He would sing little ditties to the company and earn appearance fees opening grocery stores around the state. Sales of King Flour soared and the company started using drawings of Sonny Boy Williamson II on their bags to promote Sonny Boy Corn Meal (he was sitting on an ear of corn and holding a piece of cornbread instead of a harmonica). The original Sonny Boy Williamson was already a well-known figure (he had scored a hit with his song ‘Good Morning, School Girl’ back in 1937), and blurring the identities of the two performers was an astute (if underhand) tactic. Some people have claimed it was the musician’s idea, some claim that Interstate Grocery Owner Max Moore came up with the plan as a ruse to market his goods to African-Americans who liked the blues. It is simply not known who came up with the deceit. He and Lockwood can be seen performing together in this silent footage taken from King Biscuit Time.Ĭlick to load video Who came up with the lie? Here is where things become a bit murky, though, because, at some point early on in the show’s history (November 1941-44), Rice Miller adopted the name Sonny Boy Williamson. In return for promoting the company’s flour products, the musicians were able to advertise their nightly gigs.
He and guitarist Robert Lockwood auditioned for the executives of the Interstate Grocery Co, who agreed to sponsor the King Biscuit Time show. He got his big break in 1941 when he hustled his way into a radio show for the manager at KFFA radio station in Helena, Arkansas. It was after him that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards named their first band in 1961 – Little Boy Blue And The Blue Boys. Sonny Boy Williamson drifted around the Deep South using the name Little Boy Blue as he played at juke joints and house parties. Aleck was given the nickname Rice as a boy, supposedly due to his love for milk and rice, and growing up he was known as Rice Miller.Īs a teenager, he was often in trouble with the law.
His real name is believed to be Aleck or Alex Ford, and he was the illegitimate son of Jim Miller and Millie Ford (he was Millie’s 21st child). The facts of his life are mired in mystery – his birthdates vary from 1894 to Decem– though it is clear that he was savagely treated while growing up on a plantation in Mississippi.
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