Beale
Street has seen thousands of blues artists since the art form
developed. W.C. Handy once operated
a music publishing business on Beale and hired out a band from Pee Wee's
Saloon. Most Memphis blues musicians have performed on Beale Street at some
point in their career, whether in a theater or busking
on the street.
As
historian David Cohn wrote in 1935, "The Mississippi Delta begins in
the lobby of the Peabody Hotel."
This downtown Memphis institution, designed by architect Walter Ahlschlager,
opened at its present location on Union Avenue in 1925. The Peabody has
been host to recording efforts by the Memphis
Jug Band, Tommy Johnson, Frank
Stokes, Furry Lewis, and others.
The
Orpheum Theater is a restored 1920s
vaudeville and movie palace. It sits near the top of Beale Street at 203
South Main Street. The Orpheum has featured concerts by Memphis blues legends
Albert King and Alberta Hunter.
The
Monarch Club at 340 Beale Street was
a famous gaming house built by Jim Kinnane, the "czar of the Memphis
underworld" immortalized in song by Robert
Wilkins. Constructed in 1910 at a cost of $20,000, it was the South's
finest gambling parlor with a mirror-walled lobby and trap doors with secret
exits in the case of a raid. In its heyday it was known as the "Castle
of Missing Men" because a funeral parlor located behind the Monarch
received patrons killed in gambling disputes.
706
Union Avenue is the birthplace of groundbreaking music label
Sun Records. Although famous as the studio where Elvis Presley and Carl
Perkins waxed early rockabilly classics, Sun was also used by great bluesmen
including B.B. King, Sleepy
John Estes, and Howlin' Wolf.
The
Memphis Music Hall of Fame is located
at 97 Second Street, around the corner from the Peabody Hotel. It features
antebellum artifacts from Memphis's days as a slave-trading center as well
as vintage records from the 1920s and 1930s by Memphis blues musicians.
The Hall of Fame traces the development of Memphis music and includes exhibits
on rock and roll and soul music.
This
small shotgun house at 352 Beale Street is Memphis's W.C.
Handy house. Originally located at 659 Jennette Place, this house
was Handy's home when he wrote such classics as "Yellow Dog Blues"
and "Beale Street Blues." The house is now headquarters of the
Blues Foundation.
The
Center for Southern Folklore at 130
Beale Street is a nonprofit institution that documents southern culture,
including blues, through film, oral histories, and recorded sources. The
center features rotating exhibits and performances by local blues artists
such as pianist Mose Vinson.
W.C.
Handy Park, located on Beale Street and dedicated to W.C.
Handy in 1931, has a long tradition of hosting blues acts. Since its
creation, Handy Park has been a meeting ground for musicians. Blues artists
still play the park for tips.