<html class="apple-mail-supports-explicit-dark-mode"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady-gmail.com@shared1.ccsend.com><br><b>Date:</b> April 6, 2026 at 5:00:48\u202fAM EDT<br><b>To:</b> margo.downey@roadrunner.com<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> theblindhistorylady@gmail.com<br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">\ufeff
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<div id="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; max-height: 0px; max-width: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden;"><span data-entity-ref="preheader">Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay</span></div> <div id="tracking-image" style="color: transparent; display: none; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; max-height: 0px; max-width: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden;"><img src="https://5tkhmc6ab.cc.rs6.net/on.jsp?ca=40862a57-7318-47b4-bf85-e8090fa402f5&a=1130730072702&c=2727468a-bf7d-11ed-8056-fa163e0f8365&ch=2727ede2-bf7d-11ed-8056-fa163e0f8365" alt="" data-unique-identifier=""></div> <div class="shell" lang="en-US" dir="ltr" style="background-color: #F5F5F5;"> <table class="shell_panel-row" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: #F5F5F5;" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"> <tbody><tr class=""> <td class="shell_panel-cell" style="" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="shell_width-row scale" style="width: 622px;" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="shell_width-cell" style="padding: 15px 10px;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="shell_content-row" width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="shell_content-cell" style="border-radius: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0; border: 1px solid #000000;" align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table class="layout layout--1-column" style="table-layout: fixed;" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="column column--1 scale stack" style="width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="image image--padding-vertical" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="image_container" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="image_container-caption text" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="table-layout: fixed;"> <tbody><tr> <td class="text_content-cell" style="text-align: -webkit-center; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; display: block; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;" align="center"> <img data-image-content="" class="image_content" style="display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="220" src="https://files.constantcontact.com/e7aa3c44701/2f7c3972-1a96-480c-bc44-915b6b532714.jpg?rdr=true" alt="" align="center" data-unique-identifier=""> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="layout layout--1-column" style="table-layout: fixed;" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="column column--1 scale stack" style="width: 100%;" align="center" valign="top"> <table class="text text--padding-vertical" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="table-layout: fixed;"> <tbody><tr> <td class="text_content-cell content-padding-horizontal" style="text-align: left; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; display: block; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 10px 20px;" align="left" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0;">Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay. Does it matter where you play?</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">The St. Louis, Missouri newspapers from 1878-1890, highlighted and praised a blind musician, \u201cBlind Charlie\u201d who played piano and violin in St. Louis and around the state. Charlie Orrick, (1857-1920) worked his way east from California. He had no steady work but was well respected because of his family-friendly programs. Charlie Orrick was educated and knew how to read and write in a raised format. After 12 years finding no steady work in Missouri, he joined family in Texas and died a bachelor in a poor house thirty years later. Did he have a better life in St. Louis, or in Texas with family and friends than the blind Charlie of St. Louis no one wanted to talk about?</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">In the 1880s, the tune Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay was whistled on the streets of St. Louis by the bootblacks and porters. It was catchy and soon some of the genteel young men and women were whistling it as well. The older citizens looked at the whistlers with disgust and informed them that such a bawdy tune was not appropriate. One must ask, how did they know it was a bawdy tune?</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">The tune was created in one of the brothels in St. Louis by a blind piano player, Charles Henley to accompany the lively lady dancers that entertained the white men while they drank and enjoyed the favors of the Black women employed by the Madams.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Charles Henley was born in 1852 in Virginia. His parents moved to St. Louis when he was a young child. It is unknown how or why young Charles was blind, but he was listed as a blind boy in 1860. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">St. Louis was the home of the Missouri Institution for the Education of the Blind, founded in 1851. However, Charles never appeared in their attendance roles. He was eligible to enter the institution by the age of nine. Had he gone to the school, he was sure to have received instruction in Braille, piano, how to write, and print Braille music. The school was in downtown St. Louis and often highlighted in the local papers. Yet his family never sent him as a residential or day student.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">On New Years Eve, 1878, Charles married Mary Grenalds. The couple had two children, Viola, born in October 1880 and Charles born August of 1883. To support his family, Charles was a piano teacher on paper but seemed not to have a lot of students. So, he went to places where they needed a piano player and paid well.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Thanks to the news coverage of Ignacy Paderewski a Polish pianist who played at several events in St. Louis in the 1890s, we know that a blind pianist, Charles was playing the song, Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay at the Castle Club while Sarah \u201cBabe\u201d Connors belted out the tune. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Sarah \u201cBabe Connors was born a slave in 1857 and made her way to St. Louis. She soon was one of the most successful Madams in St. Louis with a private clientele of the rich white men who loved her parlor at the Castle Club with the mirrored floor to show off the underwear, or lack thereof worn by her \u201cCreole girls guaranteed to be authentic Louisianans Creole girls.\u201d Several piano players were listed as playing at Babe\u2019s, but none of them were openly named Charles. Babe had several house pianists, and one was blind. Some of her pianists, one named in news articles, was Tom Turpin the father of Ragtime got his start at the Castle Club.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Babe paid her staff well. Tom Turpin who went on to own his own bar, gambling houses, sporting houses and became a constable in St. Louis. Babe who attended Fisk University before coming to St. Louis endowed scholarships to attend Fisk College to young Black girls to get a good education and a respectable career. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Through the tune Charles wrote, we know that in the early 1880s, Flora Moore, who sang in many of the brothels and saloons in St Louis. \u201cMama Lou\u201d as Flora was known, sang the song in a brothel run by \u201cBabe Connors in St. Louis. Mama Lou was a large Black woman who dressed in a maid\u2019s costume. She may have made up the words to the song, and the words may have been different on different evenings. Mama Lou danced and hurled insults at the rich white patrons. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Henry J. Sayers, a customer at the Castle Club and the manager of the Rich and Harris Variety show, used the tune in the musical Tuxedo that debuted at the end of 1891 in Boston, Massachusetts. Henry was reported to be a caller at Babe\u2019s place where he heard Mama Lou singing the song and wrote it down. Henry later credited Charles as the original author of the tune. Charles was white, but just like the Black performers of the time, he could not write down the music and so it was easily appropriated by others who received the credit and profits from the music.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Many adopted the tune. Alexander Herrmann (1844-1896)\u2014known as "Herrmann the Great\u201d was born in Paris and came to the Midwest, performing as a magician. He used the music in his magic shows in 1892. The song found its way into politics. One version in a newspaper in 1892 poked fun at Mexican gamblers. In 1895, a version poked fun at Grover Cleaveland. Different versions were used in advertising and camp songs. Yet no one knew the famous tune was written by a blind man.</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">What happened to Charles? He disappeared from all documents. There was no trace of him in the city directories, census data, newspapers, or welfare records. He must not have been Babe\u2019s best piano player, yet where did Charles\u2019s money go? Did he give some to his family? Or did he have a gambling, drinking, or drug habits?</p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">In the 1900 and 1910 U. S. Census, Mary listed herself as a widow. She had custody of their two children. Mary did not have a job, but both of her children were working, Viola had a job as a salesclerk in a dry goods store. Charles worked as a clerk in a wool company. Ten years later, the three were still living together but Mary claimed to be married. When she died in 1914, her son listed her as a widow. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">As everyone in town knew of the successful Black women who ran their businesses, catering to the successful white men, Mary may not have wanted her children\u2019s name to be tarnished with their father\u2019s reputation. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">Charles died March 16, 1917, at his rented rooms. He lived at 1909 Pine St. less than two blocks from the Castle Club. He was listed as a widower, and no family was mentioned. However, his daughter Violet was the informant of the death to the city, so she must have been in contact with her father on some kind of regular basis. No obituary appeared in the newspapers. His death certificate said he was a piano teacher. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;">His rooming house is gone, but the buildings housing several of the brothels are still standing, right across from Energy Park stadium. </p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">Peggy Chong is the 2018 and 2023 Jacob Bolotin Award Winner.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;">To schedule The Blind History Lady for a presentation for your business, church or community group, email; </span><a href="mailto:theblindhistorylady@gmail.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif; color: #0078c1; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;">theblindhistorylady@gmail.com</a></p>
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