I have this fantastic doodle of Snoozer Quinn, “Boy Wonder,” playing the banjo that is so fascinating. For one thing, I love the little details that, if this is an accurate caricature of his personage (and I bet it is), bring him to life:

• is that a cigarette tucked in the strings making that smoke?
• a bottle of beer and a shot of whiskey on the table
• A bowtie, and dandy polka dotted socks paired with natty black shoes with little bows on the tops!
• and a hole in the sole of his shoe
• that relaxed playing style, tilting back in his chair
• a big smile

From a musical standpoint, this cartoon is pretty important because it looks to me like he is playing a four string tenor banjo. I’d love to know what you think…. please shoot me an email if you have some insight. I know, I know… it’s just a cartoon and we can’t be sure that the cartoonist knew to be faithful to the instrument.

But, this is still significant because no photographs or in depth descriptions of Quinn playing banjo have been found — this is all I’ve found so far. It’s known that Quinn played banjo in his early career, in his high school band, in dance bands and in minstrel shows. As late as 1926 he was hailed by Houston radio station KPRC as “Dixie’s Banjo King”. and “Dixie’s Premier Banjoist.” It would be useful to know what kind of banjo Quinn played and how he tuned it.

And here is another mystery… who was the cartoonist? The piece of paper is torn just where the signature is, but the little icon with it is so unique that there must be a way to trace it. Look close — it’s a cute lil’ masked heart man playing the clarinet.

I contacted Rex Rose, son of Al Rose, who was a known cartoonist and who was a BIG FAN of Snoozer’s. (In fact, Al wrote the liner notes to the Fat Cat LP of the Wiggs/Quinn hospital recordings.)

He took a look and said he doesn’t think it’s his father’s work. Mystery still unsolved. Any ideas, universe?

(It occurs to me to look through 1920s-era Houston newspapers for cartoonists’ names… scurries off.)

Hi there — Don Peterson sent me the original film footage of Snoozer playing in 1932. (What the La. State Museum had in their archives was a copy.) I’ve since had this footage digitized, and it has a crisper resolution.

I was recently contacted by Aaron Levinson, who had a wonderful suggestion… why not ask guitarists everywhere to help me solve the mystery of what Snoozer was playing? Through crowdsourcing, we can figure out what is happening in 1:20 of film. I am still trying to figure out the best way to accommodate collaboration — I would love for people to share their audio, tabs, still images, etc. til we can work this out. For now, please leave a comment!

Some things to note that might help:

• Snoozer tended to use standard tunings, but dropped down a few half steps. (I am not saying he is playing in standard tuning here, but he usually did.)
• Guitarist John Stropes pointed out to me that the exact same passages are on this film twice — speeded up and then slowed down.
• That means the approximately 1:20 seconds of this footage is only about 25 seconds of a performance. It stands to reason that Charles Peterson would have been filming a specific Snoozer trick, right?

Enjoy this amazing silent film of Snoozer Quinn from 1932, when he was in his prime at the age of 25 years old. He joined Paul Whiteman in fall 1928 and was active for several more years. Things to look for while watching this film:

• Yes, there is a soundtrack but it’s not matching. The soundtrack you hear was reportedly added by Don Perry, a co-founder of the New Orleans Jazz Club, sometime in the 1970s. Perry was a news cameraman for New Orleans station WDSU who donated hundreds of films to the Jazz Club. Read more about him on this page. The sound you hear is in fact Snoozer playing an original composition, “Snoozer’s Telephone Blues,” recorded in 1948 in the tuberculosis ward of a New Orleans hospital. (Available on the rare Wiggs 78 or Fat Cat LP.)
• Snoozer does not use a finger pick (unlike Eddie Lang and most jazz guitarists of this era)
• Watch Snoozer’s right hand to see how he frequently uses a claw hammer/frailing technique
• Snoozer was capable of single-note solos, but his signature sound was chordal.He uses the right hand thumb to set a bass rhythm, and his index and middle finger to ‘frail’ the strings for the melody or harmony
• Snoozer’s left hand makes chord shapes along the entire length of the neck — perhaps a carryover from the banjoist’s use of inverted chord shapes?
• Snoozer liked to use hammer ons and pulloffs with his strong left hand to augment the melodic line. You can see a nice speedy little run of this trick around 2:35.

The film was recorded by Charles Peterson,  a guitarist/banjoist with Rudy Vallee’s Connecticut Yankees who turned into a jazz photographer. Charles’s son Don Peterson helped me definitively date the film to 1932 and says the location was Laurelton, NJ at their country home. Here is a photo from that same day. This is a picture of little toddler Don looking at Snoozer’s guitar.

Snoozer Quinn and Don Peterson in 1932. Photo by Charles Peterson.