Beale Street - Memphis, TN

Beale Street - Home of the Blues
Memphis, Tennessee

July 8, 2012

In the early 1900s, Beale Street was filled with clubs, restaurants and shops, many of them owned by African-Americans. In 1903, Mayor Thornton was looking for a music teacher for his Knights of Pythias Band and called Tuskegee Institute to talk to his friend, Booker T. Washington, who recommended a trumpet player in Clarksdale, Mississippi, named W. C. Handy. Mayor Thornton contacted Mr. Handy, and Memphis became the home of the famous musician who created the "Blues on Beale Street". In 1909, Handy wrote "Mr. Crump" as a campaign song for political machine leader E. H. Crump. The song was later renamed "The Memphis Blues". Handy also wrote a song called "Beale Street Blues" in 1916 which influenced the change of the street's name from Beale Avenue to Beale Street. 

From the 1920s to the 1940s, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Memphis Minnie, B. B. King, Rufus Thomas, Rosco Gordon and other blues and jazz legends played on Beale Street and helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues. As a young man, B.B. King was billed as "The Beale Street Blues Boy". Unfortunately, in the 1960s, Beale Street became run down and many stores closed, although in 1966, the section of the street from Main to 4th was declared a National Historic Landmark. 

In 1977, Beale Street was officially declared the Home of the Blues by an Act of Congress. Despite this national recognition of its historic significance, Beale Street was a virtual ghost town after a disastrous urban renewal program. Except for Schwabs dry goods store, every building was boarded up. Established in 1876, the motto of Schwabs was "If you can't find it at Schwabs, you're probably better off without it!" 

It was not until the 1980s that Beale Street was sucessfully redeveloped with new clubs and attractions.

Photographs:

The photographs below are the property of Leon Jackson, and are protected by copyright laws. Downloading or reproducing these photographs in any way without the written permission of Leon Jackson is prohibited. © 2015 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved.

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Company Store
B.B. King is an American blues musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was born in 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at Number 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked Number 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list). King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed. King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and was inducted into 2014 class of the R&B Music Hall of Fame. He is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of Blues". King is also known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at 250-300 concerts per year until his seventies. King continues to appear at 100 shows a year. Since he started recording in the 1940s, B.B.King has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. 

Update: B.B. King passed away on May 14, 2015.

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First Chance For Beer
Open consumption of alcoholic beverages on Beale Street is allowed. The entertainment district along Beale Street is exempt from both Tennessee's statewide open container ban and the Memphis local open container ban.
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Hanging-out 
In front of Silky O'Sullivans pub .. cops on the look-out, men chatting at a table (one with a huge, ornate king's chair with wheels), a Porsche sports car and a pipe organ in a golf cart. I stopped at Silky's for a Diver. A Diver is a one-gallon-size drink in a yellow bucket with five straws. The formula is a secret, but the main ingredient appears to be beer, mixed with a concoction of other liquors and grenadine. It kind of tastes like bubble gum. Carrying a Diver down Beale Street is an easy way to make friends! 
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Pork With An Attitude
As he works, a restaurant employee checks-out a young woman in a short skirt and boots.
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Forgotten
On a hot day, a street person sleeps in the back door exit to the Hard Rock Cafe.
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"Old" Daisy Theater
 Built in 1902, the Daisy theater is a example of nickelodeon architecture from the early cinema era. The tiny hall features a grand half-dome entrance. The Daisy is unusual in that the stage and screen are on the sidewalk end. Double doors on either side of the half-dome enter into small vestibules, one on either side of the stage. Emerging from the vestibules, you have the audience looking at you. There is a small balcony, vaguely horse-shoe shaped, supported from above with iron rods. In the 1930’s the New Daisy Theatre was built directly across the street. During much of the 20th century Beale Street served as the business and entertainment center for African-Americans from all over the mid-South. Despite its tiny stage, the Daisy was a prime performing venue on the so-called “Chitlin' Circuit” from the 1930’s up through the 1960’s. Today, the old Daisy Theater is a banquet hall providing live entertainment.
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New Daisy Theatre
The New Daisy is a venue for both local and national acts. It opened in 1936, and has played host to artists such as John Lee Hooker, Gatemouth Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, Sam and Dave, Bob Dylan, Alex Chilton, The Cramps, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, The Cult and Oasis, among others. Bob Dylan used the venue to record his Grammy-winning CD Time Out of Mind. It is directly across the street from the original Daisy Theater.
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