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WILLIAM C. HANDY

Currency:USD Category:Music Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 400.00 USD
WILLIAM C. HANDY
(1873-1958) American musician and composer considered "Father of the Blues", composer of "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues". Fine content T.L.S. on Handy Brothers Music Co. letterhead, 2pp. 4to., New York, Jan. 26, 1955 to a friend. In part: "...my doctor advised me to take it easy...I disobeyed him working five or six days weekly...". He describes a clipping from a Florence, SC paper clearing slums on "Handy's Hill" and naming a block after him, also a mention of his having made a million dollars on his song St. Louis Blues. He mentions his exhaustion and despair at being confined to his home, but does get pleasure from press clippings he receives: "...about Louis Armstrong's record album of eleven of my standard Blues recorded for Columbia, and hear Maltby's Mambo on 'St. Louis Blues' over the air...". Fine.