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Billy Butler

Vox recording session

 * Sam Wooding and His Orchestra aka The Chocolate Kiddies
 * Personnel: seated, left to right: Tommy Ladnier (trumpet), John Warren (tuba) (behind), Sam Wooding (piano/leader), Willie Lewis (alto sax, bari sax, vocals), George Howe (1892–1936) (drums). Standing, left to right: Herb Flemming (trombone), Eugene Sedric (clarinet, tenor sax), Johnny Mitchell (banjo), Bobby Martin (trumpet), Garvin Bushell (clarinet, also sax, oboe), Maceo Elmer Edwards (1900–1988) (trumpet). Not pictured: Arthur Lange (1889–1956), Arthur Johnston (1898–1954), arrangers

George Howe
George Howe (aka George Washington Howe; né Robert Washington Howe; 1892–1936), and fellow musician, George E. Dyer (1884–1936), both living in Glens Falls, drowned in the Champlain Canal, near Fort Ann, when the car driven by Howe went into the canal after a side-swiping a 10-ton truck towing another 10-ton (U.S. Class 6) truck on Comstock Road. Howe was buried at Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn. They were returning from a gig at a nightclub operated by Maxie Gordon (né Maxime Godon Gordon; 1891–1956) – two miles from Whitehall. They had left Hudson Falls at 1:30 and were followed by Jimmie Gillespie and banjoist Percy Richardson. Trombonist Benny Morton (1907–1985), also at the gig, decided at the last minute not to ride with Howe and Dyer.

New York Age, Vol. 51, No. 14, December 5, 1936 "Brother of Cop Drowns Upstate – Two Musicians Die When Car Runs Into Canal After Accident," by Elsie M. Chambers, p. 3, col. 6 (of 8)  "Out of Town News and Other Personal Items – Albany: Deaths," p. 12, col. 5 (of 8) (accessible via Newspapers.com on p. 3 and p. 12; subscription required)

Nest Club add-ons
The Nest Club was a favorite of some of Harlem's own society, included Pearl Fisher, sister of poet and physician Rudolph Fisher, and Jane Elsie Ryder (maiden; 1894–1993), Rudolph's wife.


 * In the late 1920s, Billy Holiday, under her birth name, Eleanora Fagan, sang for tips at small Harlem venues, namely the Nest Club, Pod's and Jerry's, the Yeah Man (1925–1960) at 2350 Seventh Avenue at 138th Street, and Monette's at 148 West 133rd (1926– ), where, as legend has it, John Hammond first heard Billy Holiday. This was before microphones were common.


 * Mae Barnes, a singer and dancer, recalled the first time she heard Eleanora sing. Both she and Eleanora were performing at the Nest Club. Barnes explained, "Billie wasn't doing her own style. She was doing everything that Louis Armstrong was doing. She knew his records backwards... She wasn't imitatin' his style, she was using all his numbers. That was her beginnin' of changing Louis's style to her own ..."


 * She had this heavy voice, this gravelly tone. While at the Nest Club, Eleanora changed her name to Billie Holiday, drawing on the pseudonym of one her favorite actors, Billie Dove, and the surname of her father, Clarence Holiday. Music writer Donald Clarke avers that Holiday adopted her first name from a jazz vocal team, Billie Haywood (1903–1979) and Cliff Allen who, had been singing at Don's Basement, an afterhours club on 137th Street. Haywood was, according to Mae Barnes, a hell of a rhythm singer.


 * Billie Holiday: A Biography, by Meg Greene, Greenwood Press (2007), p. 17; ISBNs ,


 * Billie Holiday: Wishing On the Moon, by Donald Clark, Da Capo Press (2000, 2002);, ISBNs ISBN 0-3068-1136-7, ISBN 978-0-3068-1136-4, ISBN 978-0-7867-3087-2 (e-book)

Nest certificates of occupancy

 * NYC view
 * Block 1918, Lot 6


 * Certificate of Occupancy No. 6178
 * April 26, 1923
 * M000006178.PDF


 * Certificate of Occupancy No. 7190
 * Supersedes Certificate of Occupancy No. 6178
 * October 18, 1923
 * Cellar: Capacity – 125, cabaret and dancing
 * 1st floor: Capacity – 15, store
 * 2nd floor: Capacity – 15, offices
 * M000007190.PDF
 * 25 ft. front
 * non-fireproof


 * Certificate of Occupancy No. 41845
 * Supersedes Certificate of Occupancy No. 7190
 * November 8, 1953, Certificate of Occupancy, Borough of Manhattan, City of New York
 * Cellar: Capacity – 35, lounge, practice room, storage and heating
 * 1st floor: Capacity – 70, lounge, meeting room and office
 * 2nd floor: Capacity – 15, offices
 * M000041845.PDF


 * Certificate of Occupancy No. 77405
 * Supersedes Certificate of Occupancy No. (blank)
 * November 28, 1990
 * Cellar: storage and heating
 * 1st floor: Capacity – 16, storage and offices
 * 2nd floor: 1 apartment
 * M000097405.PDF
 * 25' x 99' 11"
 * 100' east of 7th Ave
 * non-fireproof


 * 2015 – 6 story healthcare facility
 * The Nest, under the auspices of Harlem United, a New York non-profit founded in 1988
 * The clinic has 11 exams rooms, three dental operatories, a floor dedicated to behavioral health and one floor for pediatric care. We will also use the clinic to expand our primary care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender community as well as provide treatment and care for individuals with viral Hepatitis. The opening is scheduled for late spring.


 * Jacquelyn Kilmer, Chief Executive Officer
 * Marvin Griffith, Chairman of the Board
 * Douglass J. Dukeman, Chairman of HU's Upper Room AIDS Ministry, Inc.

Arthur Seymour Lyons
Arthur Seymour Lyons (né Efroimsky; 1895–1963), born in Minsk, was a theatrical agent for stage, radio, and film – as well as a film producer. He was well-known for having been Jack Benny's manager. Arthur's brother, Samuel Theodore Lyons (né Schleima Efroimsky; 1899–1941), born in Minsk, helped catapult Jack Benny into big-time show business beginning 1929. Arthur Lyons produced the 1948 film, Ruthless. Until his brother's death Arthur and Sam were business partners – as producers under the auspices of Lyons & Lyons and as agents, as A & S Lyons. In addition to Jack Benny, Arthur also represented Eugene O'Neill, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino, Lucille Ball, Hedy Lamar, and Ray Milland.

Lyons was briefly married to actress Irene Rhodes, pseudonym of Ila Rae Curnutt (maiden; 1918–1982).

"A. & S. Lyons, Inc., 1940–1950," Yale University, Theatre Guild Archive, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Walter Robert Goins
Philadelphia-born Bobby Goins (né Walter Robert Goins; 1902–1986) Baby Goins (née Mary or Marie Hall) were a husband-and-wife acrobatic dance team who toured Europe several times. They were married April 19, 1925, in Manhattan, just prior to their first European tour with the Chocolate Kiddies, which was her first break as a performer. Baby Goins was born in Havana, Cuba (according to a 1932 article published in the New York Age), but, at age three moved to Washington, D.C. Bobby and Baby divorced around 1930. Bobby – on January 13, 1933, in Manhattan – married again to Irene Winifred Bennett (maiden; 1914–1986). Baby – on May 10, 1936, in Manhattan – married again to William F. Joyce, Jr. (a May 28, 2932, newspaper article stated that, as of the article, Baby and Joyce were married).

Bobby went on to dance as a member of the Crackerjacks, a dance team that influenced the pro-dancers in Harlem. Bobby became a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists. He married again to Irene Winifred Bennett (maiden; 1914–1986).

"Death Notices: Goins, Walter Robert, Sr.," New York Daily News, December 22, 1986, p. 22, col. 4 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

"On The Spot – Baby Goins," by Dean Glynn, New York Age, May 28, 1932, p. 7 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

Russian connection
The actual producer was Leonid Davydovich Leonidoff-Bermann, although Morris Gest (1875–1942) was initially the producer.

Margaret Simms
Margaret Sims (maiden; 1903–1974) was a blues singer. In 1935, the New York Age stated that Margaret Simms epitomized the complete metamorphosis of the blues singer. She married Broadway producer Irvin Colloden Miller (1884–1975). Margaret's sister, Edith G. Sims (1905–1973), was the second of three wives of actor Jimmy Baskett (1904–1948).

Rufus Greenlee

 * Rufus Greenlee (né Rufus Edward Greenlee; 1893–1963) was a native of New Haven, Connecticut. In his post-vaudeville days, around the mid-1930s, until is death, he owned and operated the Monterey Cafe, a venerable jazz venue in New Haven, Connecticut, at 265–167 Dixwell Avenue in the Dixwell neighborhood. Johnny "Hammond" Smith's 1962 album, Black Coffee, was recorded there. As a side note, his grand nephew, Lou Jones (1932–2006), was an Olympic Gold Medalist in the 4 × 400 metres relay from the 1956 Summer Games.


 * Thelma Greene (née Thelma M. Contee; 1900–1990) was, from about 1924 to about 1929, married to Rufus Greenlee. Her stage surname was that of her ex-husband, Jesse Warren Greene (born 1898), who she married around 1918, and with whom she had a daughter, Jessica Iris Greene (born 1918).


 * She later was married to Leon Hyman (né Leonard Grimke; born 1894), who, among other things, had been a photographer. In particularly, from 1927 to 1932, he was Head of the Photography Division and Official Photographer at the Tuskegee Institute. Hyman's predecessors and successors there has been distinguished by several notable photographers, notably Frances Benjamin Johnston (1862–1952) and C. M. Battey (1873–1927), who he replaced. P. H. Polk (1898–1984) was, at the time, one of Hyman's assistants, and in 1933, succeeded him as Head of Photography.

Bobbie Vincent
Bobbie Vincent (née Bobbye Vincson; 1906–1978), born in Kansas City, Missouri, went on to perform with other companies, including 37 performances in Buenos Aires in 1938 with Clarence Robinson's Cotton Club Revue Company, booked by B and B Artists Bureau of Harlem. The company returned to Miami December 2, 1938, from Havana aboard the P&O's SS Florida. B and B was headed by William B. Cohen and B.L. Burtt (né Bernard Lamberson Burtt; 1884–1944). More than two decades later, she was an official of the X-Glamour Girls revue, composed of former entertainers from the Cotton Club. The company performed in October 26, 1962, at the Riviera Ballroom in New York at Broadway and 53rd Street. One of her older sisters, Flash Amber Vincson (1902–1975), married – on August 23, 1927, in Chicago – Buck Washington (1903–1955).

New Grove Dictionary of Jazz Barry Dean Kernfeld (ed.), Entry: "Ladnier, Tommy," by Bob Zieff, St. Martin's Press (1996), pps. 670–671; (this is a 1996 one-volume re-print of the 1994 two-volume edition published by Macmillan Press Limited; (1995 re-print),ISBNs ,

Kernfeld's sources:  "Discography of Tommy Ladnier," by Eric F. Keartland, Jazz Forum: Quarterly Review of Jazz and Literature, No. 3, January 1947, p. 24;  "Evolution of Jazz," J.L. Anderson, DownBeat, Vol. 19, 1952, No. 1, 16, No. 2, p. 11  "Tommy Ladnier: A Biography and Assessment," by Albert J. McCarthy (1920–1987), Jazz Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 7, September 1956, pps. 2–3;  "Tommy Ladnier Par Le Disque," by Hugues Panassié, Bulletin du Hot Club de France;  Issue 139, July-August 1964, p. 3  Issue 140, September 1964, p. 7  "Tommy Ladnier," by Christopher Hillman, Jazz Journal, Vol. 18, No. 8, 1965, p. 6;, ,  "Tommy Ladnier: The Sensational Cornetist," by Christopher Hillman, Footnote: Dedicated to New Orleans Music; ,  Vol. 13, No. 1, October–November 1981, p. 4,  Vol. 13, No. 2, December 1981 – January 1982, p. 4  "Tommy Ladnier: Some Mid-Western Jobs," by Christopher Hillman, Footnote: Dedicated to New Orleans Music, Vol. 13, No. 6, August–September 1982, p. 16

Jessie Crawford
In 1928, Crawford was a Dahomey jubilee dancer in the original 1927 production of Show Boat.

Not to be confused with the organist, Jessie Crawford.