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Ken Beattie was born in Maine on May 25, 1940. He moved to Florida in 1962, where he started Southern Sound sound engineering company in Tallahassee. Beattie worked with several big name jazz and blues performers over decades spent in the sound and music business. Beattie also worked at Florida State University as an audio engineer. The Chitlin' Circuit was a collection of black-owned nightclubs, dance halls, juke joints, theaters, and other entertainment venues that provided commercial and cultural acceptance of Black performers in an era of racial segregation. Venues of the Chitlin' Circuit were spread throughout the Midwest and Southeastern United States but particularly concentrated in Florida, with estimates of nearly 40 circuit stops from Miami to the Panhandle. The name derives from chitlins, the traditional African American dish that dates back to slavery, when enslaved people were limited to the less desirable leftovers from slaughtered pigs. The dish has since become a cultural staple and a soul food delicacy.
Summary:
This collection consists of an oral history interview in which Ken Beattie (a white man) describes his experiences as a sound engineer touring through the Black-owned Chitlin' Circuit, primarily in North Florida from the 1950s through the 1970s[?]. Beattie recounts how he got his start as a sound engineer and how he was introduced to the Chitlin' Circuit while in Miami, Florida. He describes his friendship with Louis "Jiggs" Walker and his band, with whom Beattie toured through North Florida and Georgia.
Venues that Beattie mentions include Cat's Disco in Quincy, a club in Perry, a disco in Midway, and several Tallahassee locations: Savoy Club, Half Moon Club, Perry's Lounge, and Lee Hall Auditorium at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Some of the artists he discusses are Muddy Waters, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, The Manhattans, Bo Diddley, All Points Bulletin, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Although the interview provides a wealth of information on the Chitlin' Circuit in Florida, Beattie's perceptions of working as a sound engineer on the circuit do not wholly or accurately reflect the experiences of the Black musicians or audiences at the time. Beattie discusses his interpretation and appreciation of the Black culture that he witnessed through the Chitlin' Circuit, but his perspective is limited and often naďve.
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Content Warning: This interview contains potentially racist or offensive content. The State Archives of Florida offers access to a wide range of information, including historical materials that may contain offensive language or images, or negative stereotypes. Such materials should be viewed in the context of the time in which they document.
Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Beattie, Ken 1940
Music Societies, etc
Electronic records (digital records). aat Oral histories. aat
Tallahassee (Fla.) West Palm Beach (Fla.)
for detailed listing.