First Trip to Murfreesboro Tennessee

       Four days after 9/11 and the horrific attack on the World Trade Center where over 3,000 lives were lost, I took my first trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the birthplace of Judy Garland’s father.

For the past three years, I had been a temporary worker at the World Financial Center, which stands on the Hudson River, just behind The World Trade Center site. The two sites were connected by a walkway over the Westside Highway. Monday through Friday I traveled to New York on the New Jersey PATH train with people who worked in those buildings; I’d walked through the halls with them, shopped with them and eaten lunch with them. Now, the towers were gone and so many were dead.  

Standing on Broadway, opposite such familiar streets and buildings, my eyes rested on the most devastating site I had ever seen – the smoldering ruins of the Trade Center. Trembling, I told the policeman who was urging the crowds on that I had worked there and needed a moment. He waved a Red Cross worker over and together, they tried to comfort me. In the midst of all this, I told them that I wanted to help somehow, but had not been chosen as a volunteer. I also mentioned that I had been planning to produce an historical musical recording, but it didn’t seem very important now. "There are different ways to help," they said, "Will  this recording lift people’s spirits? If it will, you should go ahead and do it." 

Sid Luft outside the Judy Garland
Birthplace with Carissa Farina as
Baby Gumm and Alicia Perrotto as
Jimmie Gumm (1997).



The planned recording was “Made in America – Vaudeville Songs,” twenty-two songs that Judy Garland (then Baby Gumm) and her family had sung in vaudeville (1895-1930). Between 1995 and 1997, as a volunteer project for The Judy Garland Birthplace, I had researched the music. The ten songs I started with had become one hundred. In addition, I had almost completed my mission to find the sheet music for these songs. Co-author of "Young Judy," had even been kind enough to give me a copy of a rare song by Ethel Gumm, “Deep, Deep in My Heart.”



For the seventy-fifth anniversary of Judy Garland’s birth, a living history program was performed in the Gumm’s front parlor. Along with the host of fans attending our seven performances, guests included Judy’s ex-husband, Sid Luft, her son, Joe, some Gumm cousins and even a few of the original Munchkins from The Wizerd of Oz.

Then, early in 2001, I decided that the best way to preserve these songs was to record them. Now, with the NYC policeman and the Red Cross Worker’s encouragement, I made the decision to go ahead with the project. But before we began, there was one thing I wanted to do – visit the town where Judy Garland’s father, Frank Gumm, was born and find out what his musical influences had been. Two days later, I was on a bus to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

To keep one’s sanity during this terrible time, you had to find some purpose. There was a constant feeling of fear in the air. That first week after the terrorist attack, for the first time in sixty years or more, there were no flights in the U.S. There was a strange sense of quiet in the air. I boarded a bus and headed south. The route to Tennessee took us through Washington, DC, over the Potomac River into Virginia, and right past the unbelievable wreckage of the Pentagon. The gaping black hole was shocking; the Pentagon had once been thought impenetrable.

Eighteen hours later, I arrived in Nashville, where I rented a car, and headed thirty-five miles southeast to the lovely little town where Judy’s father, Frank Gumm, was born 1886. In 2001, Murfreesboro was still surrounded by lush farmland and graceful old plantation mansions and farmhouses. Many of these homes hide original log cabins behind their siding.

The town sits on a little hill and in the distance you can see the tower of the red brick ante-bellum courthouse, the jewel of the old town square. It did not take me long to find Frank Gumm’s birthplace on East Main, only a few blocks from the square. It is a large home and seeing it in person revealed to me that, at least early in his life, Frank Gumm was not poor.

East Main is a lovely street and I enjoyed walking along it, feeling safe and at peace for the first time in nearly a week. One grand home owner had rigged the largest flag I had seen across their lawn.

Later, I sat in my hotel room with a phone book in my lap; making calls to people I hoped might help me in my search for information on the Gumms. Where to begin? A lady with the Historical Society sent me on to others, and they suggested more people to call. One lady I spoke to gave me the names of several people I should call. Another lady once had owned an old country log cabin that was lived in by some ancient Gumms. This was strange news to me.



Behind East Main Street are smaller homes
with brick sidewalks, though the city has
been in the process of removing them.

 In the midst of all this, I was getting the true flavor of Tennessee. Some of these people had very thick accents. That meant that Judy Garland’s father, a native Tennessean must have had an accent too! I wondered why no one had ever mentioned that!

Ralph Puckett, who i descended from the Gumm family on both his mother and his father’s side, had a thick Tennessee accent. He was most generous with information. I didn’t know how connected he was to Judy’s family, but much later he would supply documents which solved some early mysteries. When speaking of Frank Gumm, Ralph made sure to add that his “Daddy didn’t much care for Frank Gumm.” All this was a lot to absorb. Meanwhile, the purpose of my trip was to find out what Frank Gumm’s musical influences were.

I spoke to a music professor at Middle Tennessee State University who told me that unless Frank lived in the country, his musical influences were most likely classical music and church music. He noted that Frank may have had some influence from African-American persons, but more likely those influences would only have occurred if he lived on a farm. Otherwise, his influences would be quite sophisticated.



St. Paul's Chapel



That Sunday, I attended church at St. Paul's Chapel. The church had been moved from around the corner to East Main and the siding had been covered with rock. Still, these were the same walls where young Frank had sung in the choir. I took my tape recorder with me and recorded some of the music. Although the congregation was much smaller then (only about 35), the resonance (and possibly the organ) was the same. It was amazing to be there. Since that time, a large new church has been added on, so church services rarely take place in this chapel. I had come just in time.

Later, I was directed to speak to a man named C.B. Arnette. C.B. was in his eighties and had lived in Murfreesboro nearly all his life. He was very interested in the history of the area and was the author of two books. When we met, he told me about the Chautauqua. Each summer a big tent would be set up just outside the town and for one to two weeks people of all kinds of people would arrive to give presentations. There were preachers and lecturers of all kinds, and there was music. These events were meant to be educational as well as entertaining. The Chautauqua may have been one thing that brought more outside influences to young Frank Gumm. Although Murfreesboro was a small town in the midst of farms, from the very beginning it had been a place of culture and education.



The home where Frank Gumm was
born on March 20th, 1886.



The shady walkways of East
Main Street in Mufreesboro.



After two days in Murfreesboro, I boarded a bus and returned to New Jersey, refreshed and energized by my trip. Murfreesboro felt safe and I thoroughly enjoyed the southern manners and helpfulness of the people. In addition, I had a new picture of Frank Gumm’s beginnings. It would be two years before I returned; two years before my recording project turned into a book.

To learn more about Made in America Vaudeville songs, From Tennessee to Oz or The Judy Garland Museum, please visit the links below: 

 http://www.vaudevillesongs.come

http://www.catsongpublishing.com

http://www.judygarlandmuseum.com