Now here's an interesting clip. This newsreel footage is of a legendary music man, Huddie Leadbetter A.K.A. Leadbelly who they say actually sang his way out of prison...not once...but twice!! First in Texas, where he wrote a song that appealed to the governor and got him released from a life sentence. Then in Louisiana, which is where this episode picks up. This newsreel dramatizes what happened to change Leadbelly's life after he met reporter and historian John Lomax (who you can also hear conducting an interview with Uncle Bob Ledbetter in episode 34) and recorded a number of songs for him during his second prison stint, this time in an Angola, Louisiana prison. It was there, that he was "discovered" by Lomax, who was enchanted by his talent, passion and singularity as a performer, and recorded hundreds of his songs on portable recording equipment for the Library of Congress. The following year Leadbelly was once again pardoned, this time after a petition for his early release was taken to Louisiana Governor O.K. Allen by Lomax. The petition was on the other side of a recording of one of Leadbelly's most popular songs, "Goodnight Irene".
But to me...the dialog of this newsreel is what is really interesting about this clip. Filmed in 1935, this was part of an important American journalistic preservation project. Both the film itself, and the musician that it documents. Enjoy it. Peace.
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