When I saw the album cover on the auction table, it brought back some long-forgotten memories: The Wagon Wheel, a small nightclub at the end of a long moonlit country road in the heart of…
Category: Performers
The musical legacy of Paulie Teardrop
Posted in Music, and Performers
This was the spot of a man who loved music. I could tell by the spectacular display of guitars sprawled on a table out front on the lawn, the two banjos, the antique Edison phonographs,…
Stumbling upon the Cotton Club
Posted in Black history, Culture, dance, and Performers
“My uncle used to come up here and party,” the man said to me as we headed to the Cotton Club in New York. He and I were among a group of people who had…
King conquers fear and death in “Mountaintop”
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, and Performers
The hotel room was vintage 1960s with its black rotary phone, flat hard bed and dime-store pictures on the wall. It was the setting for a Broadway play about the last night in the life…
A whimsical Cat in the Hat in school play
Posted in Books, Performers, and theater
The young man playing the Cat in the Hat was tall and spindly, and prowled the stage like, well, a cat. He was here, he was there – filling in the blanks in the story,…
A friend sent me an email about the May 22 auction of furniture and other items from singer Alicia Keys’ home in Muttontown, NY. I’m sure she was really asking if I’d like to drive to…
From the estate of Lena Horne
Posted in Art, Black history, and Performers
The email asked only one question: “Did you get anything in the Doyle New York auction of Lena’s estate last week?” Instantly, I knew who Lena was, but I was surprised to learn that items…
I keep bumping into Frank Sinatra through my auctions finds. His name has turned up several times as I researched a person or an object rooted in African American history. Sure, I was familiar with Sinatra’s…
Acting like a dummy
Posted in Dolls, and Performers
He just sat there like a dummy, looking aimlessly off into space, his mouth half-open. He wore a putrid green cotton suit that hung off his skinny frame and a red polka-dot tie that was…
Redd Foxx & women over 40
Posted in Performers, and Records
The first time I saw the comedian Redd Foxx was at a club at the foot of the Las Vegas Strip at a time when the strip ended. He was smoking his trademark cigarette and…