Ma's Place Opens

[Christiern]

Columbus, Georgia

Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006

Ma's place

Ma Rainey's home has been remodeled and converted into a museum that Ma would love

BY BRAD BARNES

Staff Writer

J

im Vukelic is a fan of the blues, but he didn't come all the way from Bismarck, N.D., to Columbus in search of the city's rich blues history. He came to visit his son, a soldier stationed at Fort Benning.

But since they had time to kill, they thought they'd check out what the city had to offer. He was particularly interested in seeing the home of Ma Rainey, the Columbus-born blues singer that even greats like B.B. King call the Mother of the Blues.

"I like to buy T-shirts in places I go to -- and music. The typical tourist accoutrements," says Vukelic. When he reflects on his 2002 visit, he remembers a boarded up house with a locked door.

"If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be 'dilapidated,' " he says.

Things have changed in the last four years, though.

After a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, visitors will find an open door and a renovated house that pays tribute to Rainey's legend and influence.

There'll be Rainey's music playing through an old Victrola, and a collection of photos and records for people to explore. The furniture will all be from the 1920s -- when Rainey was in her prime -- and some will even be hers.

"You'll see a period house, go into her living room, hear music play," says Florene Dawkins, chairwoman of the Friends of Ma Rainey Museum of the Blues.

Officials hope to make steady progress with acquisitions and the operation of the museum, and Dawkins has asked Chattahoochee Valley cultural expert Fred Fussell to serve as curator.

The house has seen quite a face-lift in the past six months.

At its worst, the entire two-story house listed some 30 degrees to one side. It had been tagged for demolition in 1991 when the city narrowly approved spending $90,000 to shore it up.

Even a year ago, though structurally sound, the place was in horrible shape. You could look from the front of the house to the back through giant holes in the plaster. Vines pushed in through windows and curled up interior walls. Folksy trim pieces fell from doorways onto the floor, and the narrow stairwell to the second floor teetered precariously.

It's gone from weathered and white to a yellow so bright that it's actually surprised folks who haven't seen the house in a while.

"We got calls saying, 'Oh no, not yellow,' " says Columbus City Manger Isaiah Hugley, who's been involved with the effort to open the museum for years.

But the yellow paint scheme actually came from paint chips many layers down. The Friends of Ma Rainey Museum of the Blues coordinated the paint scheme with the Historic Columbus Foundation to make sure it was in keeping with the predominant schemes of the day.

Inside, the refinished oak floor shines. Fireplace mantels are back in place. Plaster is patched. The stairwell is solid. And there's a wheelchair ramp to the back door and a handicap-accessible bathroom.

The city of Columbus owns the house, but the Friends will run it. Plans are to open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday weekdays and half a day on Saturdays. On weekdays, two part-time city Parks and Recreation workers will operate out of the house as support staff. The workers will perform their normal desk duties from the museum, Hugley said, but they'll be on hand to assist museum patrons.

In recent years there have been a number of efforts to bring Rainey's legacy to the forefront of Columbus history.

In the years just after her death, the community did not well up in support of her, and historians cite a number of possible reasons.

Devil's music

• In those days, blues was largely viewed as the Devil's music, particularly in the Bible Belt.
  
  
  
• Rainey performed largely in carnivals and tent shows, which were certainly not the most prestigious of venues.
  
  
  
• She was, by all indications, bisexual -- a lifestyle that was not as accepted then as it is today. (In fact, several biographers suggest that singer Bessie Smith, who was a protege of Rainey's, also might have been her lover.)
  
  
  
• Rainey's heyday, in the 1920s, came before the mass popularization of recorded music, so recordings are scarce and of questionable quality.
  
  

There are only a handful of photographs of her, as well. Still, that even that many exist is a tribute to her importance, says blues record and memorabilia collector John Tefteller, of Grants Pass, Ore.

"She's one of the most photographed of that era," he says. "Most are not photographed at all, or maybe once."

Recently, several new images of Rainey came to light as part of a collection of photos by Basil Clemons in the University of Texas at Arlington library's special collection.

Locally, in 2002, the Columbus Jazz Society began hosting a Ma Rainey Jazz & Blues Festival. This year's festival kicked off outside her Fifth Avenue house and paraded to her grave at nearby Porterdale Cemetery, and planners have said they hope to incorporate the house more firmly into the festival once the museum opens.

In 1997, B.B. King volunteered to play a free concert in Columbus in order to raise money for the restoration of the house. The event garnered $34,000 for the restoration.

And when Columbus State University this year was awarded a grant to present a series of programs on Columbus history and culture, Ma Rainey was chosen as one of the monthly topics. At the event, which will be held in March and open to the public, Dawkins will speak about Rainey and the group can take part in a field trip to the museum.

Out-of-towners like Vukelic should find an open door too. And maybe, soon, there'll be some T-shirts and CDs for sale.

MA'S PIANO

Of all the relics found under the roof of the Ma Rainey house, this is the one that could most easily fire the imagination.

An upright piano, covered with a thick layer of green paint.

At first officials were dubious about declaring the piano as Rainey's. After all, she was a singer and didn't play the piano on stage. But now they think the piano belonged to her brother, and it was almost certainly in the house at the same time as Rainey.

"You can just imagine her sitting there, working out her songs," says Jerry Franklin, the chief of maintenance at the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus and the man contracted to restore the instrument. It's built of tiger maple, he discovered, once he was able to remove the green paint and the light blue paint beneath that.

He hopes to have the work completed in time for the grand opening on Thursday. But: "You can't get into too big a hurry or you'll get into that wood," he says.

The piano was built by the now-defunct Milwaukee-based Kreiter Piano Co., and based on its serial number, Franklin thinks it was built in 1909 or 1910.

MA RAINEY TIMELINE

• April 26, 1886: Born as Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus. She was the second of five children of Thomas and Ella Allen Pridgett.
  
  
  
• 1900: Debuts at the Springer Opera House in "A Bunch of Blackberries."
  
  
  
• February 1904: Marries Will "Pa" Rainey, an entertainer she met as he came to town in a touring colored minstrel show.
  
  
  
• 1920s: Becomes known as Ma Rainey, an influential voice on the black vaudeville circuit.
  
  
  
• 1935: Returns to Columbus, living at 805 Fifth Ave. and running theaters in Columbus and Rome, Ga.
  
  
  
• Dec. 22, 1939: Dies from complications of a heart condition and is buried in Columbus' Porterdale Cemetery.
  
  
  
• September 1986: Historic marker goes up outside her home.
  
  
  
• October 1988: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson's play "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" debuts in Columbus.
  
  
  
• July 1991: With a federal grant, the Columbus Housing Authority buys the home to save it from demolition.
  
  
  
• December 1992: House is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  
  
  
• September 1994: U.S. Postal Service issues a commemorative stamp in Rainey's honor.
  
  
  
• September 1995: Friends of Ma Rainey Museum of the Blues incorporated by the state of Georgia.
  
  
  
• June 1997: B.B. King headlines a concert that raises $34,000 for the Friends.
  
  
  
• Aug. 31, 2006: The Ma Rainey Museum of the Blues will open with a 9 a.m. ribbon cutting.
  
  

Information:

706-326-8010

Contact Brad Barnes at 706-571-8524 or bbarnes@ledger-enquirer.com

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

That's a heartwarming article, Chris. Thanks.

MG

[paul secor]

Glad to see that Ma Rainey is being honored.

Edited September 1, 2006 by paul secor

[EKE BBB]

Thanks for the info, Chris!

[John L]

Good news. Ma Rainey certainly deserves it.

The article claims that she become known as Ma Rainey only in the 20s. I had thought that she was already famous as Ma Rainey before then. She was the Queen before Bessie Smith arrived.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

whos this ma rainey now. is she really the 1st lady blues singer? did she record for paramount.

[Christiern]

Apropos Ma Rainey, she only recorded for one label, Paramount (owned by the Wisconsin Chair Co.). This week, a segment of the PBS series, "History Detectives," deals with the search for Paramount metal masters.--CA

LOST MUSICAL TREASURE

AIRED:

Season 4, Episode 11

THE DETECTIVE:

Tukufu Zuberi

THE PLACE:

Port Washington, Long Island

THE CASE:

A man in Port Washington, Wisconsin who owns a pair of metal "masters" that were used to press shellac records in the 1920s and 30s has a hunch they could represent surviving fragments of a lost moment in American musical history.

The contributor’s great uncle was the master sound engineer for one of the more peculiar recording enterprises in the United States, Paramount Records. He worked for the Wisconsin Chair Company, which, among other things, manufactured phonograph cabinets.

The company’s salesmen were savvy to the broad spectrum of musical talent at the time and established a tandem recording label, ultimately bringing some of the best blues artists from the Mississippi Delta to Wisconsin to record in the factory.

History Detectives travels to Wisconsin and New York to determine the significance of these metal masters and to explore how one company captured the regionally and culturally diverse music played around the nation in the 20s and 30s.

Here's a 1923 photo of Ma Rainey and her Wildcats Jazz Band: David Nelson, cornet; Al Wynn, trombone;Eddie Pollack, alto sax; Thomas A. Dorsey, piano; Gabriel Washington, drums.

P.S. For those of you whose interest does not include very early jazz and blues, I might point out that Thomas A. Dorsey wrote many gospel songs, including Take My Hand, Precious Lord, and was also known as "Georgia Tom" when he recorded his less sacred songs, such as "Tight Like That."

Edited September 4, 2006 by Christiern

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Apropos Ma Rainey, she only recorded for one label, Paramount (owned by the Wisconsin Chair Co.). This week, a segment of the PBS series, "History Detectives," deals with the search for Paramount metal masters.--CA

LOST MUSICAL TREASURE

AIRED:

Season 4, Episode 11

THE DETECTIVE:

Tukufu Zuberi

THE PLACE:

Port Washington, Long Island

THE CASE:

A man in Port Washington, Wisconsin who owns a pair of metal "masters" that were used to press shellac records in the 1920s and 30s has a hunch they could represent surviving fragments of a lost moment in American musical history.

The contributor’s great uncle was the master sound engineer for one of the more peculiar recording enterprises in the United States, Paramount Records. He worked for the Wisconsin Chair Company, which, among other things, manufactured phonograph cabinets.

The company’s salesmen were savvy to the broad spectrum of musical talent at the time and established a tandem recording label, ultimately bringing some of the best blues artists from the Mississippi Delta to Wisconsin to record in the factory.

History Detectives travels to Wisconsin and New York to determine the significance of these metal masters and to explore how one company captured the regionally and culturally diverse music played around the nation in the 20s and 30s.

Here's a 1923 photo of Ma Rainey and her Wildcats Jazz Band: David Nelson, cornet; Al Wynn, trombone;Eddie Pollack, alto sax; Thomas A. Dorsey, piano; Gabriel Washington, drums.

P.S. For those of you whose interest does not include very early jazz and blues, I might point out that Thomas A. Dorsey wrote many gospel songs, including Take My Hand, Precious Lord, and was also known as "Georgia Tom" when he recorded his less sacred songs, such as "Tight Like That."

I've seen that photo many times, but its never looked so clear. I guess it shows the power of computer enhancements.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

P.S. For those of you whose interest does not include very early jazz and blues, I might point out that Thomas A. Dorsey wrote many gospel songs, including Take My Hand, Precious Lord, and was also known as "Georgia Tom" when he recorded his less sacred songs, such as "Tight Like That."

There was a TV programme over here, about ten years ago I think, called "Say Amen, somebody", which outlined his story and those of some of the people in Chicago that he developed. It culminated in him, aged about 90, conducting the GMWA Mass Choir. I never saw anyone with such presence! He was completely dominating the choir and the audience, just by small movements of one finger - and an gaze of almost unbearable intensity! Wow!

MG

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Question: how was it that a Wisconsin chair co. had the forsight to find blues musicians from the rural south. did someone at the factory like the blues, or was it all just random-- because i know paramount recorded other stuff too- i have a black label paramont tacked onto my wall, and its not rural blues- its "when the red red robbin goes bob bob bobbin' along". wisconsin is so far away from the south i just dont get it

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

the episode tonite here is about the history of superman....i want to see the history of paramount

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Question: how was it that a Wisconsin chair co. had the forsight to find blues musicians from the rural south. did someone at the factory like the blues, or was it all just random-- because i know paramount recorded other stuff too- i have a black label paramont tacked onto my wall, and its not rural blues- its "when the red red robbin goes bob bob bobbin' along". wisconsin is so far away from the south i just dont get it

A lot of the early record companies were owned by firms in the furniture business. Generally, gramophones were sold in furniture shops, as pieces of furniture. Brunswick was owned by a firm of billiard table manufacturers; Vocalion and Gennett by (different) piano manufacturers.

In Paramount's case, what gave them an edge was that they had the services of one H C Speir, who owned a store (it doesn't say what he sold) in Jackson Miss. Speir knew what his black customers wanted and would arrange for blues singers and others to go to Chicago (where Wisconsin Chair had their recording operation) to record. In Chicago itself, Paramount was managed by Mayo Wiliams, about the first black executive in the recording industry. Between them, and one or two other contacts in the South, I imagine, they put Paramount in the lead for what was then called "Race music".

If you can find a book in your local library called "Little labels - big sound", by Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt (Indiana U Press, 1999) ISBN0-253-335548-5, that gives potted histories of

Gennett

Paramount

Dial

King

Duke-Peacock

Sun

Riverside

Ace (New Orleans, not London)

Monument

Delmark

MG

[Christiern]

The Brunswick company actually manufactured bowling balls. I think there is a correlation between the material used for bowling balls and that which was used for 78 rpm records. That is certainly why the Scranton button factory went into the record-pressing business and ended up owning labels like Banner. I guess it was a natural diversification.

That picture's clatity, BTW, is not due to computer enhancement, it's from an original print.

[Christiern]

the episode tonite here is about the history of superman....i want to see the history of paramount

The Superman Drawing episode is the first of three covered by this week's program. Paramount is also on tap for tonight.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The Brunswick company actually manufactured bowling balls. I think there is a correlation between the material used for bowling balls and that which was used for 78 rpm records. That is certainly why the Scranton button factory went into the record-pressing business and ended up owning labels like Banner. I guess it was a natural diversification.

That picture's clatity, BTW, is not due to computer enhancement, it's from an original print.

That's strange; according to Brian Rust, Brunswick-Balke-Callender made billiard tables. I suppose that different parts of the operation made different things - I can remember seeing the name Brunswick on bowling alleys, though. Billiard balls would, I guess, be made out of similar stuff.

MG

[paul secor]

The Brunswick company actually manufactured bowling balls. I think there is a correlation between the material used for bowling balls and that which was used for 78 rpm records. That is certainly why the Scranton button factory went into the record-pressing business and ended up owning labels like Banner. I guess it was a natural diversification.

There's an old joke that Paramount's pressings were so bad that they must have pressed their 78's from the same materials that they made their furniture from.

Chris, thanks for mentioning the History Detectives show. I'd read that they did a Paramount Records segment, but hadn't heard when it would be aired.

[paul secor]

The Paramount segment was short (they all seem to be 20 minutes) but enjoyable. Thanks to Chris for posting - I might have been watching the Yankee game and missed it.

Sure wish they'd have found some of those blues masters in the Milwaukee River.

[Chuck Nessa]

That's strange; according to Brian Rust, Brunswick-Balke-Callender made billiard tables. I suppose that different parts of the operation made different things - I can remember seeing the name Brunswick on bowling alleys, though. Billiard balls would, I guess, be made out of similar stuff.

MG

Brunswick still exists. The old pressing plant building still stands in Muskegon, MI. Brunswick sold the building to a moving and storage company. Bowling AND billiard equiipment were/are the products.

[Christiern]

That's strange; according to Brian Rust, Brunswick-Balke-Callender made billiard tables. I suppose that different parts of the operation made different things - I can remember seeing the name Brunswick on bowling alleys, though. Billiard balls would, I guess, be made out of similar stuff.

MG

We are boith correct, actually:

I found a history from which I have extracted the following:

In the 1880s Bensinger added another product line, bowling pins and bowling balls. Taverns had begun installing lanes, interest seemed to be growing, and Bensinger was determined to be ready for this new market. He actively promoted bowling as a participatory sport and helped to standardize the game. Bensinger also was instrumental in organizing the American Bowling Congress. Although the company continued to expand its markets and product lines, bowling was to become the financial backbone of the firm.

Throughout this growth and expansion, Brunswick remained a family firm. John Brunswick's surviving son, Benedict Brunswick, and Julius Balke, Jr., were Brunswick executives, and Bensinger's son, Benjamin Bensinger, worked first as a clerk, then as a salesman, and was rapidly moving his way up in the company. In 1904, upon the death of his father, Benjamin Bensinger became the president of Brunswick-Balke-Collender, at age 36. The firm had several sales offices, and manufacturing plants in Chicago, Cincinnati, Dubuque, and New York, and in 1906 Bensinger opened a large manufacturing plant in Muskegon, Michigan. The Muskegon plant, which grew to over one million square feet in the 1940s, became the cornerstone of the firm's manufacturing, producing such products as mineralite (hard rubber) bowling balls.

Prohibition Era (1920--33) Forced Diversification

In the 1910s the temperance movement threatened not only the fixtures and bar business but also billiards and bowling. In 1912, in anticipation of Prohibition--which started in 1920--Brunswick suspended its bar-fixtures operations, which accounted for one-fourth of annual sales, and sought to replace it with automobile tires and the world's first hard-rubber toilet seats. Rubber products best utilized the firm's existing facilities. By 1921 the Muskegon plant was producing 2,000 tires a day. Then the price of rubber tripled in 1922, Brunswick sold its tire line to B.F. Goodrich, who began to manufacture tires under the Brunswick name as the Brunswick Tire Company.

Brunswick also began to manufacture wood piano cases and phonograph cabinets. Edison Phonograph was the principal buyer of Brunswick's cabinets. The demand for phonographs was so strong that Bensinger decided that Brunswick should manufacture its own line of phonographs. By 1916 the Muskegon plant was producing Brunswick phonographs and putting them on the market for $150--40 percent less than comparable models. In 1922 it also began producing records under its own label. Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Benny Goodman and classical artists such as Irene Pavlovska and Leopold Godowsky all recorded on the Brunswick label. In 1925 Brunswick teamed up with General Electric to manufacture an all-electric phonograph called the Panatrope, which came equipped with or without a radio. In 1930 Brunswick sold the Brunswick Panatrope & Radio Corporation to Warner Brothers for $10 million.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I never thought about the impact of prohibition on a firm with those products. So they went into music as an alternative.

MG

[jeffcrom]

Today I drove the 90 miles or so from Atlanta to Columbus, Ga. to hunt for 78s and do some geocaching. (Google that if you're curious.) I was driving down 5th Avenue and was surprised to see a historical marker proclaiming "Ma Rainey's House." I stopped, read the marker, and stared at the house for awhile. There was nothing to indicate that it was a museum or was open to the public - I wish I had been aware of this thread before my visit.

The marker indicated that Porterdale Cemetery, where Rainey is buried, was nearby. I found the cemetery about a half mile away. I asked some guys working near the entrance where her grave was, and one of them showed me. Rainey is buried between two of her Pridgett sisters; each has a concrete slab over her grave. Ma's just reads "Gertrude Rainey" and her dates, but she also has a nice new headstone proclaiming her status as "Mother of the Blues."

After visiting the grave, I had the urge to drive back by the house while playing some Ma Rainey music. This was all unplanned, so I didn't have any Rainey CDs with me, but I had brought Allen's Really the Blues? set as road music, so I found "Don't Fish in My Sea" and cranked it up.

It was very cool to run across Rainey's house more or less by chance, and to be led to her gravesite by the plaque. I'm planning to go back before too long, and actually visit the museum and take some pictures.

At the cemetery, I had a gut-wrenching moment not directly related to Ma Rainey. Porterdale Cemetery was a burying ground for the black residents of Columbus - for most of the South's history, segregation didn't end with death. Near Rainey's grave was the grave of an infant. The headstone was inscribed with the child's given name (which I don't remember), the date of her death (1858) and "Kizzie's Baby." No last names. I thought it was odd, until it hit me - Kizzie and her child didn't have last names. They were slaves. You can't live down here without frequently thinking about the horrible history of the region, but it was a powerful experience to unexpectedly come across the raw evidence of human slavery - not in a museum, not in a book, but while just wandering around.

Edited November 10, 2010 by jeffcrom

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks Jeff.

[papsrus]

Yes, thanks for sharing that Jeff.

[Christiern]

Add me to the grateful, Jeff.

Actually, I am reminded of Kizzies every day as I work on the St. Croix slave records. It is amazing how inhuman we humans can be.

[EKE BBB]

Ma Rainey's grave: