Jordan Hirsch

@mrjordanhirsch

Freelance writer: Editor of the interactive map of New Orleans music history at ACloserWalkNola.com

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Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· 8d

1906: grocers across New Orleans band together to "discontinue lagniappe."

Clip of a newspaper from 1906 headlined "Grocers Cut Out Lagniappe. Final Preparations Made Last Night. Active campaign in every Ward in City--Many Committees Appointed."

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· May 31

Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Club with Da Truth Brass Band not afraid of the rain this afternoon.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· May 30

Currently reading about an attempt to use “unconscionable” as a standard to redress exploitative housing practices in midcentury Chicago. It didn’t go great. (From Family Properties by Beryl Satter, which is going great.)

Berns recalled the effect this information had on my father: "Your father kept on saying it was outrageous, and I kept on saying it's un-conscionable. People taking advantage of others, working on the backs of black people, and everything else, you know." & Yet it was all legal.
Although the Boltons had been misled and exploited, no laws had been broken in the process. As a liberal Catholic magazine summed up the situation: "If the Negro buyer has signed the contract, it holds, and he must continue to make the exorbitant payments or lose the house and all the money he has put into it." 3Z
But Berns found an angle. "I came across a concept called judicial fat," he recalled. "If a court on its own order thought something was uncon-scionable, they could on their own motion stop it." When Berns mentioned the concept to my father, "Boy, he snapped it up... He says, 'That's it!' That's the match that lit the fuse. 'Cause you needed something to start an explosion, you know. And from there you couldn't stop him." 38 Instead of petitioning to stop the Boltons' eviction, my father and Berns filed a complaint against speculators Jay Goran and Gerald Crane.
Acknowledging that the Boltons were "without an adequate remedy at law," they nevertheless charged that the behavior of
the two men had been so "unconscionable" that it should be stopped by the court. They

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· May 10

Queen Kirnisha Watson of the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club and her court coming out for their Mother’s Day parade. Check out those briefcases!

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Apr 1

Phenomenal use of quotation marks in this ad from the 1912 Blue Book (the directory of sex workers in Storyville)

A print ad for a brewery in New Orleans that says "Why not drink 'our' national bottle beer," with the word "our" inexplicably in quotation marks

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Mar 27

Top two stories in Chicago on July 28, 1970: plans to construct the Sears Tower and the riot ahead of the Sly and the Family Stone concert that inspired "There's a Riot Goin' On."

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Mar 20

Big Chief Demond Melancon of the Young Seminole Hunters and his Little Chief under the Claiborne bridge for St. Joseph’s Night last night. The Big Chief’s beadwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen, and this suit was stunning. He’s showing at the Venice Biennale this year.

A Black man in a ten foot tall suit of orange plumes stands behind a toddler in a suit of red plumes in the shadow of an elevated expressway.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Mar 11

After a 1908 state law decreed that women could buy drinks in restaurants but not in saloons, saloons in New Orleans just left a ceremonial sandwich on every table. A reporter found this one, on which "sausage reposes," to be an "ancient repository of dust, germs and fly effluvia."

Screenshot of the New Orleans Item from 1913 describing a sandwich placed on a saloon table to circumvent a law banning the sale of alcohol to women in bars.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Mar 11

Gotta give it up for the cover design on "Sportin' a 'tude," which, thankfully, just popped up in some unrelated search results.

A book cover featuring four images of the same woman in a red suit striking exaggerated poses meant to represent, one supposes, various 'tudes.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Mar 2

The Stooges Brass Band at the VIP Ladies and Kids SAPC second line yesterday

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Feb 27

Ash Wednesday 1883 in New Orleans: two men arrested for wearing women's clothes are released after police verify that they were still out in their costumes from a Mardi Gras ball the day before

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Feb 26

Sex work was legal in Storyville, and cocaine was sold over the counter, but this dude got arrested for speeding when his car went over 6 miles per hour (in 1904).

Screenshot of text of a newspaper article from 1904 describing two men getting arrested for driving over 6 mph

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Feb 23

Didn’t realize Willie Colon’s album covers went this hard. RIP.

A man holding a black case—which could contain a trombone or a shotgun—stands over a dead body tied to a rock near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Feb 18

Cool moment in the Seventh Ward when truck floats still full of riders on the overpass cheered for the Black Masking Indians on the street below (I didn’t catch which tribe this was)

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Feb 18

Monogram Hunters under the bridge yesterday

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Jan 29

There are some A+ names in the Hogan Jazz Archive. Say hello to Knotsie Butts.

screenshot of a transcript of an oral history from 1959 that lists about a dozen people including one "Knotsie" Butts

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Jan 27

Dr. John on the brilliance of Wardell Quezergue and the recording of “Big Chief” with Professor Longhair and Earl King. One of my favorite moments from the Ponderosa Stomp conferences. The full panel is on the Stomp’s YouTube page.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Jan 25

Put a kitten in a playpen for the first time last week and…

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Jan 10

Not everyone has left New Orleans for Minneapolis yet. Armed personnel on Burgundy Street in the French quarter at 1pm Saturday. The bird behind them is a bit of a local celeb—he talks to passers by.

Three people in military fatigues stand outside a creole cottage.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Jan 2

In 1946, "Bess, the wonder horse of the screen...performed for the children" in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. They got her up to the ninth floor! And hopefully disinfected when she left.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Dec 17

1949: Mahogany Hall, the last of the grand Storyville bordellos is demolished, replaced by a "respectable" row of parking lots and white-only public housing on Basin Street.

A pre-1917 photo of three- and four-story buildings, embellished with balconies and turrets juxtaposed with the same scene from 1949, in which all but one of the buildings is gone.

A caption of the two historical photos in the newspaper identifying the extant building as Lulu White's Mahogany Hall. "WIth the passing of Mahogany Hall, Basin St. will now be thoroughly 'respectable' from one end to another, the scene of parking lots, housing projects, and the old St. Louis Cemetery."

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Dec 13

This is beautiful annual event where families can get free winter coats and toys for their kids. Last year 100+ Latino folks came out. This year, with ICE/CPB in New Orleans, I feared a raid. That didn’t happen, but only two Latino families showed up.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Dec 13

For those following the current threat to the First and Last Stop, a Black bar in a gentrifying neighborhood: here’s a similar threat to the same barroom from 125 years ago, quoted in the book Spectacular Wickedness by Emily Epstein Landau thelensnola.org/2025/11/20/l...

Another letter writer, from 1900, "respectfully call[s] your attention to the fact that there congregates at the Corner of Marais and Baguatelle [sic, now Pauger] Sts. a crowd of disreputable negroes in front of a 'bar room' located there where it is very embarrassing for ladies and children to pass, as they gamble on the sidewalk, and use the vilest language imaginable. ..."

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Dec 5

1920: Writers Express Sorrow About Absence of Mint Juleps From Their Buffets. (Apparently, entries to a limerick contest for readers of the New Orleans Item overwhelmed the editor.)

Screenshot of a grainy 1920 newspaper article headlined Writers Express Sorrow About Absence of Mint Juleps From Their Buffets

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Nov 23

@nolanews.bsky.social the copyright for your cover photo for this story is owned by the photographer who took it, Edgar Mata, who is not credited here. Also, you misspelled Ponderosa Stomp.

Screenshot of an article about Guitar Lightnin Lee, with a photo of Lee performing and a caption saying it was taken at the “Pondarosa Stomp.”

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Nov 19

When ICE gets to New Orleans

An African American man with a giant whistle on his head, putting his fingers in his mouth and blowing (he's a New Orleans Saints superfan who goes by Whistle Monsta who whistles at remarkably high volume).

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Nov 13

RIP Jeff Hannusch, who spent the 1980s talking to musicians in New Orleans who'd changed the world in the 1940s-60s, and left us books that are still essential to understanding their stories.

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Oct 3

Apparently an animated one won an Oscar!

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Oct 3

Percy Humphrey, leader of the Eureka Brass Band and, later, member of the Perservation Hall Jazz Band, provided musical accompaniment for two appearances by Ferdinand the Bull in 1944. "Ride him if you wish."

Jordan Hirsch@mrjordanhirsch· Sep 11

Early jazz star Leon Roppolo (Benny Goodman's idol) had a mental breakdown and was sent to the same institution as jazz progenitor Buddy Bolden. The place was segregated, but they could have played in its band together--both had horns inside. Hopefully Roppolo paid his respects and they got to jam.