The Neighborhood Vs. Wynonie Harris

Here are a couple of news items via the Jet magazine archives (02/24/1955 and 11/03/1955, respectively) detailing wildman Wynonie Harris's clashes with touchy neighbors in Brooklyn and Long Island.

I'd give just about anything to see a photo of the flashing sign on his Long Island lawn reading "The World's Greatest Blues Singer Lives Here."  As the great Dizzy Dean once said, "it ain't bragging if you can do it."

Below: Wynonie Harris, via ACE records.

Nipsey & The Strippers

Via the Jet magazine archives, 1954.  Nipsey Russell cavorts with strippers Rose LaRosa and Delilah Wyld at the Baby Grand nightclub in Harlem.

The Super Volcanic Lloyd Price

New York City - Lloyd Price tears it up at the Rockland Palace, 1960.  Via the priceless JET magazine archives.

Chinky Grimes & Jimmy Rushing come to Brooklyn, 1955

Jimmy Rushing  -  Lotsa Poppa  (2:35)

Photo via the Jet magazine archives.

Louis Jordan For President!

It's only 2013 and I'm already tired of hearing about the next Presidential election.  Now if Louis Jordan were in the race, things might be different.  Via the fantastic JET archives.

Ezra Stoller

Columbia Records, 1953.  Photo by Ezra Stoller.

If I were in NYC, I would most certainly plan on dropping by the Yossi Milo gallery in Chelsea to check out the display of architectural and industrial photographs taken by Ezra Stoller.  More information about Stoller and his wonderful work can be found in this New York Times article.

Horrors in the Wax Museum

 If you were a Beatle-crazed teen on a family vacation or class trip to the 1964 World's Fair, perhaps you were thrilled to stand in the presence of these grotesque effigies of your beloved moptops... or perhaps just appalled. I realize that at the early stage of the game in which these would have been sculpted, their images weren't burned into everyone's brains yet, and adults generally could only distinguish Ringo among their lineup anyway, but these are still pretty poor. On the other hand, the Ed Sullivan is not half bad, and their other celebrities (I didn't scan those) are no better or worse than average for this sort of thing. For more adventures at Walter's Wax Museum, come with me to my work-related blog at The Home of the Bippy!