The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #941   Message #3302671
Posted By: GUEST,Earl Greene
05-Feb-12 - 03:26 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Preacher and the Bear
Subject: RE: Origins: The Preacher and the Bear
When I was a young teen-ager (11-13yrs. old), Arthur Longbrake, who wrote the lyrics to this song under the pen-name of Joe Arzonia, owned and operated a shoe store in my home town of Mechanicsburg, Ohio.
I was learning to play guitar, and also sang quite a bit, and I spent almost every summer afternoon with Art in the back room of his shoe store, where he would play the mandolin, and I the guitar, and we would sing many of the old songs which he had written.
He had been a vaudeville performer on the Gus Sun circuit in his younger days, and use to do a great song called "Tell Me Cutie, Who Tied Your Tie".
He was like a second father to me at that time, and when My father was killed in an automobile accident in 1944, he was my greatest male support.
It's great to see him get some recognition on the internet !