This is a story based on fact that follows a husband and wife who emigrate from Scotland to Wisconsin in the 1850’s. They work very hard and become welcome citizens of their new town, Eureka. They have six children. They prosper in the husband’s boat building business. But when their eldest is 12, tragedy strikes the family, and the 12-year old is burdened with a terrible task which he handles as well as any adult could.Read More »
W.C. Handy has been called “The Father of the Blues”, although he modestly said that he merely transcribed the music and made it available to a wide audience. Nevertheless, his music defined the blues, the best known being “St. Louis Blues”, which was used as the title of the film biography Paramount Studios made of his life in 1958. The cast of St. Louis Blues reads like a list of some of the best African-American talent of the mid 20th Century: Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Ruby Dee, Juano Hernandez, and Pearl Bailey. There is also a future star in the cast: the young boy who plays W.C. Handy as a child would grow up to make a name for himself ten years later when he played with The Beatles: Billy Preston.Read More »