Interview and other footage: Kenneth Jackson, Jim Russell (Part 1)
Description
The video opens with footage of the exterior, shuttered Dew Drop Inn building. Kenneth Jackson is interviewed in the interior bar location of the club, and gives a tour of the room, explaining how his grandfather Frank Painia would change the location of the stage at various times. He discusses who Painia was, including his start as a barber, and how he owned and founded the Dew Drop Inn, while showcasing a portrait of Painia. Jackson and Jim Russell are filmed talking to each other in the club’s interior. Russell discusses his memories of and history with the club from 1956-1966, as a show promoter and booking agent. He includes stories about Allen Toussaint and Dave Bartholomew, and mentions that the club’s weekend attendance was “usually close to 400 people” and “on the weekdays, very few people.” Russell discusses new clubs that opened around 1966 and the effect of integration on how the club “disintegrated.” Russell and Jackson are filmed looking at and reminiscing over Russell’s photo and scrapbooks of Dew Drop Inn artists, including noteworthy stories of Clifton Chenier, Deacon John, Ernie K-Doe, Earl King, Professor Longhair, Shirley & Lee, Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns, Sugarboy Crawford, Irma Thomas, and more.