Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Atlanta Daily World
Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia
What is this article about?
Biographical sketch of W.C. Handy, born to a Methodist minister in Florence, Alabama, who drew inspiration from negro chants, composed 'St. Louis Blues' on a Mississippi levee, self-published it to great success, and endured hardships with ASCAP support.
Clipping
OCR Quality
Full Text
It was a boy in the Florence, Alabama home of the Methodist Rev. Charles Bernard Handy and everybody rejoiced that another minister-to-be had been born.
The chants of the negro workers, their plaintive simple melodies took form in his mind on a grander scale, and he began composing, in his mind.
Boys will be boys, however, and before he was fifteen, William had turned to "worldly" music. He hit the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 with a quartet.
Twenty-five years ago he sat on a bale of cotton on a Mississippi bank and with a stub pencil wrote on a cigar box the melody by which he will be always remembered.
When hard times came Handy turned to music. But music never paid, and young Handy was always going back to physical labor when hard times were over.
He became his own publisher, running up a $20 printer's deposit on his song to a 100,000 copy sale. Phonograph companies did not at first record the song, and everybody said "St. Louis Blues" would die-and everybody was wrong.
It was while he was working on the levee that the idea for his "St. Louis Blues" song came to him.
Handy's membership both as a publisher and a composer in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers enabled him to weather the depression and fulfill his musical heritage.
From ASCAP Files By Joseph R. Florstor and Paul Carruth
What sub-type of article is it?
What themes does it cover?
What keywords are associated?
What entities or persons were involved?
Where did it happen?
Story Details
Key Persons
Location
Florence, Alabama; Chicago; Mississippi; St. Louis
Event Date
1893
Story Details
Born to Rev. Charles Bernard Handy in Florence, Alabama, William Handy absorbed negro workers' chants and began composing mentally. As a boy, he performed worldly music at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Twenty-five years ago, on a Mississippi cotton bale, he composed the enduring 'St. Louis Blues' melody. Facing hard times, he alternated between music and labor, self-published the song successfully despite initial rejection, and ASCAP membership sustained him through the depression.