Most of my books don’t require extensive research, but some do. The Bootlegger’s Legacy was one that involved research, along with remembering. The backstory for this book was about a bootlegger who was operating in dry Oklahoma during the early 1950s and some of the story took place in an area of town called Deep Deuce.
I was born in Oklahoma City and spent much of my life there. I was familiar with the remnants of Deep Deuce that existed in the 1960s and beyond. But, of course, I had not experienced the active, exuberant time in the 40s and 50s when it was a magnet for black Jazz and Blues singers and musicians.
To flesh out my understanding of this unique area of town, I did research. As a young man one of my favorite places was any library. I found them comforting. They seemed to embody the best of humans in an environment that was protected in some way from all the turmoil outside. I would have loved going to the library and researching Deep Deuce, but today, that is not necessary. Everything seems available through the internet.
“Deep Deuce historic neighborhood is a district in Downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was home to Zelia Breaux’s Aldridge Theater and Dr. W. H. Slaughter’s Slaughter Building his Cove Pharmacy and Slaughter’s Hall in it. Author Ralph Waldo Ellison was raised in the area until after his father died, and wrote about the neighborhood. It now consists mostly of low-rise apartment buildings (built primarily in the 2000s) and formerly vacant mixed-use buildings and shops.
Located a few blocks north of Bricktown and centered on NE 2nd Street, Deep Deuce was a regional center of jazz music and black culture and commerce during the 1920s and 1930s and the largest African-American downtown neighborhood in Oklahoma City in the 1940s and 1950s. Notable musicians that contributed to the rich jazz history of Deep Deuce includes singer Jimmy Rushing, swing and jazz guitarist Charlie Christian, the famous Blue Devils, Count Basie, Gonzelle White, King Oliver’s bands as well as Ida Cox, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith.
After the civil rights movement of the 1960s, much of the city’s African-American community dispersed to other areas within Oklahoma City. Much of the neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for I-235 in the 1980s, but the current downtown boom and renaissance has made the area attractive to developers once again. Little of the neighborhood’s original character remains today. As of March 2014, The Oklahoman reported that the area had only one remaining African-American owned business.”
During my high school days, I often went to a bar/pizza joint located in Deep Deuce, mostly because they served the best pizza I had ever tasted and sold alcohol to anyone breathing. I know, not a good thing. At the time it seemed exotic and adventurous. It was run by a black family with the very large, and loud mother in charge. She made all the food. The music was loud and intoxicating.
When I started The Bootlegger’s Legacy, those were the memories that prompted the time and place for the bootlegger’s backstory. Deep Deuce was a key element driving the entire story line of the book. While I was writing the book, I recalled my visits and how sad the area seemed in those days. After doing research on the area and the activities that went on there, I became aware of how important that part of town was to a whole different community both locally and nationally. It was part of a circuit that bands, singers, and musicians traveled that allowed them to perform and make a living in somewhat protected environments. At one time I even thought of naming the book Deep Deuce, but went with the more understandable TBL, maybe that was a mistake.
I think for my next research project I will forgo the internet and go to the library in downtown Denver. It reminds me of the very ornate and elegant library in downtown OKC; I always felt happy in that building. I’m afraid we are no longer in awe of knowledge.
New cover for Blue Flower Red Thorns. The search for the “right” cover is one of my on-going tasks that I really enjoy. Can’t change them all the time because it costs too much and is confusing to the reader but always thinking about it. I especially liked this new one for this Vincent Malone quirky murder mystery. It centers around artists and clashing egos with a cast of unusual characters.
Ted Clifton's Grain of Salt Commentary 