 Jelly Roll Morton (?)
at Hilma Burt’s Mirror Ballroom, 209 N. Basin Street, New Orleans, 1907 Hilma Burt’s establishment was next door to Tom Anderson’s Annex. Anderson was regarded as Storyville’s “Mayor”. Burt managed this place from about 1906 until 1911 and she gave Morton his real start in Storyville.
Though the piano player’s head is visible from the rear, and also in the mirror, it is not possible to verify for certain that it is Jelly Roll Morton. The photograph also shows Hilma Burt seated, second from the right. The elderly lady on the extreme right, is probably her housekeeper, Lizzie Hamilton, from Missouri.
This photograph was first published in Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Redlight District, (1974), by Al Rose, page 112. [12]
Not shown in Mr. Jelly Lord (1980) by Laurie Wright, or Oh, Mister Jelly (1999) edited by William Russell. courtesy of Ate van Delden
© 2004 Ate van Delden Collection
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