The Lengthy Musician List and Performance Dates

  • Duke Ellington – Appears in Dreamland in 1936 with several other performers: Fats Waller and W.C. Handy.

  • Miss Etta Motan, Noble Sissle, Andy Kirk, Chick Webb appear with lesser known artist in 1937.

  • Jimmie Lunceford – the played in 1937, 1940, 1941, 1945, 1946.

  • Cab Calloway – played in Dreamland in 1934 and 1937.

  • Johnny Otis and Little Ester – played in 1952.

  • B.B. King – Played Dreamland in both 1952 & ‘53 with Billy Harvey & Orch.

  • Louis Armstrong – brought his All Star Esquire Combo: Earl Hines, Sidney Catlet, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Arvel Shar & Velma Middleton, to Dreamland in 1949.

  • Etta James – Came to Club Morocco in 1956 with Floyd Dixon and Orch.

  • Sammie Davis Jr. – played the Dreamland Stage in approx. 1936.

  • Peg Leg Bates – played in Dreamland during the Depression years, exact year unknown, came back the Dreamland Stage in the early 1940s.

  • Red Foxx – performed in Dreamland in 1937. Oral histories suggest regular visits to 9th St for many years.

  • Ella Fitzgerald – plays in Dreamland in 1940 with Chick Webb and again in 1946 with Dizzy Gillespie & Orch.

  • Count Basie – played the Dreamland stage in 1940 with his Orch, James Rushing and Helen Humes. Again in 1942 for the Ninth St USO in Taborian. This time with Tiny Bradshaw, Erskine Harkins, Les Hite, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, and Doc Wheeler.

  • Lil Green – 1947 - ’48 with Cornshucks & Johnny Otis, Roy Milton, Harlem Hep Cat Orchestra, Big Joe Turner, and Snookum Russell.

  • Sister Rosetta Tharpe – AR native, comes to Dreamland at the height of her career in 1942 touring with Lucky Miller and Orch. and Trevor Bacon. She played again in 1943 with Lucky, Trevor, The Ink Spots, and Peg Leg Bates.

  • Dizzy Gillespie – possibly played Dreamland 1940 but definitely in 1945 with this 18 piece Orch., Pattison & Jackson, June Echstine, and Lovey Lane. Also, in ’46 with Ella Fitzgerald.

  • Ida Cox – brought her Elaborate Road Show to the USO Dreamland in 1942 with her Darktown Scandals

  • Louis Jordan – played with Claude Trenier in the 9th St USO in 1942

Chitlin Circuit Provided Safe Passage

While some venues in Hot Springs and a few other towns around Arkansas were known to welcome black acts, these were generally by invitation only. The establishments on the Chitlin Circuit were safe places to entertain or be entertained for blacks traveling across the southern United States. West Ninth Street in Little Rock was the only, consistently safe stop in the state of Arkansas. Since the next closest Chitlin Circuit locations were in Louisiana or Tennessee, that meant black performers touring through our region of the country would almost always make a stop on The Line.

Promoters Provided Safe Venues

The Circuit alone was not enough to bring music to Ninth Street. Local promotion and ticket sales were key; enticing performers to stay in Little Rock and play. The Dreamland Ballroom was not the only venue on The Line and promoters and clubs came and went over its many functioning years. Gerald T Perry, owner of Perry’s Rhumboogie Supper Club, and the Jones brothers, Popeye and S.L (full name lost to time unfortunately) are some of the standouts.

Promoting the ‘Dreamiest’ Venue of All

Two of the promoters that put Little Rock on the map, bringing some of the most impressive names to the Dreamland Ballroom in the 1930s and ‘40s, were Sharper W. Tucker and Mrs. Clark Bass. Tucker was a successful black entrepreneur who owned several businesses in the Ninth Street district and Mrs. Bass was nationally known as “the South’s only woman promoter.”

Lloyd Armon partially owned Dreamland in the late 1940s and early ‘50s and helped Tucker with promotions both there and at the Robinson Auditorium. When Tucker died, his nephew Buck Allen partnered with local disc jockey and Arkansas State Press reporter Al Allen (ironically both with the sir name Allen) to continue Tucker’s promotion company and operate Club Morocco out the Dreamland Ballroom. In the 1950s, several other locals joined the promotion of the club, Eddie LeMonte known as “Old Sad Sack,” being the most prominent among them.

Dr J.A. “Doc” Jamieson was a promoter, mostly for amateur boxing, when the United States Officers Club occupied the Taborian Hall during WW2.

Others that Played the Stage

  • Otis Redding

  • Al Hibbler

  • Sam Cook

  • Lightnin’ Hopkins

  • Willie Mabon

  • Pigmeat Markham

  • Albert King

  • T Bone Walker

  • Big Maybell Walker

  • Clarence Carter

  • Joe Simmon

  • Sonny Thompson

  • Tab Smith

  • Chuck Young

  • Roy Brown and His Mighty

  • Ruth Brown

  • Willis Jackson

  • Betty (Miss Blues) Ford

  • Joe Turner

  • Christene Henderson

  • Willie Johnson

  • Jimmie Liggins

  • Herman Manzy

  • Lewis and Parker

  • Chester Guyden

  • The Little Rockers

  • Shirley Lee with Roland Cook

  • Woody Herman and the Third Herd Orchestra

  • Jimmie Lofton

  • Satchel Mouth Baby

  • Atomic Mama

  • Groovie G

  • Just One More Drink

  • Erskine Hawkins

  • Cootie Williams

  • Jack McVea

  • Howling Wolf

  • Erksine Hawkins

  • Buck and Bill Douglas

  • Lionel Hampton

  • The Rockets

  • Harlan Leonard

  • Ike Barlett's Vamping Babies

  • Pha Terrell

  • Doctor Clayton

  • Andy Kirk and his 12

  • Clouds of Joy

  • June Richmond

  • Benny Carter