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Bennie Butler (né George Benjamin Butler Jones; 1886–) co-owner with Jack Trotter of the Inter-State Tattler from 1928 to early fall of 1932.^[1]

Career

Benny was the father of Teddy Butler (pseudonym and later legal name of Theodore Benjamin Butler Jones; 1912–1980), who was known for having been a manager of the Smalls Paradise. He started as a sports writer for the Hotel Tattler. On the initiative of Butler, he and other sportswriters founded on April 10, 1924, the Eastern Sportswriters Alliance.^[2] In 1929, Butler took a break to work for Mayor Jimmy Walker's reelection campaign, while Wilfred R. Bain filled in, covering sports and theater.^[3]

When the Interstate Tattler was suspended in 1932, Butler moved on to become the theatrical editor of the New York News,^[4] edited for 22 years by George W. Harris (né George Wesley Harris; 1884–1948), then edited by Father Divine. The New York News was acquired by the New York Daily News in 1937. Harris, a Harvard alumnus, was New York City's first African American Alderman.

In 1935, during the Great Depression, Elmer Rice – head of the New York office of the Federal Theatre Project – appointed John Houseman to head a proposed Negro Theatre Project, who in turn, appointed Bennie Butler as his liaison officer.^[5]

Butler before the Tattler

1913: Butler began his career in journalism, working with Romeo L. Dougherty (1885–1944) at the New York News.

1915: Butler was sports and society editor for the Amsterdam News.

World War I

1918: While serving in the U.S. Marines, Butler was attached to the Navy medical unit in Brooklyn organized William Barrett Brinsmade, MD (1865–1942), known as Naval Base Hospital No. 1 at Long Island College Hospital and in Brest, France.

George Benjamin Butler Jones

2296 Seventh Avenue, New York

Enlisted July 9, 1917

Discharged July 8, 1921

Serial No. 1 549 734

Mess Attendant, 3rd Class, NRF (Naval Reserve Force)^{[Note 1]}

Re: "George Benjamin Butler Jones," U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs master index, Service Prior to September 16, 1940, 76193916, Record Group 15, "Jones, Evan Ellis - Jones, William F.," D.U.P. Roll Book 116A, Part 1 of 4, 1917–1940 (accessible via FamilySearch; free, but sign-up required)

Re: "George Benjamin Jones," "Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917–1919," Adjutant General's Office. Series B0808. New York State Archives, Albany, New York (accessible via Ancestry.com; subscription required)

Post World War I, pre-Tattler

1919: Brief career as a comedian in vaudeville; he joined the Luke A. Scott dramatic company of New York

September 1920 to July 1921: theater and sports editor for the Kansas City Call. While there, he served as a publicity agent for African American related theatrical events. In a publicity stunt to promote a July 5, 1921, opening night jazz revue by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds at Kansas City's Century Theater, he contracted an airplane to fly over an African American neighborhood of Kansas City July 9, 1921, prizes over an African American neighborhood – fifty envelopes containing five dollars each and 150 containing the sheet music to "Dangerous Blues."^{[Note 2]} The engagement cost about $10,000 (equivalent to $170,821 in 2023).^[6]

1922: Writer for the Negro Times^[1]

World War II

Benjamin Butler

402 West 148th Street, Apt. 48, New York, New York

Contact: Carrie L. Warley (same address)

(she lived there, also, in 1953, per NYC directory)

Re: Bennie Butler, born June 23, 1886, residence, 402 West 148th Street, New York, New York, Draft Registration Card Serial No. U1753, registration date: April 27, 1942

Fourth Registration Draft Cards (WWII). New York State Headquarters. Accession 147-71A-1177, Textual Records. NAI: 7644745. Record Group 147: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926 - 1975. The National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. U.S.A.

Accessible via Ancestry.com

Addresses

1914; per Indianapolis Freeman

Bennie Butler

Re: "Bennie Butler's String of Fighters Will Match With Good Ones," October 31, 1914, p. 7

135 West 135th Street, New York, New York

1915 (per 1915 New York State Census)

George B. Jones (elevator operator)

305 West 119th Street, New York, New York

July 1921

Bennie Butler (writer for the Kansas City Call)

Home: 1219 East 18th Street, Kansas City, Missouri^[6]

Marion Taylor (born 1888 Virginia, single) was the head of that address in the 1920 US Census

Possible address in 1930

Benjamin James Jones (born 1885, North Carolina)

169 St. Nicholas Avenue

Bennie Butler, 1940

420 W. 15th Street

Possible address in 1942 (draft reg.)

Theodore Moses Jones (born April 12, 1912, Waldo, Florida)

132 Edgecombe Avenue #11

Possible address in 1942 (draft reg.)

Bennie James Jones (born May 11, 1885, Raleigh, NC)

145 West 141st Street

(contact: Mrs. Annie Jones, 319 West 116th Street)

Possible address in 1942 (draft reg.)

Ernest Henry Banks's mother, Pauline Carolina (per WWII Draft Card)

132 Edgecombe Avenue

Possible address in 1942 (draft reg.)

Bennie Butler

402 West 148th St. (born June 23, 1886, Brooklyn)

Contact: Mrs. Carrie Warley (same address)

Johnnie Cobb

Sometime on or before 1935, Cobb was managing the Red Pirate, 198 West 134th Street at 7th Avenue. The Red Pirate was formerly Clark Monroe's Uptown House.

Notes and references

Notes

^ For nearly two decades, leading into to World War II, the Navy's African-American Sailors had been limited to serving as mess attendants
^ "The Dangerous Blues" (© 15 May 1921) was composed by Billie Brown (née Irene W. Anderson; 1903–1921), with lyrics by Anna Welker Brown (her adoptive mother), published by J. W. Jenkins Sons Music Co. Billie died of small pox December 4, 1921 – the same year her song became a hit. The illustration on the sheet music cover, by Ilah Marian Kibbey (maiden; 1883–1957), depicts couples dancing on the wings of four airplanes, and a satyr playing saxophone atop the front of one of the fuselages, all in flight but apparently about to crash (image). OCLC 9531347 Kibbey has been chronicles as "the first woman who dared to paint landscapes from an airplane in flight." ("Early Day Women Artists Are Coming Into Their Own," by Walter A. Bailey, South Pasadena Review, Vol. 88, No. 42, May 26, 1976, p. 3 Newspapers.com; subscription required)

References

^ ^a ^b "Bennie Butler, Former Tattler Editor, Now in Enforced Retirement, Talks of Past – Harlem Doesn't Seem the Same Since Tattler Suspended Publication, Opinion – Hope to Effect 'Comeback' for Self and Magazine," by Floyd J. Calvin, Pittsburgh Courier, December 24, 1932, p. 3, 2nd ed. (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)
^ "Local Sports Writers Form An Organization," New York Age, Vol. 37, No. 31, April 19, 1924, p. 7, col. 5 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)
^ Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920–1940, James Vernon Hatch & Leo Hamalian (eds.), Wayne State University Press (1996), p. 18
^ The New York News and Harlem Home Journal; OCLC 17758556; LCCN sn88063292
^ "Resentment Grows At Proposed Negro Theatre Project," New York Age, December 21, 1935, p. 4 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)
^ ^a ^b "Bennie Butler Quits," Billboard, Vol. 33, No. 29, July 16, 1921, p. 58 (accessible via fultonhistory.com)

[Navy-Mess-Attendant-6] For nearly two decades, leading into to World War II, the Navy's African-American Sailors had been limited to serving as mess attendants

[Dangerous-Blues-info-7] "The Dangerous Blues" (© 15 May 1921) was composed by Billie Brown (née Irene W. Anderson; 1903–1921), with lyrics by Anna Welker Brown (her adoptive mother), published by J. W. Jenkins Sons Music Co. Billie died of small pox December 4, 1921 – the same year her song became a hit. The illustration on the sheet music cover, by Ilah Marian Kibbey (maiden; 1883–1957), depicts couples dancing on the wings of four airplanes, and a satyr playing saxophone atop the front of one of the fuselages, all in flight but apparently about to crash (image). OCLC 9531347 Kibbey has been chronicles as "the first woman who dared to paint landscapes from an airplane in flight." ("Early Day Women Artists Are Coming Into Their Own," by Walter A. Bailey, South Pasadena Review, Vol. 88, No. 42, May 26, 1976, p. 3 Newspapers.com; subscription required)

[Pittsburgh-Courier_1932_Dec_24-1] "Bennie Butler, Former Tattler Editor, Now in Enforced Retirement, Talks of Past – Harlem Doesn't Seem the Same Since Tattler Suspended Publication, Opinion – Hope to Effect 'Comeback' for Self and Magazine," by Floyd J. Calvin, Pittsburgh Courier, December 24, 1932, p. 3, 2nd ed. (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

[NYAge_1924_Apr_19_p7-2] "Local Sports Writers Form An Organization," New York Age, Vol. 37, No. 31, April 19, 1924, p. 7, col. 5 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

[Hatch-Hamalian_1996-3] Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920–1940, James Vernon Hatch & Leo Hamalian (eds.), Wayne State University Press (1996), p. 18

[NYNews_OCLC-cite-4] The New York News and Harlem Home Journal; OCLC 17758556; LCCN sn88063292

[NYAge_1935_Dec_21-5] "Resentment Grows At Proposed Negro Theatre Project," New York Age, December 21, 1935, p. 4 (accessible via Newspapers.com; subscription required)

[Billboard_1921_Jul_16-8] "Bennie Butler Quits," Billboard, Vol. 33, No. 29, July 16, 1921, p. 58 (accessible via fultonhistory.com)

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