[78-L] History Defectives redux

[David Lewis]

First off, I appreciate Donna Halper's input on the situation with the History Detectives. It is reasoned and makessense. However, I just saw the segment finally, and I am pretty furious with it. I could've anything they wanted toknow about "The Bright Fiery Cross," which is a Rodeheaver copyright from 1912, not 1905. The Klan did not "steal" Bennard's music. Bennard was himself a Klan sympathizer and the song was written to serve double duty;it is also not a 'spiritual'. By virtue of controlling "The Old Rugged Cross," which made him millions, Rody later discovered that he was also responsible for "The Bright Fiery Cross" which was not part of the original plan. Thefirst edition of the latter bears a Rodeheaver Co. imprint, whereas subsequent ones do not -- Rodeheaver was ultimately able to discover how to divest himself of "The Bright Fiery Cross" and to keep "The Old Rugged Cross"even though the musical arrangement was the same. "We can only speculate as to Ezra Wickemeyer's motivation..." Really? I don't need to; it's called 'picking up a paycheck.' He was an engineer, and for the most part he didn't decide what he was going to record, though inthe Klan records he may have had some voice, as he was a member. It is known that Starr was anxious to endthe Klan recording program, which they did. The whole story arc whereby the beauty of King Oliver's work livesto transcend the noxious Klan records was ridiculous. King Oliver's records were important mass market items forGennett that have been traded and valued by collectors since they were made. KKK records were not availableanywhere you could buy a phonograph; they were sold in certain stores and through mail order, and they evenshowed an ad that illustrates that clearly, but they didn't interpret the data correctly. Mal the address you wanted is: American Record Shop130 Virginia Ave.All K.K.K. Records IND'PLS It was hard to still frame that, as the guy stuck his finger into the shot and it was only readable for a second or so!  And it's funny that you mentioned Maloof; I thought of him also. His records are unquestionably historic, extremelyscarce, of great interest and constitute one of Gennett's coolest product lines. But they are not so interesting, I guess, as this is supposed to be.    

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com