2535 Park Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee
The
broke-down orange building at 2535 Park in Orange Mound is one of the
silent witnesses to Memphis music history. It opened in 1946 as the
W.C. Handy Theatre, with investors including Kemmons Wilson, to
"showcase the finest in Negro entertainment," in the language of the
day.
It opened as a black movie house, and doubled as a venue for
the leading touring black rhythm and blues and jazz orchestras of the
day. By the early 1950s the Handy Theatre was in hot competition with
the Hippodrome, a converted roller rink down on Beale, as the top nite
spot in town.
The poster at right advertised a big revue
featuring the great Wynonie Harris in a "Battle of the Blues" taking
place April 4, 1953.
This was also a transitional moment in
black comedy. Check out the lower right of the ad. "Crackshot" is a
black blackface comedian, complete with white lip outlines. Looks like
something out of the 1920s. The name below is that of a slightly
more modern comedy stylist, a young fellow named Ray Moore from over in
Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The world would come to know him as Dolemite. He
was about 25 at the time of this show, and yet to make a name for
himself, so to speak. I love material like this. It dispels all sorts
of common assumptions about black entertainment.
The Handy
indeed hosted the finest in African-American entertainment, and did so
weekly. In early '53 alone, Little Esther Phillips, Lionel Hampton,
Duke Ellington, Lloyd Price, and Ivory Joe Hunter played the Handy.
The Handy Theatre became the Showcase Lounge in the late 1960s and,
yes, showcased many of Memphis' soul acts like the Bar-Kays. Here's
what's left of the old man now.
