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Some of my earliest memories are of my mother singing. She sang while doing housework and she went out to rehearse and perform with her various singing groups. I have a vivid memory of her on a stage, in some kind of variety show, dressed in a rather gaudy hobo costume and singing “Side By Side” with a group of women. She even sang on local Minneapolis television at least once, I think it was a choir that time.

The inspiration for this musical adventure was three young women from Minnesota who had made it big in show business, LaVerne, Maxine, and Patty Andrews who had been inspired in their own show business quest by the Boswell Sisters from New Orleans. The youngest, Patty was eleven years old when the sisters entered and won a talent contest at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, in 1929. They toured with Larry Rich’s big band and sang in clubs and vaudeville theaters for several years and nearly quit and went to secretarial school when suddenly their recording of Bei Mir Bist Du Schön became a number one hit in 1937.

During WWII the Andrews Sisters volunteered their time to entertain the troops both in the US and Europe. Their popularity soared because of the following thy bulit up in the armed forces.

In 1941 the Andrews Sisters appeared in the Abbott and Costello film Buck Privates, which grossed more than four million dollars, a lot of money for a film at that time. This clip, of one of the Andrews Sisters’ biggest hits, Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me is from a 1942 movie Private Buckeroo, which lacked Abbott and Costello, among other things. The Andrews Sisters play themselves, doing what they did - entertaining the troops. Harry James is the bandleader and it is his orchestra in the film. The male lead, dragged briefly onstage, is played by Dick Foran. Sometime third Stooge, Shemp Howard plays the part of Sgt. ‘Muggsy’ Shavel, in this low budget wartime entertainment. Most of the “business” in this scene is done by the youngest sister, Patty Andrews, the lead singer and major ham of the group.

St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat December 28, 1895

Shot in Curtis’s Place

William Lyons, 25, colored, a levee hand, living at 1410 Morgan Street, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets. by Lee Sheldon, also colored. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. The discussion drifted to politics and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon drew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. He was removed to the city hospital. At the time of the shooting, the saloon was crowded with negroes. Sheldon is a carriage driver and lives at North Twelfth Street. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Sheldon is also known as “Stag” Lee.

Lee Shelton, as his name is sometimes spelled, was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison where he stayed until his death, from tuberculosis, in 1912. He was said to have been a pimp and a member of an early street gang called “The Macks.” This incident is the probable source of numerous variants of the song variously called Stagolee, Stack-o-lee or Staggerlee Blues. Over time “Stack” Lee became a kind of black anti-hero Robin Hood, so bad that the law was afraid of him. In some versions he is executed and takes control of hell away from the devil.

I’ve collected a few of the more interesting ones from YouTube. Let’s start with a 1927 version sung by Cliff Edwards accompanied by jazz guitarist Eddie Lang and an unknown clarinetist. Edwards may have been familiar with the facts of the case. The shooting happened the year Edwards was born and he spent time in St. Louis, singing in saloons, as a very young man, where he may have heard the story and/or early versions of the song. In Edwards song “Stack” is a kind of hapless victim of his own behavior.

Mississippi John Hurt sings a version of the song in which Stagolee is a feared figure. Billy Delions is boastful about his own potential for violence until he meets the bad man, cruel Stagolee, who even frightens the police, note the appearance of “Stag’s” Stetson hat in the song, showing a possible tie to the St. Louis incident.

Lloyd Price released a rock and roll version in 1950. In his song Stagolee and Billy fight over a crap game and the Stetson hat, which becomes a symbol of Stagolee’s social status. Taking Stagolee’s hat is a mortal insult. The, often repeated, detail of the bullet passing through Billy and breaking the bartender’s “glass” appears in this version of the song.

Dave Van Ronk sang a version he learned from a Furry Lewis recording, which includes the hat, the detail of the bullet passing through Billy and, in this case breaking a mirror, the fear of “Stag” on the part of the police and, finally his coup in hell.

George and Ira Gershwin’s They All Laughed, which has become a jazz standard, was written for the 1937 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, Shall We Dance. Since then Everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra to Bobby Darin has recorded it. Here is the original film version, with George Gershwin’s orchestrations, and Fred and Ginger dancing. Note that Ginger Rogers really does do at least part of what Fred does backwards and in heels.