BEN WATKINS
Ben Watkins led a popular band in Oakland from 1930 to the early fifties yet little has been written about him. He was born in Pulaski TN on May 9, 1905 but by the time of the 1910 Census his parents and their five children (of which Ben was the youngest) had moved to Fresno CA. They appear to have escaped the 1920 Census but in 1930 Ben was a widower and working as a “Cleaner, Auto laundry.” He was also involved in music - in 1921 he is mentioned as second tenor in a vocal quartet and by 1930 he was leading his own Melody Quartet. But he is also mentioned in the same year as playing the cornet (it and the trumpet were to be his main instruments) and saxophone and as having his own orchestra.
By 1932 he had moved to Oakland - an ad shows Ben Watkins and His Red Hot Rhythm Ramblers playing at the New Pom Pom Nite Club on Thirteenth Street and says they had moved there after “19 Months at El Nido Cafe.” In January 1935 Ben Watkins Rhythemaniacs (sic) were broadcasting in Sacramento. They continued to work through the rest of the thirties under various names - Ben Watkins Blue Blowers, Ben Watkins and his Colored Troubadours, sometimes simply Ben Watkins Orchestra (described variously as 8 Piece, 12 Piece and even 20 Piece). On one occasion in 1939 “the combined Saunders King and Ben Watkins orchestras” furnished the music for a ball. In 1935 they became victims of the racial policy of the white AFM Local 6. The Edgewater Beach Cafe hired Ben Watkins and his ten strong Dixie Boys but was threatened with the cancellation of 700 reservations and as a result felt compelled to fire Watkins and his band (1). By the time of the 1940 Census he had remarried (he married Thelma Breaux on September 14, 1936) and was living at 770 8th Street, describing himself as “Salesman Musician Radio.” He said he was at the same address in 1935 but a 1936 Voter Registration places him at 1904 Harper Street (2) and describes him as a Musician. The same source locates him at the 8th Street address from 1938-44 and says he was an “Auto Tire Salesman” (1938/40/42) and a “Personnel Counselor” (1944).
He registered for the draft on July 1940, saying he was “Self Employed Musician Radio.” He does not appear to have been called for the service (3) since he continues to appear throughout the forties, including a season at the Mirabel Park in Santa Rosa in June-July 1942 with his sensational all colored 12 piece band and a string of Monday might dances at Sweets Ballroom. G. Carlos, a local promoter of Mexican music, often included “Ben Watkins in the hottest Dance Band in Northern California,” along with various Mexican artists. One of the Mirabel Park ads refers to Ben Watkins “and his famous recording colored band” but I have found no evidence that the band ever made records. An ad from 1946 not only provides a picture of the man (4) but also tells us that his band featured vocalists Pat Graham and Odie Wyatt and trumpeter Louis Houston, and another from the same year for a show in Fresno with Wynonie Harris calls it the “Surprise Band of the Year” (whatever that may indicate) and says it came “Direct from the Swing Club, Oakland.” The band continued to work into the fifties - the latest ad I have found comes from December 1953. Watkins died on September 19, 1957, so it may have been ill health that brought an end to the band’s activities. Other alumni of the Watkins band included saxophonist Jerome Richardson, pianist John A. Dean Sr. (https://www.eastbaytimes. com/2007/03/18/obituaries-976/), trumpeter Ike Bell (http://opal nations.com/files/Saunders_King_ The_Rhythm_Years_Rock_Blues_News_Feb-Mar.2001.pdf), Charles Mingus and pianist Richard Wyands (https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2012/12/), and pianist Red Cayou (Storyville 32 [December 1970-January 1971] 55
(1) Leta E. Miller, Racial Segregation and the San Francisco Musicians’ Union, 1923-60, Journal of the Society for American Music 1.2 (2007) 161-206, esp. 185 (quoting “Musicians Lose Cafe Job Through Union Threat,” The Spokesman, 29 March 1935, 1).
(2) In what seems a rather odd coincidence the Oakland Directory of 1949 and 1957 lists a Ben Harper as resident at 2904 Harper.
(3) He was in 1944 involved in the production of a pamphlet, “We Also Serve: 10 per cent of a Nation Working and Fighting for victory;” see https://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/library-community/african-americans-times-war-story-we-also-serve.
(4)The African American Museum & Library at Oakland has a 1943 photograph of Watkins along with C. L. Dellums and Spencer Jordan at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89k4c07/).