Hank Williams: Photographs from the Gutter, circa 1948-1952

Hank Williams, circa 1948-1952

One night around 2003, Hank Williams was lying in the gutter on Boulevard Street in Shreveport.  Well, it was more like hundreds of discarded photographs were lying in the gutter.  We scooped up all of them…businessmen, historic homes, and plenty of weird-looking babies.  Hank Williams was in there somewhere.  Four times, in fact.  It appears that three of those photographs remain unpublished.  Enjoy.

If you want to hear live recordings from Hank Williams' time living in Shreveport, check out:

• Hank Williams ‎- Shreveport Sessions, August 1948- May 1949 2xLP (Doxy, 2010)
• Hank Williams - The Complete Hank Williams 10xCD (Mercury, 1998)
• various - Louisiana Hayride: Classic Country Radio, Volume 1 CD (Music Mill, 2000)

Thanks to the three editors of The Hank Williams Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) for inspiring the hunt to dig these photographs out of storage.  Great work, Patrick Huber, Steve Goodson, and David Anderson!

P. S. Thanks to Johnny Wessler for helping identify the other people in these photos.

left to right:
Hank Williams, Billie Jean Jones Eshliman Williams,
Clyde Perdue (Williams' manager), Jean Jones, and Al Jones
 at the Alamo (San Antonio, Texas), September 1952

left to right: Anita Carter, Grady Martin, Marjorie ?, and Hank Williams
at the Stork Club (New York City), March 1952