Lost Movie - The Duke of Iron "Wild Indian"
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- The Duke of Iron was Cecil Anderson (1906-1968). This is a lost film performance from this talented Calypso entertainer!
The internet offers great examples of his humorous "Blue" songs, but this film may be the only surviving music film of one of his performances.
This is a digital video was made directly from a surviving 16mm movie print. PLEASE COMMENT, LIKE, AND SHARE!
The gentleman playing clarinet is Gregory Felix (real name Gregorio Felix Delgado) born in Puerto Rico. He was recruited by Lt. James Reese Europe to take part in the All-Black N.Y. 15th National Guard orchestra during WW1. The N.Y. 15th became the 369th Infantry Regiment under the French military (White U.S. racism prevented the 15th from fighting alongside their U.S. White counterparts). In the aftermath of WW1, Felix opted to reside in NYC and reconnected with a group from his time in P.R., then established in NYC known as the "Jolly Boys," led by another Musician of the Harlem Hellfighters (Pvt. Rafael Hernandez). Performances in NYC during this period (ca. 1919) were limited overall for ensembles comprising Black musicians whose primary language was Spanish. Felix, Hernandez, and a handful of others in the "Jolly Boys" travel to Cuba to work in a theater in Havana, overseen by theatrical owner Arthur L. Pratchett. Felix returns and finds work with early All- Black orchestras during the "Hot Jazz" era of the 1920s. Including the Elks Club Orchestra, Wilbur Sweatman's ensemble, and Fess Williams' orchestra. The years 1930-1931 saw the transition of the "Hot Jazz" era to the infancy but burgeoning emergence of the early Swing sound. Many musicians from the previous era opted to play music of other genres and avoid adapting to the new sound. But also the amount of work interpreting a genre dictated the direction one set forth in. For Felix, the early West Indian community in Harlem, whom had been migrating there since the early 19-teens, provided him with work his clarinet playing prowess could benefit and star in. That genre was Calypso. Felix emerges in the 1930s and early 1940s as a staple of the early Calypso movement in NYC. The Duke of Iron, Lord Invader and Macbeth the Great (the latter artist who also dabbled in Cuban Popular Music. Leading a "Mambo" dance orchestra at the Park Palace ballroom in Harlem during the 1950s, featuring his young son Ralph MacDonald, the Jazz percussion great, on the "Conga" drums. Allegedly, Felix found work in this format with Macbeth the Great playing the saxophone) were among the Calypso greats Felix performed with. Eventually, Felix launched his own Calypso ensembles. Including "Felix & the Cats," and "Felix & his Internationals." By the late 1940s Felix was so celebrated as an honorary "Calypsonian," he was publicly recognized for his work in the genre as a pioneer during the first major All-Calypsonian concert held at NY's Town Hall, produced by Alan Lomax. The concert itself began with the curtains opening to a dark stage followed by a spotlight that was placed on none other than Gregory Felix, who seconds earlier had emerged from the shadows, raised his clarinet to his pursed lips, and began to improvise a solo to open the concert. Such was the respect he possessed as Calypso's long standing instrumentalist. A Calypso renaissance re-emerged in the late 1950s and found new avenues of work for Felix. Including at the Palladium ballroom on Broadway where his band, and others from the Virgin Islands, performed for dance enthusiasts, while sharing the bill with the orchestras led by Machito & Tito Rodriguez. Sadly, Gregory Felix passes away in the mid 1960s. Leaving a legacy that is widely unheralded and forgotten. Both sound recordings and films such as these is how we remember our past, or how we discover it.
Excellent info. Many thanks for posting.
Great piece of history. Many thanks
Thanks for this history
My uncle. Thank you for finding and preserving this piece of family and musical history.
I am thrilled you found this! Isn't it wonderful? I am so happy this work has reached a family member.
Meloware Media who are you and how did you find this? In the last few yesrs a lot more has been put on you tube his music this footage is fantastic. Your preservimg music history and family history. He wrote a song song called gefilte fish if you could find that i would be really happy even if it is a recording. I grratitude for your excellent work.
Hello Ruth. I am "Chris" and am part of the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage in Greenfield, Massachusetts. You can contact me by visiting our website and sending me a message over the museum's email address. I hunt for "lost" movie films to digitally restore. Industrial subjects I place on the museum's UA-cam channel, but obviously more wonderful stuff survives, than just industrial subjects. Those topics I put on Meloware Media. One of my museum friends is an odd collector, in his mid 70s. He has always been interested in film and travel, and has picked up all sorts of stuff along the way. Your Uncle's film is in his collection and my friend loaned it to me. No. Sadly, my friend does not have any other Calypso films. We are lucky when history leaves us what it can, and we are not able to pick and choose. My skills lie in getting the best out of surviving film, sound, and image recordings and make them available to the future. I am very happy my effort has touched someone personally.
FABULOUS ! A great entertainer.
Wishing you health and safety. May 2nd, 2020.
@@melowaremedia253 its amazing the work you have done.
A mighty contribution to the calypso legacy. Thanks for taking the time to digitize and upload. Invaluable!
Thank You!! I dearly wish for more folks to see it. PLEASE SHARE
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Awesome..! Original kaiso beautifully done by a master of the art. Sadly, the artform has been put in the cultural background of T&T where "rubbish soca" now prevails.
A lovely bit of history - thanks for making this available!
SO nice to see the man perform! What a find! thanks for sharing!!
I wanted to find the cowboy song but it ain´t in the places i checked.,
I was pleasantly surprised to have seen this video on Cala Classics. Our Kaiso artform is so unique.
Beautiful!
" WHAT AH GEM "
Qué maravilla, gracias por compartir
OMG this is gold!
There are more to this Video Varieties series. I have Out the Fire and a few others featuring The Duke of Iron.
Please! I would like to be in touch with you. Please visit "The Museum of Our Industrial Heritage" website, and send "Chris" an email at the "info" address on the website's CONTACT page.
This is amazing. How can we see these films? Cecil Duke of Iron Anderson is my uncle so you are helping me piece together our family story.
Brilliant ! Thank you so much for finding this classic and for posting in on UA-cam for all to enjoy. Wishing you health and safety !
May 2nd 2020.
Wonderful music
Wow! Wait til Martin Fisher sees this!
As others have said, thanks so much for doing this. And you're so right that preserving media is preserving history. Good luck in your future work!
Modesto Calderon on Bass. Gregory Felix playing the clarinet. I do not know who the drummer is, unfortunately.
The image is clear, it’s cool to watch thanks for your work!
:)
>8O
First. Lol the duke ain't even red man.
火🔥