Argy Boy

circa 1850-1950

Antoinne Beauchamp was the illegitimate son of Dovie Buto, a Caribbean slave woman and Monsieur Francois Antoine Beachamp, a strapping young Navigator of the French Navy. According to documents obtained from the Parish of St. Charles, Louisana, the elder Beauchamp succumbed to syphilis in New Orleans sometime late in the Fall of 1854. The details of the life of Dovie have never been verified although many a tall tale was spread by her colourful son.

Baby Baby

According to Mazzistow Carrington's as yet unpublished treatise, Antoinne Beauchamp was a precocious and melodic blind kid from New Orleans who later migrated with his mother throughout the Mid- and Southwest, spending years in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico before running away and hitching rides back to New Orleans.

Who Do you Love?

His talent for improvisation and his natural ability to play almost any instrument immediately made Antoinne a very popular fellow in the Rowdy Redlight Districts of New Orleans. The available police reports of the time show a young man slipping quickly into a netherworld of drugs and crime. Eventually Antoinne would have to leave town with a few digits less and found himself the wandering minstrel history remembers him for.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Argy Boy was a nom de plume he took to conceal his identity and establish a new character. He wandered the South amusing townfolk with his stories and his songs. Now reduced to playing the harmonica, Argy Boy perfected the Froggy Went-A-Courtin' canon and countless other comical routines later employeed by black-faced Vaudevillians. He survived on the kindness of others and made quite a name for himself in certain small towns, often being invited back for the annual fairs and festivals common in the era. But most often he would find himself gravitating towards the local cathouse were work for a songman was often easy to be found. It was during this period that Argy invented a six-finger piano style that would precurse stride and ragtime by at least half a century. Later, Argy's perfect pitch needed little accompaniment and his style became more minimal, relaxed. Eventualy Argy's hand strayed from the instrument and cut his tenure short. There is no shortage of juke-joint mythology that mentions Argy Boy Beauchamp.

Pleased To Meet You

Mazzistow Carrington's great-grandfather claimed to be a regular old pal of Argy Boy and his grandfather had childhood memories of the strange man who danced and told humorous stories around an unforgettable campfire. Mazzistow's great-grandmother referred to Argy Boy as one of the Devil's Own and did not trust his golden tongue or his famous silky smooth vocal delivery. It is true that Argy Boy was of Caribbean descent and had working knowledge of Santeria. He gathered more knowledge of other Negro and American Indian Magic on his endless quest to find a cure for his blindness. It is inconclusive whether he used his Black Magic but his popularity did take a turn toward the darkside as he grew elderly.

Going Back To My Plow

Although many lonely gravesites bear his name, no one is quite sure what really became of Antoinne Argy Boy Beauchamp. Legend has it that he met a voodoo woman who healed one of his eyes which he claimed could see the heart of an honest man. Famous Songs have him duelin' 'dillos and Fuedin' with the Moon. Popular Dance remembers him as an early pioneer of the spinning on your head move.

Desiderata

Argy Boy provided the model for Dominic Argus, the reluctant sidekick of The Wilsonian in the last four novellas of that series.