The Circle June 22

CIRCLE

In this issue:

1. Diggers

The gold rushes of Sabie, Pilgrim’s Rest and Barberton attracted diggers and prospectors from all over the world, and many remarkable characters such as Wheelbarrow Patterson, Percy Fitzpatrick, Edwin Bray (who discovered the world’s richest gold mine) and the legendary barmaid Cockney Liz.

2. Sun Studio

Sam Phillips (1923 – 2003) was the owner of Sun Studio , a recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

The studio played a major role in the development of rock’n’roll during the 1950s, launching the careers of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Howling Wolf.

1. Diggers

People have been mining gold in South Africa for at least a thousand years, when gold from ancient diggings at Mapungubwe in Limpopo province found its way to Arabia, India and Phoenicia. South Africa’s history, particularly in the last 150 years, is woven around the discovery of its mineral wealth.

The first gold rush in modern times occurred in 1873 near the town of Sabie in Mpumalanga province. Rumours of rich deposits spread like wildfire, and diggers and prospectors from many parts of the world rushed to the Sabie goldfields. Some risked their lives by walking from Delagoa Bay to the diggings, through lion and mosquito infested territory. Others came from Natal, the diamond fields in Kimberley, (where most of the diamond claims had petered out) and the Cape.

When President Thomas Burger visited the area, he humorously nicknamed the diggings “Mac-Mac” because of all the Scotsmen who came looking for gold.

The MacMac Falls were created when miners blasted the rock at the top of the falls in an attempt to expose the rich gold-bearing reef below.

Alec “Wheelbarrow” Patterson was a taciturn eccentric who arrived in Sabie pushing his belongings in a wheelbarrow. Disliking the overcrowded MacMac diggings, he decided to pan for gold in Peach Tree Creek, a stream about 5 kms from Sabie, where he discovered alluvial gold. Patterson kept his find to himself and did not register a claim.

Then another curious digger named William Trafford joined Patterson and after also finding a large quantity of gold in the stream shouted “At last this pilgrim can be at rest!” Peach Tree Creek thus became known as Pilgrim’s Stream.

Trafford immediately registered a claim. The area, which became known as Pilgrim’s Rest, was officially proclaimed a gold field on September 22, 1873.

In less than a year 1,500 diggers were working 4,000 claims in and around the Pilgrim’s Creek.

The Pilgrim’s Rest mines have continued producing well into the 20th Century. The land at Pilgrim’s Rest was owned privately by a company that became known as Barlow-Rand. It sold the land to the government of the then province of the Transvaal.

In 1986 the entire village of Pilgrim's Rest was declared a National Monument as a living memory of the early gold rush days. Today Pilgrim’s Rest is a heritage site with much of the original architecture preserved. It is a delightful town to visit.

JOCK OF THE

Among the new arrivals was a young Cape Town bank clerk named Percy Fitzpatrick. Bored with his job as a storekeeper at Pilgrims Rest, he took up transport riding, taking the route to Delagoa Bay with his bull terrier Jock. Years later he told stories of his adventures to his young children and was encouraged by Rudyard Kipling to write his book “Jock of the Bushveld”.

In his later career Fitzpatrick became involved in politics, fighting for voting rights and citizenship for the Transvaal miners. He was sentenced to death for his role in the Jameson Raid but his sentence was commuted. He served on the Transvaal Legislative Council and became President of the Chamber of Mines. He was knighted for these services in 1902.

Ten years later in 1884 Graham Barber, a miner from Natal, found a gold bearing stream in a valley about 140 kms south of Pilgrim’s Rest.

The village of Barberton soon became a boom town with the highest population in the Transvaal. Thousands of claims were pegged, new companies were formed every day, and the Barberton stock exchange became a frenzy of activity.

THE GOLDEN QUARRY

A miner named Edwin Bray realised that the gold being panned in the creeks, must have washed down from areas higher up. He searched the hills to find the source of the gold and discovered the fabulously rich Sheba Reef in the mountains south east of Barberton in 1885.

Today, Sheba mine is one of the oldest, and richest, working gold mines in the world and has been in production for more than a hundred years.

Bray named his mine the “Golden Quarry” because the rock appeared to be almost solid gold. The cavern-like quarry was excavated more than a century ago by diggers using picks and shovels, and remains one of the wonders of South African gold mining. The Golden Quarry was said to be the richest mine ever worked.

The discovery of Edwin Bray’s Golden Quarry in 1885 transformed the town from a mining camp to a thriving boom town with hotels, billiard saloons and music halls.

But less than 3 years after the gold rush came to Barberton, it disappeared. Most companies never found gold, and many were swindles.

In the end only 5 mines proved viable, many miners were ruined and returned to Pretoria and Cape Town in rags.

Today Barberton is a a shadow of its former self.

THE WITWATERSRAND

Only a year later, in 1886, on a farm called Langlaagte many miles to the east, an itinerant labourer named George Harrison secured a prospecting licence and found gold bearing rock.

Below his claim lay the richest gold field that was ever discovered, the Witwatersrand. Harrison sold his claim for 10 pounds. But that is a story for another Circle.

COCKNEY

Elizabeth Webster arrived in Barberton in January 1886, in search of her fiancé Roy Spencer. She started working as a barmaid at the Red-Light Canteen where she became renowned for her ribald music-hall songs, her cockney accent, and her fine singing voice. She was courted by the wealthy and famous and adopted the name of Cockney Liz. She became famous

or is it infamous? – for being auctioned off to the highest bidder as a prize for the night at the end of every evening.

COCKNEY

Before long, Liz made enough money to buy the RedLight Canteen, then to build a music hall she named the Royal Albert Hall. Cockney Liz was the talk of the town, her hairstyles and mannerisms and songs were copied by many young girls, while their mothers thought her a "Brazen Hussy".

Today the Cockney Liz Hotel in Barberton provides comfortable overnight accommodation.

ROBBERS GRAVE

Liz found out that her fiancé Roy Spencer was dead. He was wrongly accused of gold theft by his friend Walter Scott, who shot and killed Roy whilst under the influence of drink at Pilgrims Rest.

Walter and two friends hastily dug a grave where Roy’s body lay, and buried him without telling a soul.

ROBBERS GRAVE

When Walter returned to his tent, he discovered the missing gold in a purse that had fallen out of his pocket. In a fit of remorse, he then promptly shot himself. The same friends buried Walter next to Roy in an unmarked grave. The grave was dug North/South as opposed to the other graves which lay East/West.

A simple wooden cross with “Robber’s Grave” was mounted, and the story was spread that the Robber’s Grave was the grave of a thief who was caught pilfering in another man’s tent. He was apparently lynched and then died.

Cockney Liz abruptly left Barberton in mid December 1887. On her journey back to Johannesburg she went via Pilgrims Rest and visited Roy's grave in the Pilgrim’s Rest cemetery.

In Johannesburg, she turned down a marriage proposal from the randlord and mining magnate, Alfred Beit, who remained a bachelor for the rest of his life.

Liz moved to Cape Town and became a barmaid at the Mount Nelson Hotel where she was arrested for prostitution and sent to prison. While in prison she contracted gastritis and died on 30 June 1900 in Cape Town. She was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in the Maitland cemetery.

Sun Studio

Sam Phillips (1923 – 2003) was the owner of Sun Studio, a recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. The studio played a major role in the development of rock’n’roll during the 1950s, launching the careers of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Howling Wolf

Today Sun Studio is known worldwide as “The birthplace of Rock’n’roll” by Presley fans and music lovers in general.

In 2003 it was officially recognized as a USA National Historic Landmark. The studio is open for guided tours every day.

ELVIS PRESLEY

In August 1953 the 18-year-old schoolboy Elvis Presley paid $20 to record two songs at Sun Studio as a gift for his mother. Asked by the receptionist what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on who he sounded like, he answered, "I don't sound like nobody."

Phillips was impressed by what he heard during the recording, and arranged for two local musicians, guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black, to back up young Elvis for an extended recording session.

The session was not going well until late in the night when, as they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues song “That’s all right". Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.

Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Philips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show. Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. Phillips played the record repeatedly during his show.

Within months sales of Phillips’ Sun Records label grew like wildfire due to the number of Presley records sold. Radio stations and record stores all over the South were eager to play them.

TOM

As Presley's profile grew, Phillips realized that Elvis needed a national record label to help him further his career.

In February 1955, Phillips met with Colonel Tom Parker, a man known for his hustling skills as well as his managerial ones.

Parker persuaded Phillips to sell Presley's contract for $35,000, at the time an unheard of amount of money for a recording artist's contract.

Presley signed a record contract with RCA Victor in November 1955, and left Sun. Phillips used some of the money to further advance the careers of his other artists, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison.

On December 4, 1956, an iconic event in modern musical history took place at the Sun Record Studios. An impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash was secretly recorded by a sound engineer. An article about the session was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar the next day under the title "Million Dollar Quartet".

MILLION

QUARTET

The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Carl Perkins, who by this time had already met success with “Blue Suede Shoes”, had come into the studio to cut some new material. Phillips brought in singer and pianist Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play piano on the Perkins session.

In the early afternoon, Presley dropped in to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans.

He was, at the time, the biggest name in show business, having hit the top of the singles charts five times, and topping the album charts twice in the preceding 12-month period.

MILLION

QUARTET

During the session, Phillips called the entertainment editor of a local newspaper, who came over to the studios and wrote an article about the session, which appeared the next day under the headline "Million Dollar Quartet". The article contained the nowfamous photograph of Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash

After jamming through a number of songs using someone else's guitar for an hour, Elvis and girlfriend Evans slipped out as Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano.

According to the Rolling Stone review of the album, "'The Complete Million Dollar Session' provides a rare postSun glimpse of Elvis Presley momentarily free of the golden shackles of stardom and beyond the grasp of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Presley died on August 16, 1977, at age 42 years, in his home Graceland. Doctors said he died of a heart attack, likely brought on by his addiction to prescription barbiturates.

The surviving members of the Quartet session reunited several times, with Cash, Lewis and Perkins recording the concert album The Survivors Live in 1982. In 1985, Perkins, Lewis, Cash and Roy Orbison returned to Sun Studios to record the album Class of 55.

ELVIS THE MOVIE

Last month a new film about the life of Elvis Presley premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2022. It received a twelve-minute standing ovation from the audience, the longest for an American film at the festival.

It is scheduled for release in Australia and the USA on June 23, and will be officially released in UK cinemas on June 24. The trailer has enjoyed 16 million views to date.

ELVIS THE MOVIE

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of musical dramas such as Walk the Line, “Elvis” chronicles the life and career of the iconic singer, actor and heart-throb.

The film, which has a runtime of well over two hours, delves into the early career of the star as a child, and details his journey into becoming a rock and roll star and movie superstar, as well as his complex relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker, before his decline and death.

This

The Circle is a private, limited edition magazine produced as a retirement hobby for family and friends, and fellow Midstreamers. The magazine is distributed at no charge. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Photographs have been sourced from SA Tourism and local travel websites, the Sun Studios guide book , my personal collection and various Facebook and Instagram sites. Content collated mainly from Wikipedia.