http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c88k7brh No online items Guide to the Troyce Key Papers Sean Heyliger African American Museum & Library at Oakland 659 14th Street Oakland, California 94612 Phone: (510) 637-0198 Fax: (510) 637-0204 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/locations/african-american-museum-library-oakland © 2013 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved. Guide to the Troyce Key Papers MS 83 1 Guide to the Troyce Key Papers Collection number: MS 83 African American Museum & Library at Oakland Oakland, California Processed by: Sean Heyliger Date Completed: 11/14/2013 Encoded by: Sean Heyliger © 2013 African American Museum & Library at Oakland. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Troyce Key papers Dates: circa 1920s-1997 (b. 1958-1992) Collection number: MS 83 Creator: Key, Troyce. Collection Size: 5 linear feet(11 boxes + 1 oversized box) Repository: African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.) Oakland, CA 94612 Abstract: The Troyce Key papers include correspondence, photographs, financial records, flyers, publicity material, and publications documenting the musical career of blues musician and nightclub owner Troyce Key. The papers are organized in to four series: Eli Mile High Records, Eli’s Mile High Club & Restaurant records, photographs, and assorted material. Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English Access No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public. Access Restrictions Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating. Publication Rights Permission to publish from the Troyce Key Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. Preferred Citation Troyce Key papers, MS 83, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California. Processing Information Processed by Sean Heyliger, 11/14/2013. Biography / Administrative History Blues musician and night club owner Troyce Key (1937-1992) was born on September 7, 1937 in Jordon Plantation, Louisiana to Verdell and Lula May Key. The child of white sharecroppers, his father at one time worked on the railroad while the family lived in a box-car. In 1938, the Key family decided to move to Oregon but ran out of gasoline and money in Bakersfield, California. The family worked as migrant workers picking cotton and grapes and settled near Fresno, California where Troyce Key attended various schools. His father played the guitar and harmonica and often sang at local house parties. Troyce Key began playing guitar as a teenager and moved to Mississippi and absorbed the country music and blues playing of local recording artists as well as those from Texas. In Mississippi he contracted tuberculosis, having a lung and some ribs removed. While recuperating at a sanatorium in the Sierras, he listened to donated rhythm and blues recordings played by staff for the benefit of the patients, becoming hooked on the music and buying a guitar. Key befriended teenage patient R.C. Gardner, and the pair tried to copy the songs that were played. Discharged in 1956, Key and R.C. began gigging around Fresno, playing R & B and Elvis Presley-influenced music. They guested on Al Radka’s House Party, a local T.V. program. Female viewer fans wrote admiring letters of Key's Elvis impersonations. Other fans called Key the “mad Guide to the Troyce Key Papers MS 83 2 coon.” By 1958 he was traveling to the Bay Area to perform at rock & roll dances with a group called the Campus Kings. In 1958, he traveled to Hollywood with a demo tape and signed a record contract with Warner Brothers Records in 1958, being the first rock & roll artist to sign with Warner's. That year, Key released four singles-“Drown In My Tears,” “Baby Please Don’t Go,” “Most of All,” and “She’s Sumpin’ Else,” - with Eddie Cochran on guitar, Howard Roberts on rhythm guitar, and Eddie Palmer on drums. Warner Brothers sent Key on a promotion tour and he toured the country performing on various teen dance television programs and in 1959 appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. “Drown In My Tears” made the regional charts on African American stations in New York City, Fresno, Tulsa and Dallas-Fort Worth. By the third issuing Key felt he was on the way out with Warner and then decided to move fully towards a blues sound. After returning to Fresno, he formed the band The Rhythm Rockers with J.J. Malone, C.A. Carr, Charles Banks, and Calvin Peele. Although Key was quite a celebrity in the Fresno region, white clubs were reluctant to hire an African American band with a white performer. Shortly after C.A. Carr left the Rhythm Rockers in 1966 to join James Brown's band, Key quit to find work tending a bar in Los Angeles. He moved to Oakland in 1970, gigging and touring frequently in venues throughout California during the 1970s with the Rhythm Rockers (sometimes performing as the Over The Hill Blues Band), releasing two albums on the Red Lightnin' label – I've Gotta a New Car (1980) and Younger than Yesterday (1982). In 1979, Key purchased Eli’s Mile High Club upon the death of the club’s founder Eli Thornton from remaining owner Alberta Thornton. Known as the ‘West Coast Home of the Blues,’ Eli’s Mile High Club attracted notable blues and R&B performers throughout the 1970s-1980s and was awarded the Bay Area Blues Society’s Blues Night Club of the Year award in 1991. In 1986, Key founded Eli Mile High Records, a blues record label which released J.J. Malone’s Bottom Line Blues (1989) and Eddie Ray’s Blues At Midnight (1985). He continued to perform as part of Eli's Mile High Club house band J.J. Malone Blues Band with Troyce Key. Troyce Key died of leukemia on November 9, 1992 in Oakland, California. Scope and Content of Collection The Troyce Key papers include correspondence, photographs, financial records, flyers, publicity material, vhs tapes, and publications documenting the musical career of blues musician and nightclub owner Troyce Key. The papers are organized in to five series: Eli Mile High Records, Eli’s Mile High Club & Restaurant records, photographs, vhs tapes and assorted material. Eli’s Mile High Records include musician record contracts, business cards, brochures, correspondence with radio stations and fans, radio playlists for various blues radio stations, and publicity material related to albums by Eddie Ray and J.J. Malone released under the label in the 1980s. The Eli’s Mile High Club & Restaurant records includes administrative and financial records related to the operation of the night club, publicity kits and flyers of various performers, performance calendar, newspaper clippings, records documenting the establishment of the Troyce Key Scholarship Fund, and the Bay Area Blues Society’s Blues Night Club of the Year award. The bulk of the collection are 608 slides and photographs of the Key family and Key’s career as a blues musician. The photographs are organized into four subseries: Music, Key family photographs, Troyce Key funeral service, and assorted. Photographs documenting Key’s music career include photographs sorted by Eli's Mile High Club, performances, festivals, television appearances, publicity stills, and assorted. Family photographs include portraits and family photographs of the Key family in Louisiana, Fresno, California, and Oakland, California in the 1930s-1980s. Arrangement Series I. Eli Mile High Records Series II. Eli’s Mile High Club & Restaurant Series III. Photographs Series IV. VHS tapes Series V. Assorted Indexing Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. Key, Troyce. Malone, J.J. Fulson, Lowell. Ray, Eddie. Eli’s Mile High Club (Oakland, Calif.). Blues (Music)--California--San Francisco Bay Area. Oakland (Calif.) -- Social life and customs. Photographs. Sound recordings. Related Material Banks (Charles) Papers, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Malone (J.J.) Audiovisual Collection, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Guide to the Troyce Key Papers MS 83 3 Eli Mile High Records Physical Description: 12 folders Series Scope and Content Summary Includes record contracts, radio playlists, flyers, correspondence, publicity packets, and financial records related to Eli Mile High Records label. Arrangement Arranged by format. Box 1:1 Alameda County business name statement 1986 Box 1:2-3 Correspondence 1988-1989 Box 1:4 Financial records 1989 Box 1:5 Brochure circa 1980s Box 1:5 Business card circa 1980s Box 1:6-7 Radio playlists 1988-1989 Box 1:8 Transcript of Maria Bainer’s interview with Troyce Key 1992 Box 1:9 Troyce Key publicity packet circa 1988 Box 1:10 Eddie Ray and J.J. Malone album flyers circa 1980s Box 1:11 Clarence “Guitar” Sims resume 1988 Box 1:12 Eddie Ray record contracts 1985-1987 Eli’s Mile High Restaurant & Club Physical Description: 18 folders Series Scope and Content Summary Includes performance contracts, flyers, performance calendar, and publicity kits of various performers that played at Eli's Mile High Restaurant & Club. Arrangement Arranged by format. Box 1:13 Performance contract – Mark Hummel and the Blues Survivors 1997 Box 1:14 Flyers circa 1980s Box 1:14 Performance calendar March 1988 Publicity kits Box 1:15 The Aces 1994 Box 1:16 Archibald, Red 1996 Box 1:17 Eubanks, Howard circa 1980s Box 1:18 Gogo, David 1997 Box 1:19 Hemphill, Jesse Mae 1986 Box 1:20 J.J. Malone, Troyce Key, and the Rhythm Rockers 1982 Box 2:1 Marla BB 1992 Box 2:2 Mudbone, Butch circa 1990s Box 2:3 Najla circa 1990s Box 2:4 Powerhouse Blues Band 1995-1997 Box 2:5 Table Top Productions 1996 Box 2:6 Tattoo Blue 1997 Box 2:7 White Bread Blues Band 1992 Box 2:8 Newspaper clippings 1980-1992 Box 2:9 Troyce Key Scholarship Fund 1993 Box 8 Bay Area Blues Society’s Blues Night Club of the Year award 1991 Guide to the Troyce Key Papers MS 83 4 Photographs Photographs Physical Description: 626 photographs Series Scope and Content Summary Includes Key family photographs and photographs related to Troyce Key's music career.