[Who Killed Robert Johnson (WKRJ)], tape number 5
name: label: Collection Collector
content: McCormick, Mack
setName: label: See more items in
content: Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection
label: See more items in
content: Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection / Series 15: Audio Cassette Tapes and Digital Files
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Cassette tape (Total Running Time: 84:00)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1972-1973
container: label: Container
content: Box 165, Cassette OTC 1485.22
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audio
label: Type
content: Cassette tapes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Side A: Estelle Shannan interview, part 3, undated; [Lavert] Hutchinson interview, July 29, 1972; Sodarisa Miller interview, August 3, 1972; Albert Major interview, October 5, 1972; and Lawrence [Olft] interview, November 10, 1972. 

Side B: Mrs. H. E. Oertle interview, May 10, 1972; Tomas Acuna interview, undated; and S. R. Leatherman interview, October 1, 1973.

Consists of a compilation of telephone interviews McCormick conducts with individuals primarily as part of his research on Robert Johnson. 

Side A: Estella Shannan interview, part 3, undated.

Estella Shannan, mother of Delta blues guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr., continues her conversation with McCormick. It is learned that she was born in 1899, left Arkansas in 1942, was a commercial cook, and sang in a choir.
 
[Lavert] Hutchison interview, July 29, 1972.

Jazz musician Lavert Hutchison speaks with McCormick on the telephone from his home in Waco, Texas. Born in 1903, Hutchison states that his music career began while as a student at Wilberforce University where he played with Horace Henderson's band, the Collegians, from 1927-1931. He converses about other musicians in the band and his work with big bands around New York.

Sodarisa Miller interview, August 3, 1972.

McCormick conducts telephone interview with Miller, a vaudeville blues singer, as part of his research relating to blues recordings made in the 1920s. Miller (August 13, 1901- ) who also recorded under the name Wilmer Davis, began singing as a child in Louisville, Kentucky. She eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois where she made her first recording at the age of twenty-three. Miller talks about some of the labels she recorded for including Paramount, Victor, and Vocalion. McCormick has a dialogue with Miller about some of the musicians she worked with and the titles of her songs.

Albert Major interview, October 5, 1972.

McCormick calls Majors as part of his research to find relatives of Robert Johnson's mother Julia Majors Dodds. Mrs. Majors informs McCormick that she does not have a relative named Julia Majors. 

Lawrence [Olft] interview, November 10, 1972.

McCormick calls Olft as part of his research to find relatives of Robert Johnson. Olft informs McCormick that he is not related to Julia Majors. Check the tape on this one.

Side B: Mrs. H. E. Oertle interview, May 10, 1972.

McCormick interviews Mrs. Homer Eugene Oertle, sister-in-law of Brunswick Records salesman Ernest (Ernie) Monroe Oertle (1890-1941), on the telephone as part of his research for the Smithsonian Institution. He is working on a project to document how the company salesmen discovered unique talent in the 1930s and arranged for them to go to the Texas studios for recording sessions. Mrs. Oertle informs McCormick that she had no information relating to Mr. Oertle's business activities.  She also had very little biographical information to offer about the family of her husband, Homer Eugene Oertle (1888-1957), other than the fact that they had immigrated from Switzerland and settled in Pittsburgh, Kansas where the brothers grew up.

Tomas Acuna interview, undated.

McCormick briefly speaks on the telephone with Tomas Acuna and his daughter who are in San Antonio, Texas. McCormick wants to gather from Acuna, a Brunswick Records employee who organized recording sessions, information for his research relating to recording in the 1930s.  He asks Acuna the questions through his daughter who then relates the answers to McCormick.  

Acuna informs McCormick that he was involved in recording sessions in San Antonio's Gunter Hotel on the second floor. The conversation is ended with the intention of continuing the discussion later.
 

S. R. Leatherman interview, October 1, 1973.

McCormick interviews Samuel Richard Leatherman Jr. on the telephone as part of his research relating to culture along the Mississippi River area and some of the older plantations. Leatherman (1903- ) began managing the Abby/Leatherman Plantation in 1926 which started as 8,000-9,000 acres of land for the growing of hay, cotton, and corn. He inherited the property from his father Samuel Richard Leatherman who inherited it from the original owners great grandfather Richard Abby and his brother Anthony Abby. Leatherman describes the land, the family home, and the families who worked there.  Hugh Fontaine, Leatherman's brother-in-law, operated the plantation for a while and started the Memphis Hunt and Polo Club. He also provides McCormick with information relating to how labor is acquired for the plantation, the number of people living on the property, social activities, and musicians who played for the workers.