2008 GEORGIA MUSIC HALL OF FAME / "GEORGY AWARDS"
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LISA LOVE / 478-751-3087
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ORIGINAL IKPA BLOG
Research material for this blog inquiry consists, in part, of information,
mostly hearsay and folklore, that has been gleaned from a variety of web sites using
SEARCH or KEY WORDS e.g.. ALABAMA VEST, VEST, KAZOO etc.
FYI: I have deliberately omitted the names and/or web sites of those that I am quoting from
in order to protect the innocent as well as the guilty.
Unverifiable material may be challenged and if confirmed will be removed
COULD ALABAMA VEST HAVE BEEN THE MODEL FOR THIS KAZOO DANCER ?
in Macon, Georgia in the early 1840's (1842).
In 1852 it was exhibited at the Georgia State Fair and was later manufactured under the name, because of its shape,
DOWN SOUTH SUBMARINE...
In (1852-?) Emil Sorg, a travelling salesman, came across Alabama Vest and von Clegg's kazoo on one of his business trips.
He showed great interest in the kazoo and was eager to get the kazoo into mass production.
With this thought in mind Emil Sorg travelled to New York.
Here he became partners with Michael McIntyre, who was an ironsmith.
Together Sorg and McIntyre created the first production of the kazoo in the year 1912.
McIntyre had now gained enough knowledge to maintain the production of kazoos all by himself.
All he needed was a larger factory.
In 1913 he separated from Emil Sorg and teamed up with Harry Richardson who owned a big metal factory.
McIntyre and Richardson launched the first mass-production of the kazoo in 1914.
Selling kazoos was a good business and sales figures of the popular instrument rose enormously.
In 1916 McIntyre and Richardson renamed their partnership and turned it into a company called
The Original American Kazoo Company.
KAZOO made in 1914 by McIntyre and Richardson
Made following Alabama Vest's Original Design
Thaddeus Von Clegg
10 years later...
In 1852 the Kazoo was exhibited at the Georgia State Fair.
60 years later...
In 1912 Sorg and McIntyre created the first production of the kazoo.
In 1913 McIntyre separated from Emil Sorg and teamed up with Harry Richardson who owned a large metal factory.
In 1914 McIntyre and Richardson launched the first mass production of the kazoo.
In 1916 McIntyre and Richardson renamed their partnership and turned it into a company called
The Original American Kazoo Company.
THEN HE WAS 40 WHEN THE KAZOO WAS INTRODUCED IN 1852.
THEN HE WOULD BE 100 YRS. OLD IN 1912 WHEN KAZOO PRODUCTION STARTED.
DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE ?
This photo is dated 1914 and both men are playing mass-produced metal kazoos !
That's 72 years after Alabama Vest showed his kazoo plans to Von Clegg in 1842.
THE YEAR IS 1842 / THE PLACE IS MACON, GEORGIA
No Birthday, No Birthplace, No Relatives, No Friends except Thaddeus Von Clegg,
No information of any kind that might shed some light on this most creative character.
The same simple statements are repeated around the world by everyone referring to Alabama Vest...
"he invented the Kazoo".
"The kazoo is an American version of the Mirliton, whose creator, Alabama Vest,
probably witnessed an African slave playing an original instrument".
the most common natural materials available to slaves in the 1800's.
left: ANIMAL BONE / center: GOURD / right: HOLLOW STALK
Each is hand-made and has a small hole in the middle and any of the three openings can be covered with a vibrating material,
The player talks, sings or hums into the small hole and Jazz is born.
I don't think that Alabama just saw a slave playing an original instrument,
I THINK HE HAD ONE WHEN HE WAS A KID !
SLAVE BOY'S JUG BAND / c.1820
Is the boy on the left playing a MIRLITON ?
Could that boy be Alabama Vest ?
from whatever was available, and they used their imagination freely.
The least expensive from nature was a slender poplar branch cut from a poplar tree,
then the bark was worked loose so that it would slide on the branch.
The player would blow across the end and make a whistling sound that varied in pitch,
according to how you slid the bark on the branch.
Frederick Douglass wrote in 1849 about one such troupe, Gavitt's Original Ethiopian Serenaders:
"It is something to be gained when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience."
1840, aspiring black performers must follow "Daddy" Rice's lead and don blackface.
and remained the exception until the last decade of the century.
Only in the 1890s did the demand for black musicians increase rapidly,
and minstrel shows became launching pads for the careers of several black singers and actors.
toured the United States with a program of traditional mittel-European folk songs.
Four unemployed white actors decided to stage an African-American style spoof of this group's concerts.
Calling themselves Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels, their blackface revue premiered at
New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in February 1843.
Emmett, Frank Bower, Frank Pelham and Billy Whitlock became the first troupe to offer
a full evening of blackface variety entertainment.
With their chairs in a simple semi-circle, the quartet offered a fresh combination of songs, dances and comic banter,
creating cartoonish Negro caricatures.
Most historians mark this production as the beginning of minstrelsy.
As laws changed, several all-black minstrel companies toured America and Great Britain.
Black performers still had to wear blackface makeup in order to look "dark enough,"
performing material that demeaned their own race.
Despite such drawbacks, minstrelsy provided African American performers with their first professional stage outlet.
Over the next few years, the Virginia Minstrels introduced several hit songs that are still heard today, including
"Polly Wolly Doodle" and "Blue Tail Fly."
Similar all-white companies soon toured the United States and Europe.
Although short on production values, minstrel shows became America's most popular form of stage entertainment.
By 1856, New York City had ten full time resident companies, and twice as many a decade later.
Google Search Results about 1,200,000 for Alabama Vest
Google Search Results about 30,700 for Thaddeus Von Clegg
Google Search Results about 181,000 for Emil Sorg
Google Search ResultsÊabout 49,100,000 for Vest
Google Search Results about 1,710,000 for Kazoo
Google Search Results about 9,810 for DANCING MINSTREL KAZOO
Google Search Results about 43,700 for JIGGER DANCING TOY
Google Search Results about 18,800 for Slave Entertainers, 1840
Google Search Results about 41,100 for African-American Performers, 1840.
There is not a shred of evidence anywhere that Alabama Vest ever existed.
We have folklore, legend, hearsay and a very simple and constantly repeated story...
"The KAZOO as we know it today was designed and built by
Alabama Vest and Thaddeus Von Clegg in Macon, Georgia In the early 1840's".
What we DO NOT have is any record in any reputable document or history to verify that Alabama Vest was
a Slave, a Performer, an Inventor or simply the product of someones overactive imagination.
A. VEST
Born: February 14, 1827 in Morgan Co., ALABAMA
Died: July 30, 1899 in ALABAMA at AGE 62
and NOT of the illusive Alabama Vest the legendary Kazoo inventor.
The birth and death dates seem to closely match our profile of Alabama Vest
but since NO records exist to verify our assumption...
Our search continues.
PLEASE RETURN OFTEN TO SEE HOW THIS STORY DEVELOPS.
Thanx for reading this far.
Captain Kazoo
