Musical Accompaniment: The Very Thought of You by Billie Holiday.
Customers at. an unidentified Mobile Alabama barbershop were photographed by William E. Wilson in 1900.
Historic Mobile Preservation Society
It’s always so much easier to have a good day when you look your best. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!
old spirituals 
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan Cough. Her father, Clarence Holiday, was a teenaged jazz guitarist and banjo player. She was not a direct product of Tin Pan Alley but was influenced by Tin Pan Alley’s Louie Armstrong and Lester Young, her favorite horn players. She often said she tried to sound like their horn sounds. Billie Holiday also toyed with Tin Pan Alley songs, putting her own style to the songs. Tin Pan Alley singers rarely personalized their songs, but Billie’s music was personalized. She was the precursor to modern blues singers.
Imagine dozens of pianists playing a different song on a piano like the one in this Billie Holiday recording and you realize how the name “Tin Pan Alley” was born.
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I love her voice, it was so beautiful and unique! The 1930s personified. I could see how it could sound like a certain kind of horn, but I’m not musical enough to know what kind.
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looks nice for a hot day in mobile alabama
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yes, you can catch the scent of soap and shaving lotion in this picture!
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I used the same barbers shop from my first cut until I relocated over 20 years later. It was my favorite stop on Saturday morning when I was growing up. The 3 barbers and their customers taught me things I could not learn even at the university level. The 3 of them and their spouses attended my wedding. As Bob Hope famously sung, “Thanks for the memory.”
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what a sweet memory!
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