Late great Montreal musician Kenny Hamilton on old time pimps, bikers and killers

 

 Kenny Hamilton knew the score.
 Hamilton who died on October 12, 2017, was not only an accomplished pop musician but he knew all the grittiest Montreal stories and helped immensely making Montreal 375 Tales that much more interesting.
  Hamilton readily chatted about Montreal history until one day he went radio silent.
   Here are some snippets from his thoughts:






On being a teenage booker at The Esquire Show Bar on Stanley. 

Hamilton 4th from L with Free Expression,
"mostly guys from Nova Scotia"

 I would sit with bar owner Norm Silver around 3:30 in the afternoon after school and look at the Billboard R and B chart. He would get me to choose acts for the club. Then he would get his agent Roy Cooper to book those acts I chose into the Esquire. Not all, but a lot. Edwin Starr, The Manhattans, The Isley Brothers (without Hendrix}, Jimmy Ruffin. I knew them because you could see acts on American Bandstand and you would hear their records on the radio.The artists I picked did well in the club. Plus the artists I showed Mr Silver didn't cost as much as Little Richard or Wilson Pickett at that time


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There were problems in Drummondville and Bagotville with local motorcycle gangs who didn't like girls in the club looking at us. We let them know that we were more than guys with guitars. There would be bloodshed all over the place on both sides if they messed with us.

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George Desmond

On George Desmond, former boxer shot dead, at 60, in the bathroom of a bar at 1399 St. James Street on 14 Nov. 1987 What I liked about George Desmond: he was dressed and groomed all the time, his Cadillac wasn't new but it was clean. He was never "slack." He was a good looking guy. Flashy clothes, not much education but lots of personality. He had one girl Helen Daley that he got money from but cocaine was his main income. I believe Helen is alive. She was black and not exceptionally pretty but ooh what a body. George Desmond, it is told to me, did a bad dope deal. Someone came to the 99, a Mafia Club owned by Joe Di Paulo and that person and George went into the men's toilet. The guy, either from either Toronto or the USA, pulled a gun and told George either to pay or get shot. George said "If you're gonna shoot, shoot."The bar belonged to Angelo but was in the name of a straight guy. When Angelo died the mob gave the place to Joe DiPaulo. Joe got beaten badly by a guy who's girl Joe got involved with. He never recovered. The clients of the 99 were mostly blacks from the area.

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On former boxer Lionel Deare: I heard he was a hitman for the West End Gang.  He was black and had an apartment on Plamondon and very secretive. I used to go with his daughter for a short time.You must understand I was in music during those years and while I lived among those guys, they were just thorns in my side, trying to get the same pussy I had my eyes on.

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Chase in 54

On former boxer Charlie Chase There was a tabloid in Montreal called "Midnight."   I was walking past a newspaper stand and saw it, and the headline read, KING PIMP ARRESTED. I would see him in the morning at Plaza Cote des Neiges reading his paper. "Hey Kenny" he'd say. He was "punch drunk" by then. My father (who didn't have a criminal record) used to visit Charlie in jail. In the end Charlie wouldn't be nice to his daughters. They wanted to care for him, clean his apartment on Barclay but he wouldn't have anything to do with them. Charlie and my father were very tight. I was at a party in a downtown hotel with girls and musicians when a knock came on the door. It was Charlie and my father. "We're looking for Kenny Hamilton" they said, but they just wanted to see what was going on and what girls were there.



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Hamilton in middle

I've had this problem all my life. White people get uncomfortable around me because I'm the kind of nigger that will talk back.

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My Mother knew (legendary Montreal pianist) Steep Wade, was he Alfie's dad ? I just remember him as friendly but wanting to be in the "white" community kind of like Bobby White, he wasn't "one of the boys" as far as I'm concerned.
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On community activist and pimp Bobby White (d. 2016) I didn't start this to make a case for pimps. I'm just saying there's enough blame to go all the way around.  Yes there must be abuse in the sex trade and that is inexcusable but Bobby never got a pimping charge put on him. His "friend's" were happy hookers. Bobby's girls did well and stayed off the street. I guess you can't believe some girls enjoy being whores. One of them did perverted things to Real Giguere. At one time I knew him very well, we spoke almost everyday.  He had a bar "Whitey's Hideaway." "Local" black guys were barred from the bar. Do you know that he taped almost every telephone conversation that came to his residence? He associated in his bar and on the phone with many prominent Montreal sports figures, television personalities, lawyers, business people. He provided certain "working girls" with contacts who were willing to do business and he provided coke when asked to. But you must ask who were these contacts and also what the "girls" told him about the perverted desire's of these guys during telephone conversations that he played back to me. History won't know their names.

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The Hawaiian Lounge on Mountain, west side, south of St. Antoine  I was hired to play that place. Scumbags for management, "Big Angelo" and "Little Angelo."  There was this lesbian chick singer and MC named Carole Bravall and she didn't like me. One afternoon I get a phone call, "get over to the club RIGHT NOW" !!!  I go over and 3 of them were waiting, Joe Di Paulo and the 2 Angelos.  We go in the office, they throw a joint on the desk in front of me and began to holler, "YOU SMOKED A JOINT IN THE CLUB LAST NIGHT, AND YOU LEFT THIS IN THE DRESSING ROOM" !!!    "YOU WANT TO COST THIS PLACE THE LICENSE ? WE'LL BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS!" I calmly looked them in the eye and told them, "Yes, I smoked a joint in the dressing room last night, and when I was finished I flushed it in the toilet. That's not mine, Carole planted it there".  They looked at each other and back at me, "YOU'RE FIRED' one of them screamed and I got up and left.  "Fuck you white cocksuckers," I said to myself.

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Bryce Richardson

On killer Bryce Richardson who was badly injured in a shootout he started at the Hawaiian Lounge   A guy named Rollie Dash brought him around. He was good looking and wanted a "rep". His brother Jimmy tried to live off that "Richardson rep" and got himself killed on Bishop St.
I know lots of stories like Bryce Richardson shooting  (boxer) Elwood "Halifax" Symonds on Stanley St., before he got his. (Symonds survived). I spoke to someone today who says Bryce Richardson doesn't use a wheelchair anymore, just a cane. Couple of guys from the Esquire were around and got to Halifax on the stairs of the club on Stanley that later became The Limelight..  Halifax told them, "Don't worry, I'll make it."

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On Bryce Richardson killing boxer Robert "Bobby" Croxen at 4311 Old Orchard 11 Aug. 1968  The way I heard it Bobby was stuffed into a trunk.  The trunk was too small to get him in so he was "broken" up in order to stuff him in. Bobby lived next door to me on Torrance Street.  There was a group of us teenagers who lived between Guy Street and Mountain Street.  Bobby named us "The Back Ally Commandos."  We were playing around with Bobby one day, we had him surrounded like we could take him down. I was the one who got caught. I woke up after he had put a "sleeper" hold on me.  We all loved Bobby. I can't say in print how I felt about Bryce.

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Pimps at Rockhead's Paradise: The only thing a girl could get "beat" for was being too friendly with another pimp.  Pimps might wear pink suits so you had to intimidate or you would be mistaken for gay. Pimping was like the "hit parade," if your woman was better dressed than others and looked like they were being taken care of better than others then your popularity rose up and the others would want to be with the guy whose women looked fabulous. Pimps would park their cars in front of the place and be on the 3rd floor looking sharp and flashing money. Certain women would choose to be with certain guys. That's how the "game" worked. Prostitution was not allowed in Rockheads, but prostitutes could be costumers and socialize as long as they did not try to do business.


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There were a few black addicts, Kenny Jackson, Stanley Best, Freddie Baines. He was scary.

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My Father loved the (boxing) Hilton family and they loved him. They sent flowers when he died Everybody had a "hustle."

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Brian Powers

The Roberts brothers were white guys from the west end. They were cool with the black guys up to a point. I was also there when Brian Powers took a bad beating on Mountain and St. Antoine from the Roberts brothers.  I was the only one who stepped in and told Clifford and Jimmy Roberts to "take that shit where you live" don't bring your shit here.  I think there were 3 of them but I only knew 2.




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Hamilton, at left, in the cast of Hair, 1970

Satan's Choice bikers started hanging in Rockheads Paradise for a while, started having sex with the black girls.

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A sailor was beaten in front of the Harlem Paradise on Mountain St.  He was black. The guys that did it were from Nova Scotia and did that stuff in Halifax cause lots of American ships docked there and sailors were having sex with the women. They were assholes who brought that shit to Montreal when they came here.I was there, I saw it, it was horrible



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The Harlem Paradise presented top notch entertainment {but not of the "hit record" status}.  After his show at Expo 67 Otis Redding went there and performed for free with "The Hot Tamales" band. Also great jazz artist's like guitarist Grant Green, pianist Stanley Turrentine, and David "Fat Head" Newman, Ray Charles's sax man.

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On impresario Norm Silver A very kind man who helped young Montreal guys get experience. I worked the spotlight a few times.

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Jimi Hendrix never played the Esquire with King Curtis.  He played at a teenage dance hall {no liquor} 217 Laurier.  He was with The Isley Brothers.

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  Clarification: Another Montreal musical performer bearing the same name of Ken Hamilton, this one of Jamaican origins, thrived on the local  on the scene around the same time. 

  The other Ken Hamilton
c. 1960