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#1950s

20 posts20 participants1 post today

Sunshine Coast News: Online photo collection offers chance to step back in time. “Thousands of images by a photographer who snapped people and places on the Sunshine Coast for more than 30 years are now available for all to see. Bill Robinson’s collection of 26,000 photos has been added to the Sunshine Coast Heritage Library for everyone to enjoy. The images document the region’s cultural […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/03/sunshine-coast-news-online-photo-collection-offers-chance-to-step-back-in-time/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Sunshine Coast News: Online photo collection offers chance to step back in time | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
#1950s#1960s#1970s

Joe Turner was the father figure for all of the 1940s and 1950s rhythm & blues shouters. He honed his craft in the bars and night clubs of Kansas City during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and by the time he appeared in the 1938 "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall and made his first records with pianist Pete Johnson, he was already at the peak of his powers.

Turner achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1950s when he joined the roster of Atlantic Records and recorded a lot of contemporary material penned by writers like Jesse Stone, Doc Pomus and Leiber & Stoller. Although he was already in his forties, he became an unlikely rock'n'roll star and recorded a a few teen-oriented songs. But like just about all of his Atlantic releases, even these were excellent records.

Turner's wife, Lou Willie Turner (real name: Luella Brown) was credited as the writer of "Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop" (1953). As the song was released on the flip side of "TV Mama", one of Turner's major hits, it did not make the R&B charts on its own, but it is still a very entertaining record, with Turner fully in charge even in this live video version from 1954:

Joe Turner: "Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop" (1954)
youtube.com/watch?v=NnytNEuw3VE

Amos Milburn was one of the major rhythm & blues stars of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

"Bad, Bad Whiskey" was a #1 R&B hit for Milburn in 1950. Credited to the profilic arranger/producer Maxwell Davis, it was the first in a series of drinking songs recorded by him. Many of these were hits, including "Thinking and Drinking", "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey", "Good Good Whiskey" and the original version of "One Scotch, One Bourbon and One Beer".

There is a wonderful video of Milburn playing the song in 1954, backed by an orchestra led by saxophonist Paul Williams. As you can see in the video, Milburn was an excellent singer and pianist, and obviously a charismatic performer as well:

Amos Milburn: "Bad, Bad Whiskey" (1954)
youtube.com/watch?v=oCX--0wJQkQ

This is only one of several very nice live video performances by Milburn captured around this time.These were apparently filmed by a company called Studio Films in New York (although not at the Apollo Theater as was claimed). Together with other similar three-minute videos, they were shown on TV channels and included in low-budget movies.

There is an extensive review of these videos (with lots of impressive background information) in these two blog posts:

weirdwildrealm.com/f-amos-milb
weirdwildrealm.com/f-rhythm-bl

Modern audiences may remember Ruth Brown as Motormouth Maybelle in the original John Waters' version of "Hairspray" (1988). But she was also one of the biggest rhythm & blues stars of the 1950s, and the first major artist in the roster of the fledgling Atlantic Records, founded by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson in 1947.

By the time Brown recorded her #1 R&B hit "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" in 1952, Atlantic had become one of the leading record labels in the R&B market, to a large extent thanks to her record sales. In the UK, the future soul music guru Dave Godin found a bar which had a jukebox stocked with current American R&B singles (I wonder if they were still 78s?), and he later cited this Ruth Brown classic as the record that changed his life.

Amazingly enough, there is a great live video recorded in 1954, which captures Ruth Brown in her prime, performing this song.

Ruth Brown: "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1954)
youtube.com/watch?v=BqmGZRGvKC8

Thelonious Monk, The Unique Thelonious Monk, 1956 on Riverside

Monk recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, with Oscar Pettiford on bass and Art Blakey on drums, produced by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer – originally Riverside RLP 12-209 with a different cover.

My copy, via Academy Records in NYC, is the 1983 reissue in the Original Jazz Classics series, issued by Fantasy which acquired the Riverside catalog in 1972. These are wonderful reissues across Riverside, Prestige, Contemporary and other labels – and well worth picking up whenever you see them in good condition.

#1950s #1956 #ArtBlakey #BillGrauer #Fantasy #jazz #OriginalJazzClassics #OrrinKeepnews #OscarPettiford #Reissue #Riverside #RudyVanGelder #TheloniousMonk #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

old tucson, arizona
september 1958

"keep off"

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/51894664107
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/2309059972/

part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#photography #film #blackandwhite #bw #arizona #tucson #oldtucson #movielot #building #stairs #sign #keepoff #1950s

4

Rose Tremain - Absolutely & Forever

Skilful, beautifully-pitched novel, starting when the narrator is 15 in the 1950s, and continuing into her adulthood. Love, family, secrets etc.

=

Unfortunately for me, I accidentally saw (before reading the book) its blurb on BorrowBox, which gave away a chunk of the plot in a quite annoying spoilery way! Publicity people, how about you all learn the difference between "an enticing snippet" and "a précis"?

chicago, illinois
october 1959

port of chicago, calumet harbor

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/51894998686
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/32328188416/

part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#photography #film #blackandwhite #bw #chicago #illinois #port #calumet #harbor #ship #volumnia #ropes #docks #1950s
winchester, massachusetts
september 1959

tannery fire

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/51895331609
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/16961179880/

part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#photography #film #blackandwhite #bw #winchester #boston #massachusetts #tannery #beggsandcobb #fire #smoke #watertower #1950s
boston, massachusetts
january 1959

sconce, beacon hill

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/51894035887
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/6261428955/

part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

#photography #film #blackandwhite #bw #boston #massachusetts #beaconhill #building #wroughtiron #sconce #1950s