Brohm Family Program, Slide Guitar Pioneer Sylvester Weaver, 1923 Foxtrot “Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady),” and More
Now that the Kentucky Derby is history, are you ready for some football?
I think I can safely say the Brohm family is always ready for some football: it’s a family affair that has made its way back to the University of Louisville.
From right, U of L head football coach Jeff Brohm greets supporters following the announcement of his new position at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, December 8, 2022. Credit: Sam Upshaw Jr., Courier Journal.
Jeff Brohm poses with his family, December 8, 2022. Credit: University of Louisville.
Jeff Brohm, who played at U of L under Coach Howard Schnellenberger from 1989 to 1993, is now the head coach ready to tackle all the expectations that come with that top job, especially in his hometown.
Both of Brohm’s brothers played for U of L, too, as did their father, Oscar.
Both of Brohm’s brothers are now on the coaching staff: Brian as offensive coordinator and Greg as chief of staff.
From right, Jeff Brohm’s brother Greg, father Oscar, mother Donna, and sister Kim sit in the front row as Jeff is announced as U of L’s new head football coach, December 8, 2022. Credit: Sam Upshaw Jr., Courier Journal.
Brohm family members pose as the “Brohm Squad” while tailgating before a U of L football game, 2006. Credit: Brohm family.
You can be sure the rest of the family members have key roles, too—including parents Oscar and Donna and sister Kim. They are, after all, part of the “squad” that keeps getting bigger with spouses and children.
We are so excited to welcome the “squad” to the Frazier the evening of June 6 for A Family Affair at the Frazier: The Brohms. The family is already represented in the Frazier’s Kentucky Rivalries exhibition.
Yes, we’ll talk football with Jeff, but we’re also going to talk about the dynamics of this legendary tight-knit family who is back together in their beloved Louisville.
I have plenty of questions for Oscar and Donna and sister Kim, who was quite the athlete herself.
President and CEO Andy Treinen and I will moderate, but we will leave plenty of time for questions from you.
Let’s pack the house, the Frazier house, and get our L’s up as we usher in a new era at U of L! Get your tickets here.
We are ready for some football, Brohm style.
Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
From the Collections: Baby Coat, Bonnet, and Booties, c. Midcentury
Happy Mother’s Day!
Each year, we celebrate this day to honor motherhood and the great influence that mothers have in our society. They are at the heart of our families and communities. A mother is encouraging, supportive, helpful, and protective. Mothers can be biological, adopted, or chosen, but what really makes a mother is caring for a child or extending that care to others as if they were her own.
So, when I look at this little pink coat and bonnet, or this tiny pair of crochet booties, I of course see the child who wore them; but I also see the mother who made or selected the clothing with intention, who dressed her child with care, and who kept the clothes as keepsakes with the instinct to save memories of her child as a small baby.
Handmade pink coat and bonnet, c. 1940s. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Handmade white crochet booties with blue ribbon, c. mid-twentieth century. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
These pieces belong to a larger collection of clothes, scrapbooks, and household items that represent multiple generations of one Kentucky family in which the impact and traditions of mothers is certainly a theme. These simple yet beautiful baby garments help us reflect upon mothers throughout history as well as what motherhood means to us today.
Visit the Frazier History Museum to encounter more stories and objects that connect us with our past and present.
Hayley Harlow Rankin
Manager of Collection Impact
Frazier+ Video of the Week: Slide Guitar Pioneer Sylvester Weaver
Now the Frazier fits in your pocket! Curated by the museum’s education team, the mobile app Frazier+ provides engaging and educational Kentucky history content—free of charge. Users can explore the museum’s collection of videos, photos, and texts to either heighten their in-person experience or learn from the comfort of their couch or classroom. The free app is available for download for Android and iOS devices through the App Store and Google Play.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist
This week music enthusiasts will celebrate the birthday of Robert Johnson (1911–38), a towering figure in blues guitar. His recordings from 1936 and 1937, many of which feature his slide guitar playing, are regarded as turning points in American music. However, many people are surprised to learn that Louisville’s own Sylvester Weaver (1897–1960) was on record over a decade before performing guitar in a very similar way. In fact, the one-time Smoketown resident is believed to be the first person recorded playing slide blues guitar.
Curator Amanda Briede shares more in this Frazier+ video.
Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Object in Focus: “Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady)” Sheet Music, 1923
What’s the song of the summer?
If we’re talking this summer, then it’s probably going to be a pop song by an artist like Ice Spice, Harry Styles, or Olivia Rodrigo.
But forget 2023—I’m talking 1923!
What was the song of the summer a hundred years ago?
Jelly Roll Morton’s “Wolverine Blues” and Billy Jones’s “Yes! We Have No Bananas” are both strong contenders. But I’m partial to another candidate—one whose lyrics hit very close to home.
Front cover of “Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady)” sheet music, 1923.
Published by Ager, Yellen, and Bornstein in New York in 1923, “Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady)” was composed by Milton Ager and written by Jack Yellen. The song’s title character, a femme fatale from the Falls City, leaves her admirers spellbound:
They call the lady Louisville Lou,
Oh, what that vampin’ baby could do!
She’s the most heart-breakin’est . . . shimmy shakin’est . . .
That the world ever knew.
She’s got the kind of lovin’ that holds ‘em,
Big black eyes—and she rolls em.
Hot lips . . . that are pips,
And no more conscience than a snake has hips!
The song became wildly popular in the summer of 1923.
“Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady)” is stealing into every dance program and trotting away with all the bouquets,” a July 2 ad for Columbia Gramophone Company reads. The ad, a plug for one of the nine-plus renditions of “Louisville Lou” to be recorded in 1923, ran in dozens of US newspapers that month. “Ted Lewis’ Columbia Record of this go-getter is the vampingest, coaxingest fox-trot you ever heard.”
Ad for the Brunswick Shop. Published on page two of the Courier Journal, July 17, 1923. Credit: Courier Journal.
An ad in the July 17 Courier Journal alerts Louisville readers to another recording, one by vaudeville star Margaret Young, sold at a store at Third and Walnut. “Humorous comments abound in this sensational comic song of a neighborhood sheba,” a July 24 Chillicothe Gazette ad for the Young rendition reads. “Hear about this scandalous vamp, this love-making scamp who is as intriguing as a dozen Cleopatras.”
A 1923 copy of a book of sheet music for “Louisville Lou (That Vampin’ Lady)” is on loan to the Frazier from the University of Louisville’s Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library. The book is currently on display in the Speakeasy, a room located in the Frazier’s third floor exhibition The Spirit of Kentucky®. Accessed by a well-hidden entrance, the charming space has a Jazz Age bar, a cabaret stage, a checkers board, and sundry artifacts of the Roaring Twenties.
Come check out the selection during the Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier! Tickets to the June 22 shindig are available now.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
WDRB Offers Inside Look at Frazier’s Stories in Mind Program
Hey y’all! I hope you had a great Derby weekend.
Recently the Stories in Mind team has been busy bringing the Frazier to area nursing homes. More facilities have been added to our schedule and our attendance is growing and growing. Since the program launched, our mission has been to alleviate the feelings of loneliness, depression, and isolation the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. And let me tell you, we have noticed a positive change in the residents.
We want to give you a glimpse into what Stories in Mind does out in the field. We invited Stephan Johnson of WDRB out to one of our engagements to get an inside look at what we do.
Kevin Bradley
Stories in Mind Administrator
Join Us May 20 for Kentucky Horsepower: Corvettes at the Frazier
Do you feel the need for speed?
Luckily, in Kentucky, you’ve come to the right place.
On Saturday, May 20, we are celebrating Kentucky Horsepower at the Frazier with the Chevrolet Corvette.
2007 Chevrolet Corvette on display in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky exhibition, February 3, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
We have a beautiful red Corvette at the Frazier as part of our Cool Kentucky exhibition and there’s a reason for that.
Did you know every Corvette produced since 1981 has been made in Kentucky at the General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant?
The National Corvette Museum sits right across the street from that plant, and on May 20 we are partnering with them to learn more about the iconic sports car that first rolled out in 1953 in Flint, Michigan.
Only 300 were made for the 1953 model year, all polo white with red interiors.
Experts from the museum will be bringing several Corvettes to the Frazier for display, along with their knowledge about the iconic sports car.
Frazier members will start the day with a special program about the Corvette, Coffee with Casey. Then, when our doors open at 10, the price of admission will get you two special programs: at 11, the history of the Corvette, then at 1 p.m., a special presentation on designing your own Corvette.
How cool is that?
Click here for more information.
See you on May 20 at the Frazier—where our “curb appeal” will be extra special!
Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement
Off the Snead Shelves: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
In the Literary Kentucky section of the museum’s Cool Kentucky exhibition, there’s a selection of books by and about Kentucky figures stored on Snead Iron Works bookcases. In Frazier Weekly’s Off the Snead Shelves series, staff members spotlight different books from the collection.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist
Front cover of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, 2019. Credit: Redhook Books.
What a treat it’s been to enjoy a tale full of the mystical and the magical, yet with thoughtful insights into human history and settings inspired by my very own commonwealth of Kentucky. Not to mention beautiful language and turns of phrase that push the story forward.
Lately, I’d been reading a good deal of historical fiction and non-fiction, so enjoying Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, brought me back to my love of science fiction and fantasy—genres of which I couldn’t get enough as a kid.
The main character, January Scaller, grows up in a mansion full of intriguing artifacts from far-away places under the care of her guardian, the eccentric and affluent Mr. Locke. Over time, she aches to move beyond this seemingly safe, yet restrictive, space to learn more of herself and the world. The many places her bravery takes her leads the reader on a story full of wonder and adventure.
Although born in Idaho, Harrow grew up in Kentucky, earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Berea College and serving as an adjunct history professor at Eastern Kentucky University before becoming a full-time writer. During the story, January travels through many doors and to many places, so it was a delight when Harrow embedded settings connected to Kentucky.
Alix E. Harrow is one of many authors making Kentucky proud. (You can learn more about a selection of them in the Literary Kentucky section of our Cool Kentucky exhibition.) Yet, she seems to be just getting started. I’m now halfway through Harrow’s next book, The Once and Future Witches, which is also a lovely blend of history and fantasy—and it certainly does not disappoint.
Have you read a terrific book by a Kentucky author lately? Let us know by emailing education@fraziermuseum.org.
Megan Schanie
Manager of School & Teacher Programs
Best in Kentucky 2023 graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Bridging the Divide
Some of the food from an event the Frazier Museum has donated to Feed Louisville. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Frazier event coordinator Katie Lowe delivers food to a Feed Louisville employee. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
It is a year-round need and there’s something we can all do to help. A simple conversation between the Frazier and the group Feed Louisville has led to an amazing partnership. Each year, our Frazier events team oversees nearly 300 events in our eight venue spaces at the museum—and, in that time, we’ve seen our share of leftover food. Now, those leftovers are being picked up by Feed Louisville and repurposed into beautiful meals for those in our community who are houseless or face food insecurities. Talk about a win for everyone, right? We’ve asked Rhona Bowles Kamar, who is the co-founder and executive director of Feed Louisville, to tell us more. For twenty-five years, Rhona was chef and co-owner of her family’s restaurant, Ramsi’s Café on the World. Here’s the story of how it all began with co-founder Donny Greene.—Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement
Any chef will tell you this: hunger is always an emergency, and when you can’t do anything else, you can feed people. I ran into Donny Greene in a rented church kitchen at the beginning of the pandemic and we chatted about how closures of services meant nothing but peanut butter and jelly for those living on the streets—at least for the foreseeable future. Soup kitchens were shuttering as volunteers headed into isolation. Donny had been out in the encampments daily for years and knew that, whenever crisis strikes the city, it hits the houseless community harder.
Chefs are good friends to have in a time of crisis, so I called on my peers to help. Within months, countless restaurants, farmers, bakers, and caterers had joined in and were preparing hundreds of hot meals a day. Donny simultaneously grew a team of volunteers to deliver the food—and other critical supplies—directly to the camps and streets.
Three years later and now an official nonprofit with thirty-five employees, Feed Louisville still does emergency relief work daily. After all, homelessness is always a crisis and taking care of basic human needs like food and water is a form of relief work.
Being that closely connected daily with unhoused folks, we could not ignore the gaps in the system that were keeping some folks just a few steps away from resolving their houselessness. Living outside with no legal address, no transportation, no cell phone makes it feel impossible to take one step, much less two or three. Add a substance use disorder on top of that, or a mental health disorder, and the loneliness of it is overwhelming. One by one, our team started to work with individuals to help resolve some of the issues that have kept them from finding housing.
Meals prepared by Feed Louisville. Credit: Feed Louisville.
Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC) culinary student Michaela Donelson interns as a chef with Feed Louisville. Credit: Feed Louisville.
Today, we have a team of twelve care coordinators who address the individual barriers to permanent housing. We do this work out of a hotel, where folks can stay and rest and soothe some of the emotional and physical trauma street living inflicts.
We transitioned over 100 people from the streets into permanent housing within the first seven months of formalizing this work. Our team works out of Arthur Street Hotel, bought for our use by a group of local philanthropists. The vibe every day at Arthur Street Hotel is one of community—the best kind of community, where you are accepted for exactly who you are, while caring people work to help make your life better in your own time.
Meanwhile, across town at the kitchen, a team of chefs—all of whom have worked in some of the city’s most respected restaurants—prepare up to 900 meals a day from donated ingredients that vary wildly each day. The donations come in from countless partners across the city, and since almost 100 percent of that food would have gone into the landfill otherwise, we call it “food rescue.” Some of it is ready-to-eat food from our catering partners who overproduced for an event. Some of it are sandwiches from a local employee café that are on the verge of expiration. Some of it are fresh vegetables that a farmer couldn’t sell at the market.
All of it is really good food that just needed a place where it could be repurposed and given to people who need it. Food rescue is a growing movement across the country, in response to the fact that forty percent of what goes in our landfills is perfectly good food. Making that connection between food waste and hunger is powerful, and now it’s the foundation of our culinary work.
This is a story that started with food, and indeed food is present along every step of the journey, from the camps to the hotel stays to post-housing care. Food is one form of harm reduction, which is the through line to everything we do. Every action of our entire team is meant to create safety, save lives, and reduce the spread of illness and disease. We do that without judgement, or agenda.
Food often opens the door and creates a bond. It definitely saves lives.
For information on how to donate or volunteer, visit feedlouisville.org.
Rhona Bowles Kamar
Executive Director and Chef, Feed Louisville
Guest Contributor
Offer Input on Selection of Next Permanent LMPD Chief
I wanted to make sure we get the word out about a community survey now underway concerning the selection of a permanent police chief for Louisville. It has been a discussion point in many of our Bridging the Divide conversations we’ve had at the Frazier over the past few months, especially on the heels of the Department of Justice report that was so critical of the police department and its practices. Mayor Craig Greenberg is asking residents to take part in the online survey that asks what you are looking for in that top job. The deadline to complete the survey is Friday, May 12. The survey asks a series of questions about leadership qualities, but there is also a space for you to comment. Make sure your voice is heard. Click here to take part.
Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement
