Baby Judy with Carrington Lewis, a.k.a. "Papa", Mama Lori's second husband,
on 146th Street in Harlem, 1947. Lewis was a radio actor or performer
(perhaps on the program "Harlem Fantasy"), and in 1939-40 was a member of
the musical group Josh White and his Corolinians that recorded on Columbia
Records for John Hammond in 1940 (Josh White was the father of the 1960s
folk singer of the same name, whose godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt). One
of the Columbia recordings was "
Chain Gang Boun'"
(that's a Youtube link). They also recorded on the Harmony label: "I Wonder
Will My Mother Be On Dat Train", "Moan, Chillun, Moan", "Trouble", "Nine
Foot Shovel", "Goin' Home Boys", "Jerry", who knows what else. The group
also appeared on Broadway in the musical
John
Henry with Paul Robeson (1940). Another member of the Carolinians
was
Bayard Rustin,
who would go on to become a civil rights leader in the 1960s.
In 1946 Lewis was a member of the cast of the Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer /
County Cullen musical St. Louis
Woman in 1946, starring Pearl Bailey, Ruby Hill, and the Nicholas
Brothers. The music for St. Louis Woman includes standards like
"Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home". Mama
Lori was in the same show. The 1946 original cast recording (an album of
ten 10-inch 78rpm records) was reissued in CD in the 1990s by Broadway Angel
# ZMD-7-64662-2-4, and also by DRG/EMI # 1907819, and you can
find it in Amazon.