Topic: Imposters

[Johnm]

Hi all,
The first year at Port Townsend, Henry Townsend told a story about how he and Walter Davis were performing out in the country away from St. Louis at some point in the 1930s or 1940s, and saw posters for a recent performance by Walter Davis and Henry Townsend in a neighboring town that was definitely not played by the Walter Davis and Henry Townsend we know from records.  In other words, there was a duo of imposters performing under their names.  
I've been thinking a lot about this story recently as it might pertain to the various tales of Blind Lemon Jefferson passing through the Mississippi delta, or playing in southwestern Virginia, or Lightnin' Hopkins playing in Waverly, Virginia, or Blind Blake hanging out in Greenup, Kentucky.  I suspect that during the years Blind Lemon was a popular recording artist before he passed, there may very well have been more than a couple of different imposters performing throughout the South and passing themselves off as "the" Blind Lemon Jefferson.  I think such an explanation is far more plausible than the itinerary Lemon would have had to have traveled to have gone everywhere he was supposed to have gone.

There is precedent for imposters turning a famous name to their advantage in American culture.  In the fairly recent past, former NBA great Bill Russell and NFL player-turned-movie star, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson were greatly inconvenienced by frauds running up considerable debts using their names.  John Guare's play, "Three Degrees of Separation" tells the story of a glib young hustler who passes himself off as Sidney Poitier's son.

Any other ideas on this topic?  Of course, the most difficult aspect of impersonating Lemon would be delivering the musical goods, but people might want to believe that they had seen and heard Lemon Jefferson, despite the evidence their ears supplied to the contrary.
All best,
Johnm      

[Mr.OMuck]

Well there is the obvious Sonny Boy Williamson phenomenon.

[banjochris]

There's a story in Kinney Rorrer's "Rambling Blues," the book about Charlie Poole, which talks about Poole running up against a Poole imposter, whom Rorrer describes, IIRC as a "recording artist" (he might say "Columbia" too, but I'm not sure about that). Poole went up to him after a show and demanded (and got) all the receipts.
Chris

[Parlor Picker]

In recent times there were allegedly several "Drifters" performing concurrently.  Maybe each included an original member, meybe not - I really don't know.

Going back to John's point, of course with communications not being what they are today, I suppose it would have been sllightly easier for imposters to pass themselves off as the greats of the day, whom the audience had only heard on records.

[Pan]

Not exactly an imposter case, but still stretching the truth; I believe I've read somewhere that Robert Johnson didn't mind if someone thought that he was a relative to Lonnie Johnson, whom he obviously greatly admired.

Cheers

Pan

[GhostRider]

Hey:

In Big Bill Broonzy's autobiography he recounts confronting a Tampa Red impersonator.

Alex

[dj]

My favorite story in this line is the young white guitar player (Jimmy Vaughan, if my memory is correct) who was hired in the early 60s to tour as Freddie King!

Besides out-and-out impersonation, there's "impersonation by close association", which was perpetrated by record companies and managers perhaps more often than by the artists themselves.  Hence Blind Boy Fuller Number 2 (Brownie McGhee), Leroy Carr's Buddy (Bill Gaither), Peetie Wheatstraw's Buddy (Harmon Ray), Peetie Wheatstraw's Brother (Jimmy Gordon), etc.

[Lyle Lofgren]

Maybe all those blues players who, when they were young, led Blind Lemon around were really leading impersonators. I'd always enjoyed the image of BLJ being led around by a dozen or so acolytes.

Lyle

[Mr.OMuck]

Now some enterprising type could have turned this into a lucrative business. Sending out musical clones to appear simultaneously in different locations. Maybe Blind Lemon sat behind a desk in Houston directing a troop of impersonators to various gigs around the country. The true untold story of the Blues. 

Cadillac records contained a chilling scene of Little Walter catching up to and dispatching an impersonator. Don't know if it was based on fact.

[jpeters609]

Cadillac records contained a chilling scene of Little Walter catching up to and dispatching an impersonator. Don't know if it was based on fact.

In the Earl Hooker biography, "Earl Hooker, Blues Master" by Sebastian Danchin, it's reported that Earl brazenly used a harmonica player throughout the south whom Earl knowingly and falsely called "Little Walter." Even advertised him as such on posters, etc. Don't know if the real Little Walter ever found him, though.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
If you enlarge this topic to include commercially created associations, as dj suggests, or false lead boys, as Lyle suggests, and add in garden variety "this famous dead musician was my best friend" fibs, you have a pretty enormous pool of mendacity, all of which is understandable, I suppose, given the times and the economic climate people were living in.  I think a lot of present-day interlocutors of older musicians bring a lot of this stuff on themselves, by constantly trying to establish connections between the person they are talking to and some long-dead hero.  One musician who I think is absolutely straight up in this regard is Robert Belfour.  If he never met or heard of somebody a questioner is eagerly querying him about, he'll simply say he never met the man.  
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

My favorite story in this line is the young white guitar player (Jimmy Vaughan, if my memory is correct) who was hired in the early 60s to tour as Freddie King!

Blimey, I know 1951 born Jimmie boasted he started gigging when an adolescent but......

[dj]

Blimey, I know 1951 born Jimmie boasted he started gigging when an adolescent but...

I stand corrected.  Dang, I wish I could think who that was...

[uncle bud]

Blimey, I know 1951 born Jimmie boasted he started gigging when an adolescent but...

I stand corrected.  Dang, I wish I could think who that was...

Perhaps someone impersonating him...

[unezrider]

hello friend,
weren't the mississippi sheiks known for having a few variations on their personal so they could gig more? i believe i have read the same was said about the memphis jug band.
the difference here, the musicians aren't acting in secrecy ? at least as far as the recorded act they were performing as was concerned.
i've often wondered about lemon's leads, as well. i'm not sure if time really substantiates some claims. t-bone walker seems the most likely to be true. lead belly's story probably did more good for him & his standing in prison amongst his room mates. but wouldn't his prison time interfered with him really being a lead to lemon? & i always felt lightnin' would have been too young. but perhaps, if i had led blind lemon around once, i would have led him around a whole bunch in my recollections! & how much time did lemon spend in chicago, & elsewhere? did he relocate himself like blake?
chris

[Mike Billo]

  As has already been pointed out, in the days before television, movies and other visual media, people had no idea what the people they heard looked like. So, if you could do a passable imitation, you could probably gig as the "real" artist.

  I've always been dismayed by having heard, from a number of sources, that Brownie McGhee (not one of my favorite guitarists) began his career passing himself off as Blind Boy Fuller.
  Who would have been taken in by that deception?

   Imposters exist to this day.

  I've gigged, as a Bass Player, with two different, Sugar Pie DeSantos and I have no idea which of them was the real one. If, in fact, either of them were!

   During the '80's, I often played Dobro and Harmonica, on the County Fair circuit with a guy who billed himself as, Country Singer, Red Foley, despite the fact that Red Foley had been dead for many years.

   I guess the entertainment industry is built on BS and Hokum and the imposters certainly prove that point.

[dj]

Mike, it's my understanding that billing Brownie McGhee as "Blind Boy Fuller Number 2" was the brainchild of Fuller's and McGhee's manager, J. B. Long.  At least on record labels, I don't think Brownie had much say in the matter. 

[uncle bud]

Although, a good part of Brownie's early recordings sound very influenced by Fuller, to say the least.

Mike, I think that's priceless that you've played with two Sugar Pies. Too funny.

[Mike Billo]

      Perhaps I should get the two of them together, plus a couple more and start selling Sugar Pie DeSantos franchises and have numerous "Sugar Pies" gigging everywhere? 

[RevGeo]

There was the famous episode of two Fleetwood Macs back in the 70s.
Seems their former manager or somebody stuck an esatz FM on the road during one of the real band's 'difficult times'.

That scene in the movie 'Cadillac Records' where Little Walter shoots an imposter (did that really happen?) kind of points out the rather wide-spread practice of imposters, if nothing else.

Rev George

[Coyote Slim]

I'm thinking that should I ever run off to Vegas with some hot crazy chica; I would want to be married by a Blind Lemon Impersonator.