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162 6 Workin’ Man; Chicago Blues PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK CITY, AND CLEVELAND; NO MORE RECORDS NOW Resuming the Personal Story Almost certainly Lonnie moved to the East Coast from Texas in fall 1929. The 1930 U.S. Census lists a “Lony Johnson” (I’ve seen that misspelling of his name elsewhere) residing in Philadelphia. He’s listed as born in New Orleans, both of his parents as born in New Orleans (a significant find itself, if the census worker got that right), and his occupation is listed as “performer” in “Vaudeville-Stage”; this is surely our man. The age listing is wrong—39—but not far off; Lonnie would have been 36 at the time. Actually, this location makes sense, since Lonnie was first introduced to Philadelphia at the beginning of his work in the TOBA vaudeville theater circuit back around 1922. It would appear that he found the city to his liking and/or hooked up with some special people, since he came back in fall 1929 and took up residence there (as he did again in the 1950s). My best guess is that he actually went to Philadelphia before he went to New York; in Lonnie’s one statement about this in interviews, he simply said, “I left Beaumont, Texas, and come East.”1 He probably also decided to use the familiar Philly as his home base in fall 1929 through the first two or three months of 1930 because he was mostly touring with Bessie Smith’s show during that specific period. Two other significant items are found in the census report. One column is for “Marital Condition.” For Lonnie a “D” is registered, which means divorced. Assuming no egregious mistake, this semi-formally Workin’ Man; Chicago Blues 163 indicates the various sources stating that Lonnie’s marriage lasted until 1932 are wrong, as also suggested by various evidence discussed earlier . A second interesting finding is in the last column. It asks whether the citizen is a veteran of military service. This is answered, “yes” and “WW” is entered in the companion column that asked what war or other experience the person served in, indicating service in World War I, in this case. Again, assuming no egregious mistake, this bolsters (though it does not prove) the claim that Lonnie did indeed serve in World War I entertaining troops. As lamented in chapter 2, it’s a shame that records from Lonnie’s apparent time of service were destroyed in a fire at the U.S. archives and staff were unable to find Lonnie’s service record by other documents, as they sometimes can. (Thanks to census experts for blues musicians, Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, for help here.) New York After that period in Philadelphia, Lonnie moved up to New York City. In New York, in addition to his recordings in fall 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1932, he found work in clubs and shows. Again, Lonnie’s work with Bessie Smith’s “Midnight Steppers” show tour continued into and probably through February 1930. Another example of his non-studio work: Starting on November 21, 1931, he played in a show called That Gets It at the Alhambra Theater (126th Street and 7th Ave., “Afternoons: 10 and 15 cents, Nights: 15 and 25 cents”; keep those prices in mind the next time you go to a New York City show today!) The other cast members are obscure today. And it appears his radio show was on in 1931 and/or 1932.2 Cleveland Lonnie said, “I left from New York and went straight to Cleveland.” By 1932, the Depression was at its low point and “times was tough,” to use the phrase heard from blues singers and others. Record sales had dropped dramatically; “as 1931 dawned, race records [as recordings aimed at the African-American market were called] were selling about a tenth as well as they had four years previously.”3 Things got 164 THE ORIGINAL GUITAR HERO AND THE POWER OF MUSIC even worse through 1931 and 1932, and work for musicians, even one at the level of Lonnie Johnson, was not easy to find. Lonnie recorded his final six sides on August 12, 1932, for OKeh Records, and his contract ran out. In New York Lonnie hooked up with pianist and bandleader Putney Dandridge. Dandridge had worked as accompanist for the famous Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in 1930, among other musical experience. They decided to head for Chicago. It appears they left in April or May...

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