Saturday, October 22, 2011

Teenager "Little Richard" Penniman "[A]lso performed in drag with a minstrel show:

Sugar Foot Sam from 'Ole Alabam..."


Snippets from Glenn C. Anschuler's book, All Shook Up: How Rock'N'Roll Changed America.

Loosely adapted from pages 58 - 60.

"Ostracized by his friends and family, probably because they suspected that he was a homosexual, Penniman left home when he was fourteen to join Dr. Hudson's Medicine Show.

"He then signed on to sing with B. Brown and His Orchestra and also performed in drag in a minstrel show, Sugar Foot Sam from 'Ole Alabam.

"At the same time, he worked as a dishwasher at the Greyhound bus station.

"In the South in the 1940s, a black knew that it was most unwise to talk back to his boss, so when insulted Penniman masked his anger with the nonsense response Wop Bop a Loo Bop a Lop Bam Boom..."

And whenever he auditioned:

"With hair a foot high, Richard wore a shirt that was so loud it looked as though he had drunk raspberry juice, cherryade, malt, and greens, and then thrown up all over himself...

"Before Liberace went campy, Little Richard appeared with a puffed - up pompadour, heavy makeup, capes, and blousy shirts, prancing across the stage and letting loose a Woooo that Paul McCartney heard across the Atlantic and adapted to the music of the Beatles ...

"To [further] appear safe, Little Richard donned eyelashes longer than Josephine Baker's..."

Good book! :)

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