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Former Hotel
Holds Historical Significance in American Music
(By Stacy Jones, October 1, 2005) |
The
old building stands deserted now, a hulking, dilapidated reminder
of what was once.
Very few hotels have played such
a large part in the history of American music, but from this
building the public heard the King of Rock-and-Roll make his
radio debut.
Furthermore, an eager audience
tuned into the weekly antics of a fast-talking, free-wheeling
disc jockey known as Dewey Phillips.
Inside the Chisca Hotel, located
at the corner of Main and Linden Streets in downtown Memphis,
Phillips manned the "Red, Hot, and Blue" show for local
radio station WHBQ six nights a week between 9:00 pm until midnight
from 1949-1956. Broadcasting with only 1000 watts of power and
his raucous, unsanitized manner, Phillips was greatly admired
by listeners, who knew him affectionately as "Daddy-O-Dewey."
The ever-eclectic Phillips, born
in Crump, Tennessee, in 1926, left nearby Adamsville to come
to Memphis in 1942. On some accounts, he already exhibited the
traits-the rebellious non-conformity-that would later mark his
radio broadcasts. According to MemphisGuide.com, he purportedly
lost his job at the Continental Bakery for coaxing other workers
to make gingerbread men instead of loaves of bread.
Fortunate for the history of rock-and-roll,
Phillips then obtained a job as a clerk, spinning records at
W.T. Grant's near the WHBQ headquarters in the Gayoso Hotel.
The program later moved to the Chisca. WHBQ's announcer Gorden
Lawhead didn't know much about the music when the station decided
to broadcast its new "Red, Hot, and Blue" program,
so here came Dewey. Of course, he got the job.
From the mezzanine of the hotel,
Phillips spun a mix of white rock and country and black blues
and R&B. The program was groundbreaking because it drew a
biracial audience and influenced listeners as far away as Lubbock,
Texas, where a young Buddy Holly purportedly tuned into the three-hour
show.
On July 7, 1954, only days after
Sam Phillips (no relation to Dewey), owner of Sun Records, recorded
teenage truck driver Elvis Presley singing a rhythm-country version
of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right,
Mama," Dewey Phillips aired a test pressing of the single
on his show.
Response was tremendous, as Phillips
played the song several times in a row, allowing the fledgling
Presley to become a household name. Presley himself appeared
for an on-air interview with Phillips. Only two years later,
Presley, of course, would become an internationally known singer,
well on his way to his present-day cultural icon status.
After WHBQ's "Red, Hot, and
Blue" program was long defunct, and the Chisca had closed
its doors for good, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) acquired
the property in 1971, purchased from the Snowden family for $10.
However, upkeep on the building was eventually deemed too costly,
and around 1997, COGIC moved its headquarters elsewhere in the
city.
Numerous rumors have circulated
since then regarding the possible demolition of the building,
which has gone largely unrecognized for its place in the history
of America's musical development and race relations. Efforts
have been made by Memphis Heritage, Inc., a local non-profit
organization, to educate the public and preserve the historic
property, which is how I learned about the building. In the summer
of 2005, COGIC unveiled plans to sell the property to a developer
of Hilton Hotels.
According to the plans, Hilton
will renovate the original part of the building, which includes
the famed mezzanine that made musical history. They will likely
demolish a 1960s addition on the back, which is fine by most
people, considering the gaudiness of much of the architecture
of that era and lack of consideration of architects for the original
structures in their additions. The Chisca's add-on was no exception.
Like the old Chisca, Phillips is
no longer with us. After being squeezed out of the increasingly
homogenized, commercial racket that radio was steadily becoming,
Phillips wandered from job to job for the last ten years of his
life. He also suffered intense pain from a car accident. In 1968,
at the young age of 42, he died in his sleep.
I was fortunate, however, to appreciate
a few moments with this charismatic, dynamic, fascinating personality
when I recently discovered a recording of his "Red, Hot,
and Blue," program at the library. I also had the privilege
of finding out by accident that a friend of my mother just happens
to be his cousin. I look forward to the chance to sit down and
let her indulge me with stories about this rich character.
I do hope they leave the old part
of the Chisca intact. And I hope they erect some sort of monument
or put up a plaque for Dewey Phillips somewhere in the lobby
or on the mezzanine. They don't make old hotels like the Chisca
anymore, and, sadly, deejays like " Daddy-O-Dewey"
are now just a thing of the past.
(Stacy Jones, a Southerner,
is a Master of Fine Arts student in fiction writing at The University
of Memphis. She is a native of Guys, Tenn., and her columns,
which appear on Saturdays, are archived at Southern-Drawl.com.) |
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