Beryl Booker and Philadelphia's Walk of Fame

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Aug 14, 2019

The names are all there, from Pearl Bailey to Jim Croce. Philadelphia’s Walk of Fame, meant to commemorate famous-born Philadelphians who made it big in the music world, had its start in 1987 when the Philadelphia Music Alliance put into action a plan to create a Hollywood like star walk along the Avenue of the Arts.

In 2011 I wrote a piece for Huff Post in which I voiced some concerns about the Walk of Fame:

“While walking along Broad Street recently I made it a point to study the condition of the plaques near the Academy of Music. Not only are quite a few of the plaques partially sunken into the sidewalk, many are so dirty and eroded it makes you wonder if anybody in Philadelphia even cares about these bronzes anymore. Gone are the parties, the plaque galas, the onsite photo ops with fans reeling behind police barricades. In fact, the only people who pay attention to the Walk of Fame seem to be the people who manage to glance at them while flicking occasional cigarette butts on random plaques like the one commemorating The Oak Ridge Boys.” 

That is no longer true. The Walk of Fame is now a spit and shiny example of meticulous upkeep. The Walk of Fame is no longer a Walk of Neglect; it has become a national tourist attraction and yet there have been some changes. Instead of naming honorees every year, PMA reveals the new list of new inductees every other year. The 2019 honorees list was announced at the Independence Visitor Center. Hosted by PMA executive Board member Randy Alexander, representatives of some of the honorees were in attendance.

WMMR radio personality Pierre Robert (pronounced “row-BEAR”) is one of this year’s honorees, Robert came to Philadelphia from San Francisco in 1981 when the radio station where he worked made a switch to country and western music. Robert traveled to Philadelphia in a Volkswagen bus and once in the city he sent a demo tape to WMMR but his “application” was rejected. Some time after this he went to a palm reader on South Street who told him he was soon going to get an important letter. That letter turned out to be a letter from WMMR’s Joe Bonnadonna offering Robert a job.

Robert was not at the Independence Visitor Center (he was working) but he was represented by another WMMR DJ with “stand up” cauliflower hair who could not stop expressing his love and devotion to Robert. To prove his undying devotion, the zany DJ kept kissing a large cardboard cutout of Robert’s face that he carried with him to the podium. In true rockster- stream of consciousness fashion, the DJ’s comments were accompanied by a series of bodily jerks and gestures that gave added emphasis to his words. I found the performance fascinating and was a little disappointed when Alexander approached the podium as telling the DJ to wrap it up. Where the DJ’s heavy metal monologue was actually going was, of course, anybody’s guess.

Standing against a back wall where the broadcast media had its cameras was a tall lean WASP looking gentleman in a well tailored sports jacket. His carefully manicured Edwardian hair somehow reminded me of the Barnes Museum. “He’s definitely not a Philly musician type,” I thought. A few musician types in the room had their hair in wild ponytail knots but this man was pure F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who could he be? Later, when Alexander announced that one of the honorees was Dorrance Hill “Dodo” Hamilton, who during her life donated more than $47 million to a wide group of arts and musical organizations in the city, Alexander introduced the man as “Dodo” Hamilton’s grandson.

The 2019 honorees were referred to as having roots in “women’s empowerment.” Women’s empowerment, of course, is not same thing as the #METOO movement. Although a great philanthropist like “Dodo” Hamilton deserves special city honors, it occurred to me that the definition of what makes a PMA honoree might be beginning to change, A “Walk of Fame” for famous non-musician Philadelphians, for instance, would have to include writers, novelists, politicians, artists and humanitarians, people not necessarily associated with music but who still contribute to the lifeblood of the city.

Another honoree, Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, seemed to be another strong indication that PMA is beginning to branch out in directions other than music. The plagues on the Walk of Fame are highly recognizable musical stars, some more famous than others, but all of them in the same general swim: people that “do” music. And yet here is an honoree from the administrative side of things. This to me is a radical change.

I was glad that Evelyn “Champagne” King was finally named as a 2019 honoree, although I had to ask: why did it take so long? ECK has been famous for decades, as have The Hooters, who were named as 2019 honorees also. The Hooters burst onto the Philadelphia music scene in 1980. Hooter Rob Hyman was on hand to thank PMA for the honor, as was a representative from The Philadelphia Orchestra to acknowledge the Orchestras gratitude for also being named a 2019 honoree.

Honoring the Philadelphia Orchestra is a lot like honoring the Atlantic Ocean for being a bridge between Europe and the United States. Individual Philadelphians should be the prime winners of a spot on the Avenue of the Arts, not a multi-award winning world-class institution with more accolades than violins.

I’m thinking about world class singers like Philadelphia-born William Thomas “Billy” Murray (1877-1954), one of the most popular singers in the early 20th Century. Billy Murray should have a plague on the Avenue of the Arts.

I’m also thinking of Beryl Booker, Beryl Booker (June 7, 1922 – September 30, 1978), an American swing pianist of the 1950s. Booker toured Europe with Dizzy Gillespie, worked with Dinah Washington in 1959, and even accompanied Billie Holiday throughout Europe. I did a long story on Ms. Booker that was published in several Philadelphia newspapers, including The Philadelphia Tribune.

If we’re talking about female empowerment, then Philadelphia’s Beryl Booker has to be part of the equation In an article entitled ‘The Outstanding Contributions of Beryl Booker’ by Ava Louise in ‘All About Jazz,’ Louise writes:

Beryl broke down a very large barrier in being accepted as a jazz musician in the male-centric genre. Jazz has been notoriously male-dominated, with most exceptions to that rule being vocalists rather than instrumentalists. Beryl most notably played with the Slam Stewart Trio from 1946-1952. She also collaborated with Miles Davis and Don Byas, among many others. Some highlights from her collaborations include: “Oh Me, Oh My, Oh My Gosh,” “Beryl Booker’s Byased Blues,” and Miles Davis with Beryl Booker—Birdland Live Recordings.

In the 1990s, at the height of the Walk of Fame hoopla, I wrote the Music Alliance and asked if they would accept a proposal for a commemorative plaque. Today the PMA has an online submission form for nominations, but in the 1990s that was not the case. Obtaining a nomination form then was more difficult.

I nominated Beryl Booker.

PMA asked for a discography of Beryl Booker’s work, so I sent them everything I had, including duplicate copies of the interview. I was told that the nomination process would take several months. The waiting period lasted over 2 years with intermittent phone during which I was asked to resubmit the Beryl Booker info because the original mailings were lost, etc. I waited another year, called again and was once again asked to resubmit. After that I was told that there was a freeze on nominations. I eventually threw in the towel—I just didn’t have the stamina-- although I contacted PMA a couple years later to get a progress report

“We remember something about Beryl Booker, but we cannot say definitely,” I was told. “Can you resubmit the package?”

I did everything one more time, but when there was no follow up after that I figured PMA was just too embarrassed to tell me that they thought that Beryl Booker just didn’t make the grade.

Of course, PMA is much more polished now, so what happened then in way colors what could happen now should I decide to resubmit her nomination. Beryl Booker is one of those artists whose star rises after death. Google her name and a host of Web pages and sites have multiplied exponentially in a short amount of time.

‘All About Jazz’ also detailed how Beryl formed her own Beryl Booker Trio.

“The trio featured all female musicians: Beryl on Piano, Bonnie Wetzel on bass, and Elaine Leighton on drums. To this day, all female instrumental groups are rare and even rarer are those that are commercially successful. Beryl’s trio was impeccable and was very well known by the late 1940’s. Her trio was also racially diverse, featuring both African-American and Caucasian musicians. In the age of segregation this was unusual and certainly controversial, but her progressive efforts led to the creation of one of the best-known female musical groups of her time.”

When I interviewed Beryl in the late 1970s she told me that when she traveled throughout the south during the days of segregation she was refused service in restaurants. Not one to be deterred, the ever mischievous and always inventive Beryl would bat her eyelashes at the waitress or restaurant manager and tell them that she was really an Indian princess traveling with her band, and that all she wanted was a a Coke and a hamburger.

The princess routine almost always got her that hamburger, but sometimes the great musician was told to leave the restaurant anyway.