The Magnificent Ghees

The evening of 17 July 2009 a celebration was held at Cindy's Banquet Hall in Great Falls to honor the 50th Wedding Anniversary of a remarkable couple, Frank and Mary Ghee. For the past 34 years, Frank and Mary have blessed Great Falls, Malmstrom AFB, and Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church with their good works, words, and deeds. The celebration was arranged by the four Ghee daughters, Candy, Melony, Cricket, and Frankie, who also performed musical numbers and skits. A highlight of the evening was a gospel songfest by Frank and Grant Stebbins. Friends and family came from across the country to honor the Ghees. The event celebrated the many achievements of Frank and Mary ranging from raising four accomplished daughters to "saving" their A. M. E. Church. May Frank and Mary celebrate many more years of marriage and achievements!

Great Falls Tribune Reporting on Library Plaza Dedication

GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE
greatfallstribune.com

June 21, 2009

Great Falls Library dedicates arch to pioneering black librarian, leader

By TRAVIS COLEMAN
Tribune Staff Writer

The life and accomplishments of civil rights pioneer and library advocate Alma Jacobs were celebrated outside of the Great Falls Public Library on Saturday during a dedication of a new plaza fountain in her memory.

The location was appropriate, given how much of Jacobs' life was dedicated to the library. Jacobs was the first black librarian in Montana and later served as head librarian in Great Falls for nearly two decades.

Jacobs also was the driving force behind the construction of the current library building in the late 1960s. This was in addition to her efforts to document black history in Montana and her fight for the equal treatment of all people.

"Alma lived a life of accomplishment in Great Falls," said Jim Heckel, director of the library. Jacobs died in December 1997.
Dozens attended the dedication ceremony in which Mayor Dona Stebbins proclaimed June 16-22 as Alma Jacobs Week in Great Falls.

"A lot of friends of Alma's are here. They still remember her vividly," said local historian Ken Robison.

Born in Lewistown, Jacobs and her family moved to Great Falls when she was 6. She graduated from Great Falls High School and was awarded a scholarship to Talladega (Ala.) College.

After graduating in 1938, she was a bookmobile librarian in the South until winning a scholarship to Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in library science in 1942.

Jacobs became catalog librarian in Great Falls in 1946 and ascended to head librarian in 1954, a position she held for nearly two decades.

"She was visionary enough to see (the library) could be a big part of the community," Robison said.

One of Montana's most prominent black leaders, she later served as the state librarian for eight years. There she supervised the centralization of the state library's collections from locations scattered around the city.

Also, Jacobs' work to catalogue and compile black history resources inspired future research into black history in Montana.
Jacobs and her sister, Lucille Smith Thompson, created a 23-page bibliography of newspaper articles called "The Negro in Montana: 1800-1945." Jacobs also took part in various community organizations and stood up for civil rights issues.
"She left an impact in her time and for years ahead," Heckel said.

On a personal level, Jacobs also had an impact on several generations of Montanans. She helped raise Ruth Parker McLendon in Great Falls. Growing up, McLendon said there were places in Great Falls in which a black person couldn't enter or work at. But Jacobs looked past prejudice and kept fighting for equality.
"She kept on going and wouldn't give up," McLendon said.

Jacobs' impact on the community and the library made it a no-brainer to dedicate the new plaza in her honor. The project was created to deal with the sunken plaza outside of the library.

The $320,000 project was funded by the Community Transportation Enhancement Program, Heckel said.

"I'm so proud, straight proud," said Alan Thompson, Jacobs' nephew. "I'd like for people to remember my aunt in the times they need to stand up and do the right thing. She had the courage to do things in a time in which it wasn't safe to do that."

Remarks at Library Plaza Dedication

The new plaza at the Great Falls Public Library was dedicated on Saturday June 20 as The Alma Jacobs Memorial Plaza."

Dedication of the Alma Smith Jacobs Plaza Remarks by Ken Robison

Thank you all for honoring an amazing woman, Alma Smith Jacobs.
Our new not-profit, the Alma Smith Jacobs Foundation is being formed to honor Alma. Under the leadership of Reverend Mercedes Tudi-Hamilton, Frank and Mary Ghee, and our Board of Directors, the Foundation will address social and economic issues in Great Falls.

Alma lived a life of accomplishment and service to the Great Falls community. Mayor Stebbins will pay tribute to this.

We stand today in the new Plaza of the House that Alma built, the Great Falls Public Library. Alma’s quiet leadership and persistence led the Community to support construction of this Library over forty years ago.

Our Library is my favorite place in Great Falls. On the third floor, the Montana Room houses a fine collection of Montana history and a display of photos and memorabilia honoring the founding of Great Falls 125 years ago.

On the shelves of the Montana Room is a tiny pamphlet compiled by Alma and her sister Lucille.

This pamphlet is a bibliography documenting African Americans in Montana.

Alma’s pamphlet served as inspiration when Bob Harris and I challenged the Montana Historical Society to study Black History Resources in Montana. With good work by Patty Dean and Alma's nephew Alan Thompson, who are with us today, and others, Montana’s Black History is becoming available to researchers and to the classroom.

The memory of Alma Jacobs lives on.

Thank you . . . Now, Mayor Stebbins

Alma Jacobs Week Proclamation

On June 16, the Great Falls City Commission declared the week of June 16-22 "Alma Jacobs Week in Great Falls, Montana."

Alma Jacobs Memorial Plaza

The new plaza under construction at the Great Falls Public Library will be dedicated at 11 a.m. 20 June 2009. The plaza will honor the memory and accomplishments of Alma Smith Jacobs, Director of the Great Falls Public Library from 1954 to 1973 and Montana State Librarian from 1973 to 1981. The plaza will be named:

"The Alma Jacobs Memorial Plaza
Honoring an Exceptional Librarian and Community Leader
1916-1997"



Alma Smith Jacobs
Exceptional Librarian, Community Leader, and Member of Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

In a few words, let me present to you Alma Smith Jacobs, an exceptional woman. Alma was a kind, caring, talented woman who, at a time when Great Falls was segregated in many ways, rose to the top of her profession with regional and national recognition. Born in Lewistown in 1916, she moved with her family to Great Falls in 1922, and graduated from Great Falls High School in 1934. In the segregated days of the 1930s, Alma graduated from Talladega College with a B. A. and Columbia University with a B.S. in Library Science. Returning to Great Falls, she became Catalog Librarian at the Great Falls Public Library, and eight years later in 1954, Alma Jacobs was selected as Chief Librarian.

For the next three decades, Alma provided outstanding leadership for the Library, the Great Falls community, and the state of Montana. When you enter the Great Falls Public Library, you are in the House that Alma built! Through her leadership and perseverance and the help of many in the community, this Library was built. In addition Alma became a driving force in the development of the rural library service program throughout Montana. During these years Alma was highly respected in her profession, serving as President of the Montana Library Association, President of the Pacific Northwest Library Association, and on the Executive Board of the American Library Association. Alma capped her professional career, serving as Montana State Librarian from 1973 to 1981.



Alma was a highly respected community leader in her quiet and unassuming way, leading the charge for racial equality and desegregation in Great Falls and Montana. In the words of her longtime friend, Dorothy Bohn, “There’s nobody in Great Falls more responsible than Alma is for the integration of (the city).” Bohn and Jacobs spoke on the radio together to raise awareness of civil rights issues, and Alma served on human rights organizations including the Federation for Colored Women’s Clubs, the Great Falls Interracial Council, and the Montana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Alma Smith Jacobs was an inspiration to the Great Falls Public Library, the Great Falls Community, and the state of Montana. This outstanding leader will be honored by naming the new Plaza “The Alma Jacobs Memorial Plaza.”

Night at the Ozark Club

Notes from Night at the Ozark Club in Great Falls MT
Compiled by Ken Robison
25 May 2007

These notes were compiled and displayed in the exhibits at The History Museum at the first Night at the Ozark in June 2007

The Birth of Leo Lamar’s Ozark Club:
During late1933 as Prohibition ended, Leo LaMar opened a new Ozark Club in a small house at 413 1/2 in Fourth Alley South, between Third and Fourth Streets. The next year, the Ozark Club moved to a larger, two-story building at 312 1/2 Fifth Alley South. By the fall of 1935 the Ozark Club had moved to its third and final location at 116-118 Third Street South on the upper floor of a large building. Owned by dynamic Leo LaMar, the Ozark Club for the next three decades anchored black nightlife in Great Falls. The Ozark achieved fame for its quality entertainment featuring some of the best jazz musicians, black and white, in the western United States. Leo La Mar, with his second wife Beatrice, achieved notoriety in the community for their involvement in gambling and a house of ill repute. There was never a dull moment in life at the Ozark Club. (Ken Robison)

Kid Leo:
Leo LaMar, fighting as “Kid Leo,” began his boxing career in Chicago when he was about 15 years old. By January 1921, Kid Leo was training regularly at the pre-Prohibition Ozark Club with other black boxers in Great Falls. He fought his first bout in Great Falls as a lightweight February 14, 1921, defeating heavier “Rough” Reed in two rounds. Sports writers reported that ‘Kid’ Leo “took the ‘Rough’ out of ‘Rough’ Reed”; raved about his “spectacular defeat of Reed”; and called him “one of the cleverest youngsters who ever appeared here.” Over the next five years, Kid Leo fought other bouts winning most of them. His fighting name and reputation stayed with Kid Leo over the years. Two decades later in 1945 when heavyweight champ Joe Lewis came to Great Falls, the Tribune paid tribute to Kid Leo with his photo, the caption “Remember Him?” and a synopsis of his boxing career. (Ken Robison)

Leo Phillip and Garneil Leota Winburn LaMar:
Leo LaMar or La Mars, a remarkable man, was born in Chicago June 5, 1902, the son of Leo and Dora Walk La Mars. He came to Great Falls about 1916 and over the next decade earned the name “Kid Leo” for his boxing skills while working for the Great Northern Railroad as a dining car waiter. Leo La Mars of Great Falls married Garneil Leota Winburn in Great Falls on October 23, 1923, when Garneil was just 16 years of age. Garneil L. Winburn was born in Great Falls May 5, 1908, the daughter of Roy and Molly Simms Winburn. In 1927, Leo LaMar and his first wife, Garneil L. lived at 519 Sixth Avenue South. They had two sons, Clev A. born 1925 and Leo Phillip Jr. born 1927, and three daughters, Cleo born 26 Oct 1927, (Mrs. Edward Sanders); Mollie (Mrs. Charles Murray); and Bernice (Mrs. William Jones). Clev A. died in childhood. Garneil Winburn LaMar died during childbirth August 4, 1936, in Great Falls . Her funeral was held at the Union Bethel A. M. E. Church with services by Rev. Mr. Smith, and she is buried at Highland Cemetery. Garneil’s mother, Mrs. Mollie Winburn raised the four small LaMar children. (Ken Robison)

Leo and Beatrice Jeffers LaMar:
Leo remarried Beatrice Jeffers in 1037. In 1933 Leo LaMar opened the Ozark Club at 116 Third Street South, and over the next thirty years, the Club became the jazz music capital of Montana. Initially catering to a black clientele, during and after World War II the nightclub broadened its base to attract a multiracial crowd. At the time of his death in 1962, Leo LaMar lived at 4600 Seventh Avenue South. He was an avid golfer and served as president of the Great Falls chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He died June 20, 1962, of a heart attack. Funeral services were held at T. F. O’Connor Co. followed by Requiem Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. His body was shipped to Knoxville, IA for burial. Leo LaMar was survived by his wife Beatrice; daughters Cleo, Mollie, and Bernice, all of Los Angeles; mother, Mrs. Dora LaMar of Chicago; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. (Ken Robison)

Creed Jackson:
Creed Jackson, who could tap dance and shine shoes with the best of them, was born in Heart Butte about 1893. During his remarkable life, he became Montana’s first black semi-pro baseball player, a winning jockey on the Spokane to Lethbridge circuit, an exceptional tap dancer from New York City to Portland in countless small bars and clubs, and a long-time story-telling shoe shiner at the New York Shoe Shine Parlor on Central Avenue and the Union Bus Terminal on 1st Avenue South. He danced in bars, clubs and theaters around North Central Montana, in the streets of Great Falls, and at the Ozark Club. Although slowed by arthritis and old age, Creed danced into his elder years, and a Tribune photo on his 92nd birthday in 1984 showed him “strutting his stuff.” Creed Jackson died February 14, 1988 leaving many friends and a reputation as a fine dancer and story-teller. (Ken Robison)

Leo Phillip LaMar, Jr.:
Leo LaMar, Jr., known as Brother, lived life in the fast lane, and died in a fiery crash in a car named “Mr. Lucky.” Brother, the son of Leo and Garneil LaMar, was born in Great Falls July 21, 1926. After attending local schools, he served in the Navy during World War II. Returning to Great Falls after the war, Brother worked with his parents at the Ozark Club often serving as bartender. He was married to Delores F. [NFI] in the 1940s, and they divorced in 1951. Leo, Jr. married Patricia Mitchell, and they had a daughter Beatrice Charlene. Patricia claimed her own life in 1959. Brother died in an early morning of June 26, 1961 in a car-truck head-on crash that claimed the lives of the five young occupants of the car. (Ken Robison)

Games of Chance, Games of Choice: Gambling at the Ozark:

Back in the 1920s in the days of Prohibition, underground drinking and gambling activities were part of the scene on the lower South side of Great Falls. In December 1925, young Kid Leo was arrested with three other men for gambling. Leo was released without bond and nothing came of the affair. When Leo opened the Ozark Club at the end of Prohibition, gambling was quietly carried on.

A key element in Leo and Bea LaMar’s complete entertainment package was gambling. The small backroom at the Ozark Club had a pool table and that was frequently in action with gambling activities. The games of choice in those days included Craps and a Greek dice game called "Barboot." During World War II, Montana and the city of Great Falls legalized limited slot machine gambling. In 1945 the Ozark Club legally operated two 5-cent and one 10-cent slot machines, paying a small percentage to the city. At this time there were some 51 machines legally operating in Great Falls, primarily at fraternal clubs. By the late 1940s, Montana law changed to prohibit slot machines.

Ozark Club illegal gambling went on over the years, carefully controlled by Leo, and generally tolerated by the city police. On occasion Ozark gambling became visible to the public. In July 1956, Roy A. Harrison lost about $5,000 in a gambling game to the Leo LaMar, and a resulting court case was covered by the Tribune. Ironically, the court treated the activity as legal, and ordered Harrison to pay $100 a month to Leo until the debt was paid. (Ken Robison)

The Decline and Fall of Empire Ozark Club:

During the 1950s the Ozark Club was flying high and attracting an interracial crowd of patrons that included servicemen, couples and singles, traveling salesmen, and visitors out for a good time. Leader Bob Mabane attracted the musical talent to keep the Ozark Boys one of the finest small dance bands west of the Mississippi. Booking agents sent quality singers and exotic dancers to the O-Club along the Great Northern circuit. Bea LaMar was running her “gravy train” prostitution ring at the nearby Doyle Apartments. Gambling was going on both in the back of the O-Club and in the Doyle. Leo LaMar was a power within the Great Falls community.

By 1957 dark clouds were forming. That year headlines broke revealing sordid details of the Doyle Apartment operations, and the State of Montana began abatement action to shut that down. “Brother” or Leo Jr.’s wife Pat brought more headlines in 1959 with her death by gunshot, ruled a suicide. Two years later Brother’s spectacular death with four friends in an early morning car-truck crash in June 1961 was a huge blow to Leo and to Leo, Jr.’s many friends. Leo’s heart attack and death one year later in June 1962 marked the end of an era, and the impending demise of the Ozark Club. Three weeks later, a spectacular late night fire forced emergency evacuation of about 50 staff and patrons, as the Ozark Club burned to the ground.

Leo was gone, his famed Club was gone, and Bea was left with no husband, no club. One month later Bea LaMar was presented with an Internal Revenue excise tax bill for the Ozark Club, Inc. for more than $100,000.

Mrs. Bea LaMar stayed on in Great Falls for several years, running the Doyle Apartments, by then renamed the Vista Apartments with the help of longtime friend Major Murdock. About 1966, Bea LaMar moved on to Livingston and in 1974 to Billings, where she worked as a home nurse and was active in the St. Bernard’s Catholic Church. On August 14, 1989, Charlene Beatrice Jeffers LaMar passed away.

In the wake of the Ozark Club, two other African American nightclubs opened on the lower South Side of Great Falls: the Ebony Club at 217 1st Avenue South and the Caravan Clubs at 313 2nd Avenue South. But, those are other stories for another time. (Ken Robison)

The Ozark Club Hall of Fame – Famous Performers:

From 1933-1962 the Ozark Club offered an entertainment package that often included the house band, The Ozark Club Boys, one or more singers, an exotic dancer, sometimes a comedian or ventriloquist, or other performer. Black celebrities, sports figures, and bands traveling through the Great Falls area would often either visit or perform at the Ozark Club. We know that Joe Louis visited the Club in 1945, and that the Harlem Globetrotters spent their off-court hours at the Ozark during their many visits to Great Falls. We have heard that Lionel Hampton and his band spent a late night playing at the O-Club with the doors locked at 2 a.m. and the music continuing until morning light.

We will probably never know all the Ozark performers. The traveling musicians, singers, and exotic dancers were often on a circuit, sometimes known as the “chitlin’ circuit” out of Detroit or other major cities. They would be contracted for about a month at the Ozark and then move on to the West Coast. Some of the entertainers were on their way “up” and would later achieve fame, while a few were over the hill. Many, while quality entertainers, would never become famous. We have identified a sampling of those who did attained success with major bands or fame on their way to a long career. Here is a sampling of our version of the Ozark Club Hall of Fame performers:

Cicero Blake: Much admired by Chicago soul and blues fans worldwide, Performed at the Ozark Club in 1958.

Eugene Bolden: Played piano with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra before 1953. Played with the 3-Notes at the Ozark Club in 1953.

Ellsworth Brown:

Beulah Bryant: Sang with Duke Ellington, appeared on Jack Benny’s radio show, starred in her own radio show. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1953.

Vivian Dandridge: As teen-agers Vivian and her famous Oscar-nominated sister Dorothy Dandridge performed as the Dandridge Sisters at the famous New York Cotton Club. Vivian sang with Duke Ellington Orchestra. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1953.

Oscar Dennard: Played piano with the Lionel Hampton Band in France in the Fall of 1961. Played piano with the Ozark Club Boys in 1953.

Redd Foxx: Young comedian destined to achieve national fame for his comedy routines and TV show. Comedy act at Ozark Club in 1957.

Rita Grenae: Sang with Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and at the Harlem Club. Sang at Ozark Club in 1958.

Lionel Hampton: Performed with his band at the Ozark Club one late night about 1957. Hampton played piano. [John Stevens was there]

Beverly Harris: Toured with Earl Bostic, Johnny Otis, and Charley Barnett bands. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1958.

Jean Idelle: Cover girl for Ebony Magazine. Exotic dancer at the Ozark Club in 1955.

Chubby Kemp: Sang with Duke Ellington band in early 1950s. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1959.

Doris Knighton: Sang in the early 1950s with The Cats & The Fiddle, a harmony vocal group inspired by the success of the Mills Brothers. Singing partner with Jimmy “Pops” Teasly on Mercury label recordings. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1954.

Jack Larson: Played piano with the Dorsey Band in 1962. Played piano with the Ozark Club Boys in 1953.

Robert “Bob” Mabane: Played tenor sax with Charlie Parker in the famed be-bop Jay McShann Orchestra in Kansas City 1940-42. Played tenor sax and led the Ozark Boys Combo at the Ozark Club from 1948-1962.

Rock ‘n Roll Girls: Sang & danced with Louis Jordan show. Sang & Danced at the Ozark Club in 1956.

Pat Sides: Exotic dancer with Spike Jones TV Show. Exotic Dancer at the Ozark Club in 1956.

Myra Taylor: Singer and songwriter. Wrote “Spider and the Fly” for Stan Kenton and was recorded by him on Mercury label in 1950s. From a Kansas City music critic: “On her 90th birthday, Myra drew rave reviews from a Kansas City critic: “Happy 90th birthday, Myra Taylor! Our leading swing songstress and her many friends celebrate the big event on Saturday at Knuckleheads Saloon. Taylor is one of the great living links to the heyday of Kansas City swing . . . She has kept her voice and her sense of humor together, along with her ability to steal a show. I'm remembering a gig about three years back when Taylor was ready to sing, but the band wasn't ready to play -- so she simply did the song without them and had the whole crowd clapping and stomping along, making the room swing with just the power of her voice. It was pure essence of Kansas City swing and a great moment. Here's to many more!” Sang at the Ozark Club 1953-54, 1958.

Jimmy “Pops” Teasly: Singing partner in 1950s with Doris Knighton on Mercury label recordings. Sang at the Ozark Club in 1954.

Stan Turrentine: Tenor Sax player with Lionel Hampton Orchestra & Earl Bostic. From Steve Huey, All Music Guide: “A legend of the tenor saxophone, Stanley Turrentine was renowned for his distinctively thick, rippling tone, an earthy grounding in the blues, and his ability to work a groove with soul and imagination. Turrentine recorded in a wide variety of settings, but was best known for his Blue Note soul-jazz jams of the '60s, and also underwent a popular fusion makeover in the early '70s. Played tenor sax with Ozark Club Boys in 1955.

Dinah Washington: Sang at the Ozark Club in the late 1950s [Sharon McGowan]

Evelyn White: Sang with Louis Armstrong Band. Sang at Ozark Club in 1957.

Miss Wiggles: Infamous exotic dancer for her contortions in dancing upside down on a chair. Danced with Louis Armstrong Band. Exotic dancer at the Ozark Club in 1956.

Barbara Winfield: Singer. Sang with Duke Ellington as a teenager from 1950-52. Sang at the Ozark Club

The Ozark Club – House Band:

From 1933-1962 many musicians played with the house band at the Ozark Club. Many others musicians visiting Great Falls either performed at the Club or joined in jam sessions. We are still learning the identity of musicians that performed at the O-Club. The name of the Ozark house band changed over the years, most often known as the Ozark Club Boys, but also on occasion as the 3-Notes, Ozark Club Orchestra, Three Sharps, O-Club Combo, and Bob Mabane’s Dance Band.

Tenor saxman Robert “Bob” L. Mabane, a native of Tennessee born January 25, 1914, came up through the Kansas City early be-bop jazz era. He joined the Jay McShann band in 1940 as McShann was achieving national fame. Mabane on tenor sax sat side-by-side with young Charlie Parker with his alto sax until the McShann band disbanded in 1942, early in World War II. After some time in Colorado, Bob Mabane and his wife Modena came to Great Falls in the late 1940s, probably because Bob was ready for a quieter atmosphere and Modena wanted to join her aunt Bea LaMar. Bob Mabane remained in Great Falls leading and playing sax in the Ozark house band from 1949 until the O-Club burned down in July 1962. Mabane then moved on to the Portland area where he died in 1991.

We have identified the following members of the Ozark Club house band:

1930s:

Earle L. Thornton, musician & night club entertainer 1934
John H. Christian, musician 1935
John F. “Frenchy” Christian, musician 1930s

1940s:

John F. “Frenchy” Christian, leader and musician 1940-46
Bob Mabane, leader and tenor sax 1949
Richard Brown, drums 1949
Chuck Reed, piano 1949

1950s:

Bob Mabane, leader and tenor sax, banjo 1950-59
Richard Brown, drums 1950-53, 1956
Chuck Reed, piano 1950-53
Oscar Dennard, piano, vocals July-November 1953
Eugene Bolden, piano March-May 1953
Jack Larson, piano May-1953
Fritz ?, piano August 1956
Joel Cowan, guitar March-April 1957


1960-62:

Bob Mabane, leader and tenor sax 1960-62
Larry Hall, piano 1960-61
Bobby Brooks, drums and vocals September 1960
Bobby Hamilton, drums 1961-62
R. D. Hopwood, piano 1962

The Ozark Club Jammers – Who Jammed At the O-CLUB?:

While Bob Mabane and his Ozark Club Boys house band were the primary band at the O-Club and visiting bands came and went, there was another category of musicians that frequented the club and contributed to the jazz music scene in Great Falls. These were the solo musicians that climbed the long stairs to the Ozark Club to join in the “jam” sessions held Sunday afternoons and perhaps at other times. One of these young adventurers was Jack Mahood, who after returning to Montana from World War II would bring his alto sax and join in the jam sessions. But, who are the other jam session musicians? We know the names of some of them, but would love to find the complete list. If you played at the Ozark Club or know someone who did, we would like to know.

Here are those we do know:

Al “Smoky” Eddington, Guitar early 1950s
Mel Eller, Tenor Sax early 1950s
John Huber, trumpet late 1950s
Jack Mahood, Alto Sax late 1940s-early 1950s
Jack Evans, bass early 1950s
Joe Richardson, Piano early 1950s
Joe Wilson, Piano early 1950s

Who are the others???
(Ken Robison)

The Ozark Club Jazz Recordings:

Fortunately, for posterity some audio insight into the Ozark Club and its hot jazz has survived. During April-May 2005 at Niel Hebertson’s Fireside Books on Central Avenue in Great Falls, Philip Aaberg, Montana’s modern musical treasure, and historian, Ken Robison jointly interviewed Jack Mahood, then 86 years of age, about the early days of jazz music in Great Falls including the unique Ozark Club, where as a young musician Jack played with some of America’s finest Black American jazzmen.

During this series of four interviews, Jack Mahood brought out a series of 33 1/3 and 78 rpm recorded discs that were made at the Ozark Club while Jack was playing there in the early 1950s. What a rare historical treat it was to listen to Sweet Georgia Brown, Lady Be Good, and other Ozark Club jazz music while listening to Jack as he described the Ozark Club, the musicians, and the musical life in Great Falls in the late 1940s and 1950s. Phil Aaberg is restoring and archiving these historic recordings using modern audio technology. (Ken Robison)

[Photo of Fireside Books]

The Failed Experiment: Prohibition
For thirteen long years from 1920 to 1933 the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal in the United States. Ironically, it was not illegal to drink alcohol. Supporters of Prohibition believed it would improve society. Many disagreed and border states saw an active trade in “bootlegging” across the border from Canadian breweries to thirsty Montanans. Others set up stills and made their own alcohol as “moonshiners.” Federal agents were given the impossible task of enforcing the law. Despite strenuous efforts to curtail alcohol, bootlegging, moonshine, and underground clubs were active. By 1933 the nation was ready to scrap Prohibition. On December 5 of that year, Montana became “wet” and started serving beer, wine, and alcoholic drinks. (Ken Robison)

The Pre-Prohibition (Prior to 1920) Ozark Club:
The first Ozark Club in Great Falls was an African American nightclub operating by 1917 on the South Side. This club continued operations in the early years of Prohibition, probably serving soft drinks on the surface, alcohol “under the table,” and gambling on the side. This Ozark Club appears to have been closed down by Prohibition sometime after 1921. (Ken Robison)

On Being a Black American in Territorial Fort Benton

By Ken Robison

This continues a series of frontier sketches by historians at the Joel F. Overholser Historical Research Center at the Schwinden Library & Archives in Fort Benton.

York came first. The first recorded black American to travel to the upper Missouri. He came as a slave, the “property” of Captain William Clark, yet he became an active participant as the Corp of Discovery blazed the trail to the west. York became the model for the future—when white Americans came west, so too traveled black Americans.

In successive waves, adventurers, fur traders, gold seekers, boatmen, freighters, laborers, whiskey traders, merchants, tradesmen, soldiers, service personnel, domestics, soiled doves, ranchers, and farmers came to the upper Missouri. Most were white men and women, but always there were blacks. Our histories of the upper Missouri, Chouteau County, and Fort Benton focus on the pathbreaking activities of white pioneers on the frontier. The lives and activities of black residents in this historic area have been little researched and largely ignored. Symptomatic of the neglect of black history is the fact that Fort Benton’s premier journalistic historian, Joel F. Oversholser published almost nothing on early black history despite the emphasis of the River Press on history during his four decades as editor.

By the mid 1870s, the darkness of repression was descending in America on the southern and Border States as the post-Civil War reconstruction “revolution” was replaced by a southern counter-revolution. The birth of the Ku Klux Klan and the wavering of Northern resolve to enforce equal rights in the South in the face of massive Southern resistance left blacks with a disheartening balance of modest economic acceptance with increasingly restricted political and social rights. Some blacks accepted their fate in the South, but many migrated northward or westward.

Black pioneers came West for many of the same reasons as whites, seeking, adventure and social and economic opportunities. By 1860, at least four black men worked for the American Fur Company at its Upper Missouri Outfit post at Fort Benton. As the town of Fort Benton began to develop at the head of navigation on the Missouri river and the hub for overland freighting into Montana and southern Canada, blacks came on steamboats often as crewmen, sometimes as passengers. By 1870 Fort Benton’s black community had at least 25 residents, and the growth of both the town and its black community were accelerating. By the next census in 1880, some 76 blacks resided in Fort Benton, and both Choteau County and Fort Benton showed the highest percentage of blacks of any county or city in Montana.

While Montana’s black population was never large, a close look at Fort Benton during the decade of its earliest period of “civilization” from 1875 to 1885, reveals a robust black community with surprises and fascinating stories. The story is much more than a statistical game. During the early 1880s, Fort Benton showed positive signs of opportunity and acceptance for its black residents despite an ever-present element of intolerance and racism. At least six blacks owned their own businesses, and in two cases blacks and whites co-owned businesses. Among the black businesses, some were located in prime real estate on Front Street. Black residences were spread around the town, not confined to one area, and some blacks built their own homes. Black families were being formed, and after a sharp struggle in 1882, black students were admitted to Fort Benton schools. Blacks were acquiring property with several black male and female entrepreneurs on the county property tax lists with substantial accumulations of property.

So why were black Americans “accepted” in early Fort Benton? There are no doubt many reasons, but perhaps two are primary. Fort Benton in the late 1870s and early 1880s was booming. New businesses were essential to serve the steamboating and overland freighting industries. New hotels, restaurants, barbershops, and other services were in demand. Blacks were moving up the Missouri River, ready to take the service industry jobs. In Fort Benton, they had opportunity. Perhaps equally important, the fur trade post of Fort Benton had a long tradition of mixed race and nationality work forces including acceptance of fur trader intermarriage with Native American women. Early Fort Benton featured a racial mixture, and, perhaps without oversimplification, early Fort Benton society seemed to have a hierarchy with whites at the top followed roughly in order of acceptance by mixed race white-blacks, black Americans, white-Indian children, Chinese, and at the bottom native Indians. Many families in Fort Benton in the 1870s and 1880s involved interracial marriages of native Indians and whites and at least four black and white marriages.

So, what do we have to learn from black history in early Fort Benton, Montana? Black Americans shared with whites the challenges of living in a frontier environment. Young James Berry was killed in the Ophir massacre of 1865. Edmund Bradley fought and died in action at Cow Island in 1877 during the Nez Perce War. He was given a hero’s funeral and burial at Fort Benton. Other blacks shared the opportunities. Through hard work, Mattie Bell Bost acquired her own laundry, married adventurous John K. Castner, and the two “founded” the coal town of Belt. Young Alex Martin parleyed his culinary talent into a position as head chef on the opening of the Grand Union. Martin along with eight other blacks held nine of the eleven jobs on the staff of the Grand Union. At least two black women, sisters Maria and Mary Adams, had a surprising impact on our understanding of General Custer’s actions during the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Several blacks gained special respect among all races in their community. “Old Aunt Leah” was eulogized as Fort Benton’s “angel of mercy” on her death. Many of Fort Benton’s blacks moved on to other communities in Montana, and some became pillars in their new communities, including Edward Simms in Great Falls and Duke Dutriueille in Helena. The story of black Americans in early Fort Benton is the story of many lives and events.