Civil War Derringers, KKK Records & Motown’s Bottom Line

The titles on a 78rpm record reads “The Bright Fiery Cross,” and “The Jolly Old Klansman.” A collection of 1920s records came with the Victrola phonograph Jan Hazel of Tennessee bought at an Indiana antique store. The record sleeve is stamped with the name “AMERICAN RECORD SHOP –All K.K.K. Records.” Tukufu tracks down the story behind these mysterious records.

Our contributor’s heart skipped a beat when he came across a battered Ampeg B-15 amp with the name “James Jamerson” stenciled on the side. Jamerson, the man who’s bass line drove the Motown sound, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Now the museum might want to display the amp, but only if Eduardo Pagán can prove Jamerson owned it.

Fifteen years ago, country music star Clint Black received a crumbling, faded scrapbook as a gift from his wife. The cover reads “1909” and inside Clint found hundreds of clippings for lost and wanted men from the early 20th century. Clint asks Elyse to find out the purpose behind this book and more about the Sheriff who used it.

On a foggy Saturday in 1945, a B-25 Bomber flew into the Empire State Building. Irv Atkins says his father Louis came home from work the following Monday with a piece of twisted metal he found sitting in his office amid his broken windows. The Atkins family has always believed this was a piece of the plane. Eduardo Pagán investigates to give this piece of metal its proper place in history.

Sorting through a suitcase filled with 1950s educational slides, our contributor found a color negative of 1950s pin-up model Bettie Page, whose uninhibited style earned her the name “Queen of Pin-ups.” “Pin-up King” Irving Klaw supposedly destroyed most of his pin-up photos during a wave of 1950’s censorship. If this is one of Klaw’s photos, how did it survive?

Chuck Amhrein thinks he might have a piece of the famous Hollywood Sign which he found on a hike to the sign in the late 1970’s when the land was open to the public. Now, almost 40 years later, he asks host Eduardo Pagán to find out whether this metal bar belonged to the original Hollywood Sign.

Learn the real stories behind a set of Civil War-era pistols, K.K.K. Records and a battered Ampeg B-15 amp. 8/14/2012