattan, beginning around 1934, performing through the early 1950s with Art Tatum, Dickie Wells, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Ollie Shepard, and others. She made very few recordings — an extant four — but had been acclaimed by various musicologists and critics for one in particular — a 1941 amateur recording with Art Tatum and other singers at " Gee-Haw Stables," in Harlem. That particular recording was not released until 1971. In 1934, Marcus Wright, columnist for the ''New York Age'' stated that she was one of Harlem's favorite entertainers. Potter performed with Bob Hope Death Potter was admitted to the Syden ...
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Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. Named after King Louis XVI of France, Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians. With nearby Falls of the Ohio as the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the founding city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which grew into a system across 13 states. Today, the city is known as the home of boxer Muhammad Ali, the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the University of Louisville and its Cardinals, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and three of Kentucky's six ''Fortune'' 500 companies: Humana, Kindred Healthcare, and Yum! Brands. Muhamm ...
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Pittsburgh Courier
The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acquired in 1965 by John H. Sengstacke, a major black publisher and owner of the ''Chicago Defender''. He re-opened the paper in 1967 as the '' New Pittsburgh Courier'', making it one of his four newspapers for the African-American audience. Creation and incorporation The paper was founded by Edwin Nathaniel Harleston, who worked as a guard at the H. J. Heinz Company food packing plant in Pittsburgh. Harleston, a self-published poet, began printing the paper at his own expense in 1907. Generally about two pages, it was primarily a vehicle for Harleston's work. He printed around ten copies, which he sold for five cents apiece.Buni, p. 42. In 1909, Edward Penman, Hepburn Carter, Scott Wood Jr., and Harvey Tanner joined Harleston to run the ...
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Matrix Number
A matrix number is an alphanumeric code (and on occasion, other symbols) stamped or handwritten (or a combination of the two) into the run-out groove area of a phonograph record. This is the non-grooved area between the end of the final band on a record's side and the label, also known as the run-off groove area, end-groove area, matrix area, or "dead wax". Industry usage A matrix number is intended for the internal use of the record manufacturing plant, but they are also studied and documented by record collectors, as they can sometimes provide useful information about the edition of the record. There are two parts of the matrix number to be considered: the ''main number'', which is usually printed on the label as well, and ''extra information'' which can include a cut or take number. ''Matrix numbers'' can refer to any of these elements, or all of them combined. The inscription area may also contain record plant codes or logos, the initials or signature of the disc cutting en ...
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Stafford "Pazuza" Simon
Stafford Simon (1908–1960) was an American jazz saxophonist. His nickname was "Pazuza". Life and career Simon was born in New York City. He played with Willie Bryant and Leon Gross in the late 1930s, and shortly before World War II played with Benny Carter, Louis Jordan, Fred Rich, and Ollie Shepard. From 1941 to 1943 he played with Lucky Millinder's band, then played with his own ensemble as well as with George James. After the war, he worked with Clyde Bernhardt, the Brooklyn Buddies, and Rex Stewart. Through the 1950s, he worked with his own ensemble, playing in New York City, and in 1960, he died onstage while his ensemble was performing at the Savannah Club. In 1960 he died leading his band on-stage at the Savannah Club, a venue in Greenwich Village, New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 dis ...
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Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a noted venue for African-American performers, and is the home of ''Showtime at the Apollo'', a nationally syndicated television variety show which showcased new talent, from 1987 to 2008, encompassing 1,093 episodes; the show was rebooted in 2018. The theater, which has a capacity of 1,506, opened in 1913 as Hurtig & Seamon's Music Hall. It was designed by George Keister in the neo-Classical style. Alterations were made that year for showing movies, and it was renamed the Apollo Theater. (It was often referred to as the "125th Street Apollo" to distinguish it from the legitimate Apollo on 42nd Street). In 1924, the Minsky brothers leased the theater for burlesque shows. In 1934, it became a venue for black performers and was opened to black ...
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125th Street (Manhattan)
125th Street, co-named Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is a two-way street that runs east–west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, from First Avenue on the east to Marginal Street, a service road for the Henry Hudson Parkway along the Hudson River in the west. It is often considered to be the " Main Street" of Harlem. Notable buildings along 125th Street include the Apollo Theater, the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, the Hotel Theresa, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Mount Morris Bank Building, Harlem Commonwealth Council, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Church of St. Joseph of the Holy Family, and the former West End Theatre, now home to the La Gree Baptist Church. History The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east–west streets that would be in width (while other streets were designated as in width). Neighborhoods The western part of the street runs diagonally b ...
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Suburban Gardens
Suburban Gardens was the first and only major amusement park within Washington, D.C. Located at 50th and Hayes Streets, NE, in the Deanwood neighborhood near the National Training School for Women and Girls, Suburban Gardens opened in 1921 and was in operation for almost two decades. It was a welcome site for African Americans who were excluded by whites from Glen Echo Amusement Park in nearby Maryland. Suburban Gardens was created by the Universal Development and Loan Company, a black-owned real estate and development company. Engineer Howard D. Woodson, writer John H. Paynter, and theater magnate Sherman H. Dudley were among the investors. Here Washingtonians enjoyed a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, swimming pools, games of chance, and picnic grounds. There was also a large dance pavilion where popular jazz musicians performed. The park, in far Northeast, was on the city's undeveloped outskirts bordering Prince George's County, Maryland. Washingtonians and out-of-town vis ...
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Willie "The Lion" Smith
William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith (November 23, 1893 – April 18, 1973), nicknamed "The Lion", was an American jazz and stride pianist. Early life William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf, known as Willie, was born in 1893 in Goshen, New York. His mother and grandmother chose his names to reflect different parts of his heritage: Joseph after Saint Joseph (Bible), Bonaparte (French), and Bertholf (biological father's last name). William and Henry which were added for "spiritual balance". When he was three, his mother married John Smith, and Smith was added as the boy's surname, after his stepfather. In his memoir Smith reports that his father, Frank Bertholf (incorrectly spelled Bertholoff in many sources), was Jewish. Smith's New York birth record shows him as William H. Bertholf, with father, Frank Bertholf, a white electrician from nearby Monroe, New York. Smith became at least somewhat conversant in Yiddish and studied Hebrew with children of a Jewish family who w ...
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Lenox Avenue
Lenox Avenue – also named Malcolm X Boulevard; both names are officially recognized – is the primary north–south route through Harlem in the upper portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. This two-way street runs from Farmers' Gate at Central Park North ( 110th Street) to 147th Street. Its traffic is figuratively described as "Harlem's heartbeat" by Langston Hughes in his poem ''Juke Box Love Song''. The IRT Lenox Avenue Line runs under the entire length of the street, serving the New York City Subway's . From 119th Street to 123rd Street, Lenox Avenue is part of the Mount Morris Park Historic District, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1971. History Originally a part of Sixth Avenue, the segment north of Central Park was renamed in late 1887 for philanthropist James Lenox. In 1987, it was co-named Malcolm X Boulevard, in honor of the slain civil rights leader. The avenue was the heart of Harlem during the Harlem ...
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Rubberlegs Williams
Henry "Rubberlegs" Williams (14 July 1907 in Atlanta - 17 October 1962 in New York City) was an American blues and jazz singer, dancer and occasional female impersonator. A star of Vaudeville, he is probably best remembered for his singing work with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, although it was his dancing for which he was renowned in New York City and Boston. Biography Williams was born in Atlanta in 1907. He became employed as dancer with Bobby Grant's Female Impersonators in 1919 and became a spectacle. He later won several Cakewalk and Charleston competitions and other dancing contests and achieved success in Vaudeville, going on tours with the Theater Owners Booking Association. He got his nickname "Rubberlegs" because he danced as if he had legs made of rubber. In 1933 he appeared in the short film ''Smash Your Baggage'', and appeared in shows like the "Cotton Club Parade" and "Blackbirds of 1933". He was a regular performer at The Cotton Club and the Apollo in Harlem ...
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Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Sugar Hill is a National Historic District in the Harlem and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City, bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 145th Street to the south, Edgecombe Avenue to the east, and Amsterdam Avenue to the west. The equivalent New York City Historic Districts are: *Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Historic District and Extension: roughly West 145th to West 150th Street, Edgecombe Avenue to between Convent and Amsterdam Avenues *Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northeast Historic District: roughly West 151st to West 155th Street, west of St. Nicholas Avenue to between Convent and Amsterdam Avenues *Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northwest Historic District: roughly West 151st to West 155th Street, east of St. Nicholas Avenue to Edgecombe Avenue The Federal district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The Federal district has 414 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, three contributing structures, and on ...
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