R&B Star Johnny Ace Dead; Shoots Himself Backstage Playing Russian Roulette

Rising R&B star Johnny Ace shot himself in the head today (December 25, 1954) while backstage at Houston’s City Auditorium.

Johnny Ace, born John Marshall Alexander, was playing a game of Russian roulette with his girlfriend when the tragedy occurred.

Ace had finished singing “Yes, Baby Yes” to 3,000 screaming fans. During a 5 minute intermission, he went back stage, where his girlfriend Olivia Gibbs, Mary Carter and Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton were sitting amongst others.

Olivia Gibbs told officers that earlier in the day Johnny Ace had been fooling with the .22 pistol as he usually did and that the gun, which he purchased from another musician while in Florida, was not loaded.

Johnny Ace “I saw Johnny look at the gun and then he put it up to my head and pulled the trigger and it snapped,“ Olivia Gibbs told Police. “I saw him look at the gun again and then he put it up to his head and pulled the trigger and the gun fired. He then fell off the table and onto the floor everybody ran out of the room except Mary Carter, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton and me. I thought he was just playing and I picked up his head and then I saw the blood. I then ran to the box office and told Evelyn Johnson that Johnny had shot himself.”

To be technical, Johnny Ace was not actually playing the “game” of Russian Roulette. although he was obviously taking chances with the gun, by pointing at first at his girlfriend and pulling the trigger, before turning the pistol on himself fatally.

Contrary to reports circulated for promotional purposes by Peacock Records owner Don Robey, Ace died today, December 25, not the day before, as is widely reported.

Johnny Ace was originally a member of the Beale Streeters, a legendary group from Memphis, Tennessee that featured artists like BB King and Bobby Blue Bland.

“When I first started performing… I got a trio on the radio: Johnny Ace on piano, Earl Forest on drums, Billy Duncan on tenor sax. That’s when I made ‘Three O’ Clock Blues’. We recorded our first hit in the YMCA in Memphis. They wanted me as a solo act so I gave up my band, gave it to Johnny Ace, which is how he got started.”

Johnny Ace - My Song Johnny Ace signed with Davis Mattis’ Duke label in 1952 and hit number one immediately with the ballad “My Song.”

Mattis sold his label to Peacock Records’ feared boss Don Robey, who owned the most successful black distribution network in the business in 1952.

The hits continued for Johnny Ace with songs like “The Clock,” “Cross My Heart,” “Please Forgive Me” and the beautiful ballad “Never Let Me Go.”

Even in death the hits continued with the song “Pledging My Love,” and another “Anymore,” which Duke released posthumously.
Johnny Ace – Pledging My Love

Although he left an imprint on decades of musicians, Johnny Ace had recorded only 21 song when he died at the age of 25.

A number of artists have remade Johnny Ace’s signature tunes throughout the years including Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Paul Simon, who made a tribute record to the singer titled “The Late Great Johnny Ace”.

We Got The Beat

In the summer of 1988, I attended former Go-Gos lead singer/song writer Belinda Carlisle's concert at the Universal Greek Amphitheater in Los Angeles. During the middle of the show, while walking through the nearly empty concourse/concession area I saw an impossibly young Johnny Depp of the new Fox Network's laughable series, 21 Jump Street, and an even younger Charlie Sheen, son of bad boy actor and soon-to-be mayor of Malibu, Martin and brother of better known Brat-Packer, Emilio Estevez, leaning surreptitiously against the wall as if discussing a drug deal. From the corner of my eye, I saw the pint of what appeared to be Jack Daniels going back and forth. Later, as the show's ending loomed I was looking for friends to join a Green Room party. As I sailed through the concession area, there stumbled the two future Hollywood icons: the one who was destined for greatness was a little sloppy, but managed to keep things under control. The other one? He looked like a drunken teenager after his prom as he hurled in public for all the world to see. Imagine my surprise that within a couple of years seeing him cast by Oliver Stone in 'Platoon' and playing opposite Michael Douglas in 'Wall Street'... Some things never change...

Kent State {Four Dead in Ohio}

Remembering to Never Forget

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Kent State massacre. The book "Generation of Fire" speaks to the heart in its remembrances of a time when people fought for what they truly believed. Pause for a moment during your daily routines to remember those who lost their lives exercising their civil liberties to ensure our democratic freedoms as protected under our Constitution's Bill of Rights.

Little Green Army Men

Back then, it was a rite of passage. Today, sandbox therapy is a standard modality in most pediatric psychology practices.

As impressionable young boys, we would set up elaborate battlefields in the sand box with foxholes, bunkers, trenches, moats, the whole enchilada ~ and then deploy bags of small plastic soldiers... green Americans versus light gray Nazis.

In a capture the flag motif, we would lace the battlefield with strategically placed firecrackers, intertwine all the fuses into one long slow burner, light it and step back. In the ensuing carnage, the carpet bomb effect was the only way that we as young boys could process the atrocities we watched on nightly television coming into our living rooms from the steaming jungles of Vietnam.

I remember the evil looking SS Nazi officer suddenly disappearing ~ the sadistic monster becoming just another victim of war. All that remained of him were the goose stepping boots attached to the plastic stand with a wisp of smoke rising from a hole in the sand where he once stood.

As the deafening explosion and smoke subsided, we surveyed the destruction before us. It was all over before we knew it and there was nothing we could do. We felt somehow powerless as we looked at the broken bodies of the little green and gray army men. You never forget things like that ~ for in that moment I knew in my heart I could never kill another human being or be a soldier.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/parenting/detail?entry_id=62128&o=6&gta=commentslistpos#commentslistpos#ixzz0mQlJ5f5M

So Now You Get Mad!

SO NOW YOU GET MAD !

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad!

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation, a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.

Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you,

But helping other Americans... oh hell no.

AND NOW YOU'RE MAD!

Mount St. Helen Blows

There is no greater force on our planet than a volcanic eruption. On August 7, 1980, I was aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from SFO to Seattle when in mid-flight Mount St. Helen blew her stack for a third time since the May 18th. All in-air traffic was diverted across a broad expanse of miles to detour the eruption. All later departures were grounded until the situation could be further assessed. Like 9-11, it was an amazingly clear day with unlimited visibility as the late afternoon sun began its western descent. The scale of the devastation is beyond description. All comparative references are totally inadequate. Even at our 35,000 feet altitude, the column of ash was at least three to four times higher if not more. From a probable distance of 75-miles away, the ginormous column appeared within reach of my hand just through the window. It resembled a gargantuan wet cauliflower dipped in dry cement sculpture of Jack's magic beanstalk. Easily the most extraordinary sight I've ever witnessed! Respect the epic glory of nature at her most powerful!