Music Delivers Reprieve/Diversion from The Great Depression
Little Rock’s Beale Street
Music was an important component of The Line throughout its most active years. Many great musicians came to the Dreamland Ballroom in the 1930s (see last week’s post for those names and dates). The black residents and business owners of West 9th Street were segregated from Little Rock’s larger white community. “At that time, black folks took care of us,” remarked Leon Majors, a former resident and business owner on 9th Street.
Because of their dependency on the neighborhood businesses, when the city or country was experiencing economic difficulty, the folks on The Line felt it harder than anyone. This is no more evident than during the 1930s when the markets crashed, and the USA was thrown into the Great Depression.
Dancing Unites Community
Several music venues were located on 9th Street. Music lovers on The Line prioritized that 35-cent ticket at a time when that was a difficult bit of cash to muster up. Ads appeared in both white and black newspapers for shows at Dreamland. Everyone needed the outlet and 9th Street provided the perfect escape. Even the white community danced in Dreamland at this time.
While many of the names of Little Rock’s local musicians are lost, Dreamland was known to be booked almost every night. The big acts would book on the weekdays, reserving the weekends for local dances. Arthur Hodges lived his whole life on 9th Street and remembers Dreamland as the pinnacle of entertainment. “A palace of dreams where an ordinary maid could become a princess, and an ordinary chauffer could become a ‘real hep cat.’”
Ninth Street’s music appreciation continued into the 1940s, drawing parties of significantly higher class as the economy recovered from the Great Depression and the post-war years created an economic boon for the whole country. The trend for big acts on the weekdays and the local dances on weekends continued. These local events included nighttime parties from “9-till,” a breakfast dance on Christmas morning, high school, and college gatherings, and more. The locals of The Line never missed a chance to celebrate or sweat out the stress of the day.
Sun Sets on Heyday
Ownership of the Dreamland Ballroom fluctuated, and promoters came and went, but the demand for good live music on 9th Street lasted. The ballroom stopped being used around 1968-’69. The basement remained the Twin City Club (run by Leon Majors) until the early 1970s. Other venues and clubs cropped up over the years, but many of the buildings became unfit to use and the century long legacy of life on The Line ceased.
Help us share the legacy of the Dreamland Ballroom by donating to Friends of Dreamland. By doing so, you will contribute to the return of this once great music hall, preserving its intended function for the next century.
Keeping Dreaming, Matthew McCoy
The Player’s on Dreamland’s Stage
Dreamland Ballroom has hosted an incredible array of musicians and performers in it 102 years on West 9th Street. The 1930s – 1950s featured some of its most iconic shows. Performers were local, regional, national, and international. Below you will find a very comprehensive list of these performers with their Dreamland Ballroom performance dates.
“I know, ‘cause I was there.”
Most of the records for these performances are found via newspaper articles from the Arkansas State Press, the black owned and operated newspaper that was printed next door to Taborian Hall. Other articles, as well as oral histories, contributed significantly to our knowledge of life on The Line. The dates provided are primarily from those that attended the event. Many of the oral histories give date ranges. Usually something like: ‘Oh, I saw Otis Redding in the summer of 1957 or ’58 … maybe it was later 1962 or ’63 …” So, while these accounts are usually detailed and match other similar oral reports that confirm Otis Redding played in the Dreamland Ballroom, it is difficult to know the exact dates.
Pinpointing the venue
This list also only notes the performances that we know took place in Dreamland. Since the ballroom in Taborian Hall has the longest legacy of any other venue on West 9th Street, many of the accounts can be a little confused. Did they perform at the Dreamland or right across the street at the Flamingo Club ... or maybe it was down at the Mosaic Templars or the Gem Theatre or any of the other numerous small and medium size venues that came and went on 9th Street. Newspaper articles and ads show us that in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, a lot of black musicians were being booked at the Robinson Auditorium. A 9th Street promoter did most of the booking for Robinson at the time. For example, Ella Fitzgerald only played once in the Dreamland Ballroom but she came to Little Rock regularly throughout the 1940s playing at Robinson.
The Lengthy Musician List and Performance Dates
Duke Ellington – Appears in Dreamland in 1936 with several other performers: Fats Waller and W.C. Handy.
Miss Etta Motan, Noble Sissle, Andy Kirk, Chick Webb appear with lesser known artist in 1937.
Jimmie Lunceford – the played in 1937, 1940, 1941, 1945, 1946.
Cab Calloway – played in Dreamland in 1934 and 1937.
Johnny Otis and Little Ester – played in 1952.
B.B. King – Played Dreamland in both 1952 & ‘53 with Billy Harvey & Orch.
Louis Armstrong – brought his All Star Esquire Combo: Earl Hines, Sidney Catlet, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Arvel Shar & Velma Middleton, to Dreamland in 1949.
Etta James – Came to Club Morocco in 1956 with Floyd Dixon and Orch.
Sammie Davis Jr. – played the Dreamland Stage in approx. 1936.
Peg Leg Bates – played in Dreamland during the Depression years, exact year unknown, came back the Dreamland Stage in the early 1940s.
Red Foxx – performed in Dreamland in 1937. Oral histories suggest regular visits to 9th St for many years.
Ella Fitzgerald – plays in Dreamland in 1940 with Chick Webb and again in 1946 with Dizzy Gillespie & Orch.
Count Basie – played the Dreamland stage in 1940 with his Orch, James Rushing and Helen Humes. Again in 1942 for the Ninth St USO in Taborian. This time with Tiny Bradshaw, Erskine Harkins, Les Hite, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, and Doc Wheeler.
Lil Green – 1947 - ’48 with Cornshucks & Johnny Otis, Roy Milton, Harlem Hep Cat Orchestra, Big Joe Turner, and Snookum Russell.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – AR native, comes to Dreamland at the height of her career in 1942 touring with Lucky Miller and Orch. and Trevor Bacon. She played again in 1943 with Lucky, Trevor, The Ink Spots, and Peg Leg Bates.
Dizzy Gillespie – possibly played Dreamland 1940 but definitely in 1945 with this 18 piece Orch., Pattison & Jackson, June Echstine, and Lovey Lane. Also, in ’46 with Ella Fitzgerald.
Ida Cox – brought her Elaborate Road Show to the USO Dreamland in 1942 with her Darktown Scandals
Louis Jordan – played with Claude Trenier in the 9th St USO in 1942
Others that Played the Stage
Otis Redding
Al Hibbler
Sam Cook
Lightnin’ Hopkins
Willie Mabon
Pigmeat Markham
Albert King
T Bone Walker
Big Maybell Walker
Clarence Carter
Joe Simmon
Sonny Thompson
Tab Smith
Chuck Young
Roy Brown and His Mighty
Ruth Brown
Willis Jackson
Betty (Miss Blues) Ford
Joe Turner
Christene Henderson
Willie Johnson
Jimmie Liggins
Herman Manzy
Lewis and Parker
The Little Rockers
Chester Guyden
Shirley Lee with Roland Cook
Woody Herman and the Third Herd Orchestra
Jimmie Lofton
Satchel Mouth Baby
Atomic Mama
Groovie G
Just One More Drink
Erskine Hawkins
Cootie Williams
Jack McVea
Howling Wolf
Erksine Hawkins
Buck and Bill Douglas
Lionel Hampton
The Rockets
Harlan Leonard
Ike Barlett's Vamping Babies
Pha Terrell
Doctor Clayton
Andy Kirk and his 12
Clouds of Joy
June Richmond
Benny Carter
Keep Dreaming, Matthew
Our Mission: Friends of Dreamland celebrates the community of historic West Ninth Street, shares the legacy of Dreamland Ballroom, and preserves the original intent of Taborian Hall.
The Chitlin Circuit and Promoters of The Line
Let me check my little green book….
In 2019, the movie Green Book won an Oscar for Best Picture. That same year The Green Book: Guide to Freedom was released as a documentary and the Smithsonian’s traveling Green Book exhibit began touring. (This exhibit is slated to appear next at our very own Mosaic Templars Cultural Center this spring and summer). The Green Book was a guide that mapped out safe traveling routes for African Americans. One such entertainment route was called the Chitlin Circuit.
Chitlin Circuit Provided Safe Passage
While some venues in Hot Springs and a few other towns around Arkansas were known to welcome black acts, these were generally by invitation only. The establishments on the Chitlin Circuit were safe places to entertain or be entertained for blacks traveling across the southern United States. West Ninth Street in Little Rock was the only, consistently safe stop in the state of Arkansas. Since the next closest Chitlin Circuit locations were in Louisiana or Tennessee, that meant black performers touring through our region of the country would almost always make a stop on The Line.
Promoters Provided Safe Venues
The Circuit alone was not enough to bring music to Ninth Street. Local promotion and ticket sales were key; enticing performers to stay in Little Rock and play. The Dreamland Ballroom was not the only venue on The Line and promoters and clubs came and went over its many functioning years. Gerald T Perry, owner of Perry’s Rhumboogie Supper Club, and the Jones brothers, Popeye and S.L (full name lost to time unfortunately) are some of the standouts.
Promoting the ‘Dreamiest’ Venue of All
Two of the promoters that put Little Rock on the map, bringing some of the most impressive names to the Dreamland Ballroom in the 1930s and ‘40s, were Sharper W. Tucker and Mrs. Clark Bass. Tucker was a successful black entrepreneur who owned several businesses in the Ninth Street district and Mrs. Bass was nationally known as “the South’s only woman promoter.”
Lloyd Armon partially owned Dreamland in the late 1940s and early ‘50s and helped Tucker with promotions both there and at the Robinson Auditorium. When Tucker died, his nephew Buck Allen partnered with local disc jockey and Arkansas State Press reporter Al Allen (ironically both with the sir name Allen) to continue Tucker’s promotion company and operate Club Morocco out the Dreamland Ballroom. In the 1950s, several other locals joined the promotion of the club, Eddie LeMonte known as “Old Sad Sack,” being the most prominent among them.
Dr J.A. “Doc” Jamieson was a promoter, mostly for amateur boxing, when the United States Officers Club occupied the Taborian Hall during WW2.
Learning Links
If you are interested in more information on the Chitlin Circuit and Green Book, here’s info about the upcoming exhibit to Mosaic Templars: The Negro Motorist Green Book at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center May, 08 – August 01, 2021 Keep an eye on our Facebook page for an announcement on our next tour of Taborian Hall and Dreamland Ballroom. Help us continue to share the legacy the Dreamland Ballroom: DONATE to the Friends of Dreamland.
Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy