Paul Underwood

Travis
The left arm and leg of the banjo player has to be Fred Dodd. I agree with Bob about Tony Martin in the background. He was a regular drummer with Vic.

Travis: Yep, that was in '78 and one of the first persons to report the incident in the Texas Lounge to me was Capt. C.S Ware, DQ pilot, who said, in his delightful southern drawl, "Well you missed it son! Ol' Vic Tooookah nearly got electro-cuted down theah in the Texas baah while playin' his banjo when that lightnin' hit the boat. They said he just lit up and fell ovah and couldn't even talk for a minute!" Capt. Ware made a few other comments about this happening --- but I can't repeat them here!

I'd almost forgotten about the sternwheel towboat MARTHA GREENE (former J.B. BATTLE) being converted into a dredge for the local sand company. During the conversion, Mr. Greene gave me her starboard running light (the port light was already missing!) and even, jokingly offered me her sternwheel, which had been removed. For years the wheel was in a lot off River Road and might still be lurking back there somewhere.

Thanks for sharing the photo from the "old days" on the DQ. I, too, have many cassette tapes of the Riverboat Ramblers, calliope, and middle of the night conversations in the pilothouse with various pilots, etc.

Did the lightning stroke remove that awful death's-head grin of Vic's? Even when Tooker was off stage, if he thought anyone was looking, he turned on that grimace. I saw him but once without it when we met at a corner in a Lafayette Hotel corridor. In an instant it was back in place.

Alan: I was off watch and taking a nap at the time, so I missed the "light show" spectacle described by others. I've heard another story involving lightning and one of the Streckfus excursion boats -- maybe the WASHINGTON or the SENATOR -- something about the captain being on the bridge during a landing and having his belly pressed against the metal railing when lightning hit the boat, took a path through the railing and and found his belly button a prime target! Capt. Fred wrote about this in a long ago issue of the S&D REFLECTOR and I imagine it occurred while he ran pilot on one of these boats.

Yep, the left side of Fred Dodd, then invisible at the piano is Dan Forman; Vic, and the drummer is Kenny Hall. If it were Tony, he'd be hidden behind Pat Paulsen. Kenny is quite a bit taller and he was on in '78. While the other clarinetist looks like Eddie Bayard, I don't believe he plays clarinet, does he? I've only seen him with the cornet and trumpet. And I can't remember who else might have been in that '78 band. Since that makes 2 clarinets, I'm guessing the dark haired guy was sitting in, perhaps just at this stop. That happened frequently. Remember the bagpiper in Cincy? And both Willie and Percy Humphrey from the Preservation Hall band sat in frequently pre-NOLA sailings.