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Author Topic: Oscar "Buddy" Woods  (Read 10267 times)

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Offline Stefan Wirz

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Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« on: February 09, 2008, 10:07:30 AM »
Oscar "Buddy" Woods discography online
Inevitable corrections / additions appreciated  ;)
Stefan

Additional question: Is anybody able to exactly locate "St. Paul's Bottoms' and adjacent "Blue Goose' district in this 1920 Shreveport map ?
« Last Edit: February 09, 2008, 10:16:45 AM by Stefan Wirz »

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2008, 02:58:47 PM »
The Leadbelly bio p. 30 says St. Paul's Bottoms was a triangle bordered by Fannin Street, Common Street and the Texas & Pacific railroad tracks. Looking at the full size map on the UT site it's not really a triangle. I guess it's that triangle down to the edge of Cross Bayou. The book goes on to say it was named after the old St. Paul's Methodist Church on Caddo Street, and the Shreveport City Council designated the area the official red light district in Feb 1903.

Re. Blue Goose, it's not in the index but neither is St. Paul's Bottoms. I think it's mentioned in the text somewhere, will delve deeper. It's adjacent to St Paul's, so take your pick. Thanks for the map, very cool!
« Last Edit: February 09, 2008, 03:02:30 PM by Rivers »

Offline waxwing

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2008, 10:43:22 PM »
Maybe Hunter St. was considered an extension of Fannin St? Then there would be a sort of triangle to the west of Commons, between Fannin/Hunter and the T&P tracks. Blue Goose then might have been the area above Fannin to the east of Commons? Just guessing.

All for now.
John C.
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
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Offline Stefan Wirz

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2008, 05:38:31 AM »
from what I found here: http://www.helloshreveport.com/84000033_Historic.Cfm?StartRow=1 :
St. Paul's Bottoms - Shreveport, LA
Roughly bounded by Western and Pierre Aves., Alston, Christian, Oakland, and Snow Sts.
Shreveport, LA (Caddo County)
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since October 11, 1984

The 'Legend of Old Blue Goose' at http://www.softdisk.com/comp/loobg/ didn't function, so I searched the Internet archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20030413093856/http://www.softdisk.com/comp/loobg/
Among other info there's a hand-drawn map of that area stating that 'Old Blue Goose' has been "at the corner of Snow and Pickett street"

Tried to localize these areas on the 1920 map on my OBW page - Please correct me if I understodd anything wrong !!!
Stefan

Offline Richard

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2008, 07:43:00 AM »
I'm pretty sure about 4 years ago I found another web site which gave more about about Woods and also mentioned Muscat Hill but in pc crash I lost the link and have never been able to find it again...  >:(

(That's enough of that. Ed)

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2008, 08:53:51 AM »
Re. St. Paul's, that seems to be at variance with the Leadbelly text.

* If it was named after the church on Caddo, Caddo is not within your circle.
* One would expect the low lying land ("bottoms", the area that would flood hardest and according to the book "the streets and alleys were muddy") to be closer to Cross Bayou.
* Fannin Street, the heart of it, is not even within the circle.
* My guess from reading about the intent of designating it 'red light': the august city fathers would have been more likely to move it to the edge of town, not the center, since they were trying to impose some respectability on the previous red light area, which the book says was around Strand Street and the point where Cross Bayou joins the Red River. Strand Street is not marked on the map unfortunately.

So I wonder if the book got it wrong, or the other website, the link for which does not work for me?
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 09:25:50 AM by Rivers »

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2008, 09:20:24 AM »
Here are some more clues from the text:

"The center of the new nightlife was Fannin Street, which began on the east side of the bottoms and ran eight blocks downtown" i.e. northeast.

"At the head of Fannin, where it ran into Cane (now Baker) Street, stood a sumptuous new two-storey house owned by the city's most popular madam, Annie McCune" (you can find Baker at Fannin on the modern map). Googling the name I see a biography of Annie has just been republished, pricey though: http://www.geocities.com/RitzPublications/RitzBookList.html

"At the opposite end of the block on Fannin was another fancy..." (whorehouse, must be heading northeast up Fannin from the other one, my analysis)

..paragraph continues with descriptions of various establishments along Fannin Street.

Wikipedia's Shreveport entry also states that Fannin was "in the Bottoms".
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 10:00:05 AM by Rivers »

Offline waxwing

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2008, 10:28:42 AM »
Hmmm, trying to interpret topography from a map without topo lines is tough, but my guess would be that the narrowing of the neck of Cross Bayou would indicate slightly higher ground on either side, i.e. the north east end of Fannin. The broad undeveloped expanse traversed by a straight stretch of railway would probably indicate a raised trackbed crossing an unobstructed marshy area that could have previously extended into the triangle I indicated above, which is to the north of Stefan's oval.

Checking a modern map, Fannin does now include what was Hunter and Baker/Cane is the street where Fannin ended and Hunter began on the old map, right in the middle of the edge of the same triangle, and runs a couple blocks northwest, right into the suspected marsh. Caddo, too, extends a few blocks past Common into the triangle. Perhaps St Paul's was at the corner of Commons and Caddo?

It seems to me the Leadbelly bio is talking about this triangle, but the area may have "migrated" somewhat, over time, and grew to contain a larger area?

Side note - I can't believe that article on Old Blue Goose devotes two paragraphs imagining that Robert Johnson might have walked the streets of Old Blue Goose and quotes lines that have nothing to do with Shreveport?!?!?! Almost destroyed its credibility.

All for now.
John C.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 10:31:15 AM by waxwing »
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

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Offline uncle bud

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2008, 10:40:27 AM »
I've got nothing actually useful to add to this thread but all this talk of Blue Goose keeps putting Jesse Babyface Thomas's Blue Goose Blues in my head...

"When you go to Shreveport town,
You will find Blue Goose and it'll tear you down
I'm going down in old Blue Goose, I don't care if I lose"

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2008, 11:02:56 AM »
Hmmm, trying to interpret topography from a map without topo lines is tough, but my guess would be that the narrowing of the neck of Cross Bayou would indicate slightly higher ground on either side, i.e. the north east end of Fannin. The broad undeveloped expanse traversed by a straight stretch of railway would probably indicate a raised trackbed crossing an unobstructed marshy area that could have previously extended into the triangle I indicated above, which is to the north of Stefan's oval.

Wax, check this out:

Offline waxwing

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2008, 11:10:01 AM »
Right, riv, looks like the sewage treatment plant is right in the middle of my suspected swamp, with the RR running right by it, and "downtown" (where the name Shreveport is) is on higher ground, by the neck of Cross Bayou where it meets the River.

All for now.
John C.
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline Stefan Wirz

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2008, 11:42:02 AM »
"'St. Paul's Bottoms', also known as 'Ledbetter Heights', roughly bounded by Western and Pierre Aves., Alston, Christian, Oakland, and Snow Sts." (http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/LA/Caddo/districts.html).

That swamp area must have extended far to the south: Look at those railroad lines (T. & P.R.R. and Y. & S.P.R.R.) - Seems like they were built right along the swamp region until they meet in the south ...
Stefan

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2008, 11:45:29 AM »
My theory was the triangle apexes were approximately Fannin at Baker in the south, the railroad bridge in the west and some ways down Fannin in the east, with Cross Bayou as the northern edge. According to all other sources.

But then we have the info in Stefan's previous post which seems to be a fairly reputable source  :P

This is really weird, how could they not have included Fannin and Caddo? Maybe the spot marked 'old cemetery' on the old map was where St Pauls Methodist Church was actually sited, not Caddo St as is clearly stated in the Leadbelly book? Not very likely, further searching reveals it was called 'City Cemetery' and then renamed to Oakland Cemetery, no church affiliations mentioned.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 12:04:21 PM by Rivers »

Offline Rivers

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2008, 12:16:23 PM »
Hey Stefan, we need this book:
http://www.lulu.com/content/196164

This link shows the back cover with a picture of a Leadbelly-like character entertaining!
http://www.ramblehouse.com/redlight.htm
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 12:21:22 PM by Rivers »

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Oscar "Buddy" Woods
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2008, 01:34:23 PM »
I was doing a little searching on Jesse Thomas and came upon a blog with some excerpts of an interview with him, in which he had this to say about Blue Goose:

?Blue Goose?? Jesse smiled a knowing smile. ?Oh that?s a little place here in Shreveport, a little area they used to call the Blue Goose. You remember where the Union railway station used to be? Well that was just the name of that area. Like Mooretown, South Highland, Blue Goose. So I just thought of that ?cause that?s where I stayed when I first came here, and I just ? made up some words, put it on record.?

The full page is here: http://misterhuddie.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
« Last Edit: February 10, 2008, 01:35:37 PM by andrew »

 


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