3 Ads: The Rhythm Four and Others at the Pizitz (1940-1941)
Title
3 Ads: The Rhythm Four and Others at the Pizitz (1940-1941)
Description
Newspaper advertisements for the Rhythm Four and other groups performing at the Pizitz department store's open house, 1940-1941.
For National Retail Demonstration Week, the Pizitz hosted an open house, inviting the public to view their latest offerings amid a host of special entertainments. Each floor of the Pizitz building hosted a variety of offerings: 1940's open house featured (among other goings on) a fashion show, an art exhibit, a ping pong exhibition, a meet-and-greet with children's book author Paul Pim, and a chance to meet Jefferson County's high school football captains (the Black schools' captains were presumably excluded). On the ground floor, visitors could be recorded on film ("We'll develop it and show it to you and your friends in a few days"), and on the fifth floor they could have their voices recorded, then played back instantly. On the north balcony, the locally popular white bandleader Bill Nappi performed with his ten-piece orchestra, broadcasting live over radio station WSGN.
The Pizitz basement, meanwhile, offered a "Special Vaudeville Show" featuring Pat Third, a blackface comedian; boogie-woogie pianist Alphonse Collins; and the Rhythm Four, the popular Birmingham quartet directed by Sonny Blount (the future Sun Ra). Of the Rhythm Four, one advertisement promises a "Negro harmony quartet of Southern prominence. You'll hear rhythm and syncopation like you have never heard it before."
Third and the Rhythm Four were also featured in the 1941 event, again in the basement vaudeville show.
Advertisements appeared in the Birmingham News on September 15, 1940 and September 14, 1941.
For National Retail Demonstration Week, the Pizitz hosted an open house, inviting the public to view their latest offerings amid a host of special entertainments. Each floor of the Pizitz building hosted a variety of offerings: 1940's open house featured (among other goings on) a fashion show, an art exhibit, a ping pong exhibition, a meet-and-greet with children's book author Paul Pim, and a chance to meet Jefferson County's high school football captains (the Black schools' captains were presumably excluded). On the ground floor, visitors could be recorded on film ("We'll develop it and show it to you and your friends in a few days"), and on the fifth floor they could have their voices recorded, then played back instantly. On the north balcony, the locally popular white bandleader Bill Nappi performed with his ten-piece orchestra, broadcasting live over radio station WSGN.
The Pizitz basement, meanwhile, offered a "Special Vaudeville Show" featuring Pat Third, a blackface comedian; boogie-woogie pianist Alphonse Collins; and the Rhythm Four, the popular Birmingham quartet directed by Sonny Blount (the future Sun Ra). Of the Rhythm Four, one advertisement promises a "Negro harmony quartet of Southern prominence. You'll hear rhythm and syncopation like you have never heard it before."
Third and the Rhythm Four were also featured in the 1941 event, again in the basement vaudeville show.
Advertisements appeared in the Birmingham News on September 15, 1940 and September 14, 1941.
Date
1940-09-15
1941-09-14
Original Format
Newspaper clipping
Collection
Citation
“3 Ads: The Rhythm Four and Others at the Pizitz (1940-1941),” Southern Music Research Center, accessed July 1, 2024, https://southernmusicresearch.org/items/show/1357.