ABSTRACT
Walter was heading south and working over the holidays. An ad in the St. Louis A rgus, placed by the North Side Social Club, billed him as the "Vice President of the Blues" for a Friday, Decemb er 23rd dance at the M asonic Auditorium. Down in Georgia, the lineup for a Christmas weekend gig at Atl anta'sMagnolia Ballroom provided ready fodder for DJs plugging the event. It must have been easy to come up with lines about the "big 'Little' " show, because it was headlined by Little Walter, and, pictured on the poster alongside him, Little Richard, "T he Tootie Fruitie [sic] man."The bill was filled out by the established New Orleans vocal group The Spiders, whose fifth Top-Ten R&B hit in the last two years, "W itchcraft," was high on the charts. The "Xmas Show" played at 5:00 and 9:00 PM on the 25th, and on M onday the 26th it was billed as a "dancing" event, from 8:30-12:30. Both The Spiders and Little Richard had records currently in the R&B Top 10; Walter was coheadliner by virtue of his #1 hit "My Babe" from earlier in th e year. "Roller Coaster" had charted briefly in July, but Richard was the new sensation, with a hot hit on the charts in the form of his tidiedup version of a raucous, bawdy, juke-joint number ("Tutti Frutti"), and a wildly exhibitionist, flamboyant stage show.The crowd's response must have given Walter a hint at the direction that the audience's tastes were headin g.
