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Sunnyslope Historical Society Museum!
737 E. Hatcher Rd.
(602)331-3150 shsociety1@qwestoffice.net Museum Hours & Admission Wed., Thursday, Friday & Sunday Noon - 4pm. Admission is Free Closed June 2 - September 21, 2012 Museum honors passionate Valley concertgoer Museum honors man who took thousands of photos of legends by Luci Scott - Aug. 12, 2012 09:08 PM The Republic | azcentral.com Back in the heyday of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and traditional country, a bold young man didn't have a car so he bummed rides from friends to attend Phoenix concerts of the biggest stars. Elvis. Fabian. Johnny Cash. Patsy Cline. The Doors. The Grateful Dead. The list goes on. The starstruck man was Johnny Franklin, Class of 1959 at Sunnyslope High School, and he took photos of the musicians -- tens of thousands of pictures, many of them taken backstage. "When you look at this archive of pictures, there's nothing like it," said John Dixon, the unofficial historian of Arizona music and a friend of Franklin's. Dixon spoke to a crowd gathered Sunday at the Sunnyslope Historical Society Museum to honor Franklin, who died in December at age 70. Franklin was in a wheelchair the last years of his life, and he still attended concerts; the last was Clint Black in November 2011. People visiting the museum gazed at autographed photos, 45-rpm records and other memorabilia Franklin amassed in that golden era. There was a poster for a Jimi Hendrix concert and another promoting Patsy Cline in 1962 featuring "a new upcoming star Loretta Lynn." Cost of a ticket: $1.75. In fact, Cline visited the Franklin home, according to Johnny's brother Tom Franklin. On display at the museum was a letter from New York-based 16 Magazine offering Johnny $50 for 22 of his photos of the Monkees. Visitors viewed a long handwritten letter from Dick and DeeDee and a Christmas card from Jim Morrison. Some wore pins made of a picture of a young Johnny standing next to Wanda Jackson. In the crowd was Sam Hill of Phoenix, a record collector who bought pictures of the Coasters that Johnny took in the group's hotel room after the show. "He took a lot of pictures of Ray Charles backstage, and of the Flamingos in the studio of a local TV station," Hill said. The crowd reminisced. Tom Franklin, who often was with Johnny when his brother built rapport with the stars, described Willie Nelson as "real nice," Jim Morrison as "friendly enough" and Frank Zappa as "intellectual." Al Marion, a retired Glendale police officer who earlier recorded the hit songs "Kay" and "Undying Love," was another friend. "Johnny was with me when we met Freddie Hart the first time," Marion said. Dixon described Franklin as the archivist of the beloved local TV show "Wallace and Ladmo," which ran from 1954 to 1989. At the museum Sunday was 80-year-old Bill Thompson, better known as Wallace. Asked his best memory of the show, he said, "The day the show ended." He amended his best memory to "the day KPHO started paying us." Johnny Franklin's photos appear in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, uncredited. A German company bought Franklin's photos of Roy Orbison, George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, Don Gibson and Hank Snow. Some of the pictures appear in booklets with CDs. "His work is spread all over the place," Dixon said. The Sunnyslope museum is closed for the summer, so the exhibition was shown only Sunday. Dixon has scanned 2,000 photos so far, and he said he hopes Franklin's work will someday be available for all to see on the Internet. |