Crown worn by Rockin' Dopsie
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1987
name: label: user
content: Rockin' Dopsie
notes: label: Description
content: Gold plastic band with 4 connecting plastic bands meeting at the top of the crown. Wooden finial at top. Red velvet under strips with fur trim around the bottom of the crown. The strips are trimmed with multi-colored plastic beads and pearls. The crown is lined with brown felt. It was worn by donor's father, Alton Joseph Rubin (1932-1993), known professionally as Rockin' Dopsie, of the band, Rockin' Dopsie and his Zydeco Twisters, of Lafayette, Louisiana.<p/>
label: Description
content: Born in 1932 in Carencro, Louisiana, Alton "Rockin' Dopsie" Rubin began playing accordion when he was eight. He became famous as the left-handed musician who could play his accordion upside down. He toured extensively, becoming best known for his regular Friday night shows at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans. In 1986, he joined Paul Simon on his Grammy Award-winning album, Graceland, in a song that paid tribute to Clifton Chenier, "King of the Bayou." On his deathbed in 1987, Clifton said to Rockin' Dopsie, "You know it took a long time to get where we are today," recalling how in the 1950s, the challenge of trying to win over a white audience, "If anything happens to me, I want you to just keep the legacy going." Dopsie's son, Rockin' Dopsie Jr., recalled that his father purchased this crown for $3,800, custom-built, from a Lafayette jeweler. But his choice to wear it in a Zydeco festival in tribute to Chenier, January 3, 1988, three weeks after his death, caused controversy among Lafayette locals, even though Dopsie had been crowned the new King of Zydeco by the mayor himself at a coronation in 1987. But Dopsie never let fame take him away from his true fans. In answer to an invitation to appear on the NBC television show, "Saturday Night Live," in 1991, Dopsie replied, "Oh, no man, I can't do that. I got a job at a church dance in Houston."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dwayne Dopsie
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1999.0337.01
label: accession number
content: 1999.0337
label: catalog number
content: 1999.0337.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: crown
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 11 in x 9 1/4 in; 22.86 cm x 27.94 cm x 23.495 cm