Johnny Black(1891-1936)

Johnny S. Black was born on 30 September, 1891, in St. Louis, Missouri, the only child of John L and Jeanie V. Black. In the 1900 US Census, Johnny's father gave his occupation as "inventor". Later he marketed a mail order product that was guaranteed to kill bed bugs. After ordering, the customer received in the mail two blocks of wood with detailed instruction on how to swash the little pests between them. His father, who friends say Johnny adored, had also at one time operated a music store and performed on the vaudeville circuit as a one-man band. Johnny grew up mostly in Fairfield and Hamilton, both suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. Before he set out on his own at the age seventeen, Johnny performed with his father on the vaudeville stage usually playing a number of different types of musical instruments.

Johnny Black was a Broadway/vaudeville dance-hall violinist, singer master of ceremonies and songwriter, who is remembered for two songs he wrote that were huge hits.

The song "Dardanella" was a fox trot that became a big hit in 1919. It was composed by Johnny and Felix Bernard and songwriter Fred Fisher, who later added the lyrics. Johnny was said to have early on sold his interest in "Dardanella" for twenty-five dollars. The song went on to earn over twelve million dollars, of which Johnny only received, after litigation, somewhere between twelve and twenty thousand. Many years later Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong included "Dardanella" in their album "Bing and Louis".

Johnny's other big song, "Paper Doll", was written in 1915, but did not become a hit until some six years following his death, when it was recorded by The Mills Brothers. The song's success sparked a royalties battle among his two ex-wives, his widow and the teenage daughter of his late father's housekeeper. After a lengthy court battle, his first wife convinced the court that her song "My Doll" was the genesis of "Paper Doll".

After the success of "Dardanella", Johnny toured the United States and abroad as a band leader and a master of ceremonies. For a time he performed with a musical comedy group called The Three Chums. While on tour in London, an unpaid hotel bill led to the confiscation of everything he owned excluding the clothes on his back. Johnny was forced to earn his return steamship passage home by shoveling coal. In 1924, Johnny and comedian Joe E. Lewis began performing together as the Dardanella Boys. The two went their separate ways not long after Johnny began showing up on stage drunk. By then Johnny's career was in a downward spiral that was fueled by his lavish life style and alcohol. Once after being convicted of public intoxication, the presiding judge, who was aware of Johnny's talent, ordered him to pay a one-hundred dollar fine or compose three songs to his satisfaction that were to be completed within the week. Johnny was able to write the songs in the time allotted and in a manner that pleased the judge.

In 1925 Johnny was hired as a studio director at WHT, a radio station in Chicago. Within a year or so he was back on the road performing. In the late 1920s he briefly resurrected the Dardanella Boys, this time with organist Harold Hovel (1906-1959).

By the early 1930s, Johnny was performing primarily in and around Hamilton as an entertainer and master of ceremonies at local restaurants, bars and clubs. In 1935 he became the proprietor of the Club Dardanella, a former speakeasy on Dixie Highway, not far from the Great Miami River and the campus of the University of Miami in Hamilton.

In the early morning hours of 6 June, 1936, Johnny got into an argument with a customer over the cost of a 25¢ drink. The patron asked to Johnny to step outside so they could settle the matter in the club's parking lot. During the pursuing fight, Johnny was knocked out when his head hit the concrete pavement hard after a vicious blow to the side of his face.

Johnny eventually recovered that night to the point where he was able to resume his normal duties at the Dardanella. A few hours later though, he lapsed into a coma, from which, he never awoke. He died Tuesday morning, 9 June, 1936 at Mercy Hospital in Hamilton. Even though an eye-witness testified that Johnny was sucker punched as he left the club and stepped into the parking lot; a grand jury later dropped the manslaughter charges against his attacker.

The Dardanella was eventually purchased by Walter Eaton who changed its name to Eaton Manor. Sometime later he placed a plaque commemorating Johnny's death in the restaurant's parking lot.

Within a few months after an article by Jim Newton about Johnny Black's life appeared in the 10 December, 1972 issue of the Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio), enough money was raised to erect a headstone for Johnny's unmarked grave at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. The headstone inscription reads in part "The Happiness His Music Brought Will Live Forever".