Tag Archives: Vaudeville

The Urban Legend(s) of “Barefoot Bill”

Posted on March 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

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“Barefoot Bill” seemed to be everywhere in Jacksonville at once, a phantom menace, a “burglar bugaboo,” pilfering bedrooms of prominent citizens as they ate dinner downstairs. Whether or not he ever existed, Bill made headlines from the 19-aughts to the 1930s and as far away as South Carolina. Maybe he’s out there still.

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Tagged "high murder rate in the South, A.J. Hedrick, Barefoot Bill, blackface, Calvin Oak, Daddy Mention, Daddy Mention Polk County, G.T. Gato, John Henry, John N.C. Stockton, Jose Huau, Judge W.H. Baker, murder rate Jacksonville, Old Folks at Home, Stagga Lee, Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stephen Foster, Stetson Kennedy, T. Frederick Davis, Vaudeville, W.H. Baker, Way Down Upon the Swanee River, Zora Neale Hurston

The Beerbower House: Prehistoric Avondale

Posted on April 5, 2019 | 1 comment

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The house will ever be imbued with the story of its strange genesis. Casper and Ida ferried coquina to the woods where Riverside ended. When the president called Elsie “predestined to be a star and kissed [her] on the brow,” she told her mother, “You kiss me too. I may never be kissed in the White House again.” Then Tilly had occasion to chat with Lynn Beerbower, to find out “how small boys used to earn their pleasures.”

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Tagged "Break the News to Mother, 1776 Challen, Al Jolson, American Expeditionary Forces, Anti-Ragtime Girl, Avondale, Axel Hendrickson, Beerbower House, Behind the Lines, Bette Davis, Casper Beerbower, Challen Avenue, coquina, coquina gates, Dark Victory, Edgewood Association, Edgewood Avenue, Elias Jaudon, Elsie Janis, Florrie was a Flapper, George Buker, Ginger Harris, Gloria Swanson, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Ida B., Ida Beerbower, James Randall Challen, jax psycho geo, jim russell, John Talbott, Leah Powell, leatherleaf fern, Lynn Beerbower, Magnolia Plantation, Mary Hendrickson, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Riverside Avondale, Spanish American War, St. Augustine, Talbot Avenue, Telfair Stockton, Tell Tilly, The Jazz Singer, The Three Friends, The Trespasser, Tilly Teller, Tim Gilmore, Vaudeville, Virginia Harris, Washington Oaks, water hyacinths, William McKinley