The W.C. Handy Theatre was named after one of the foundational performers, composers, arrangers of African American popular and vernacular music. W.C. Handy is often thought of as the “Father of the Blues” due to his pioneering ethnomusicological field work in the Mississippi Delta region, and his successful publication of widely-disseminated blues and ragtime sheet music. To hear one of W.C. Handy’s most famous compositions, follow this link to a recording of “Livery Stable Blues,” as performed by the Original Dixie Jazz Band in what is widely considered the first jazz music recording.
Memphis, Tennessee had long felt a home-town status in relation to Handy, making him the perfect man to honor with a new theatre. Though the three Memphis theatre/commercial experts who built the Handy claimed they did so to meet the demands of the community, there was some opposition to building such a potentially hot nightlife spot in a residential area. There were, in fact, dueling submissions sent in to the city council. One petition supported
While the other, notably signed first and most boldly by local clergy, argued a theatre would be a traffic hazard and lower property values.
Luckily for fans of live entertainment and milk bars, the petition in support was exponentially longer, and the W.C. Handy Theatre opened in 1946.
(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)
