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combined elements of blues with the syncopation of ragtime.
    According to Shaw, there were so many blues pianists in Houston during this period that each neighborhood had its own particular style. In the Fifth Ward, the most well-known pianists and vocalists were members of the George W. Thomas family. The eldest child George Thomas Jr. was born about 1885, followed by his sister Beulah, better known as Sippie Wallace, and brother, Hersal. Their style of piano playing involved more fully developed bass patterns than those of the Santa Fe Group. 3
    The Fifth Ward of Houston also had an area known as Frenchtown, where about five hundred blacks of French and Spanish descent migrated from Louisiana in 1922. As the population grew, the music performed there reflected both Creole and African American influences, not only in blues but in the emerging zydeco style. African American businesses, from restaurants, pharmacies, and doctors’ offices to undertakers, beauty parlors, and barbershops, flourished on Lyons Avenue and served the people who lived in the area, many of whom worked for the nearby Southern Pacific Railroad or on the Houston Ship Channel.
    During the 1930s, the acclaimed music program of Phillis Wheatley High School in the Fifth Ward vied with Jack Yates High School in the Third Ward for local recognition. Their marching bands were a breeding ground for aspiring musicians, and the competition between them reflected the breadth of the Houston blues and jazz scene. Student members of the marching bands played at football and basketball games, and orchestra students played at all school functions. On weekends, many of the school band directors performed around the city (and some, like Abner Jones, Sammy Harris, and later Conrad Johnson, led jazz orchestras). Student musicians were often featured at church socials and at events sponsored by civic organizations, such as Jack and Jill of America, and Links, and by the numerous sororities and fraternities in the African American community.
    By the late 1930s the
Informer
had started to use the phrase “Heavenly Houston” to describe the can-do attitude of the upwardly mobile African American population pulling out of the Great Depression. The Third Ward had the highest concentration of African Americans, and Dowling Street became the main street of black Houston. Lined with churches and African American owned businesses, it was the epicenter of community life. The opening of the El Dorado Ballroom on December 5, 1939, on the second floor of a Deco-style professional building at the corner of Elgin and Dowling Streets was a banner day for African Americans in Houston. 4 C. A. Dupree, treasurer of the El Dorado Social Club and an employee of the very exclusive (white) River Oaks Country Club, was the driving force behind the building. The El Dorado Social Club was in existence for many years prior to the formation of the ballroom and lent it their name and support. The ballroom was comanaged by Dupree and his wife Anna and quickly became the showplace of the Third Ward, if not all of black Houston. “The El Dorado Ballroom made us feel like we were kings and queens,” blues vocalist Carolyn Blanchard recalled. “When you went there, from the moment you walked through the door, everything was taken care of. Anna and Mr. Dupree didn’t let you want for anything. They would get whatever you wanted for you. We always held our heads a little higher after leaving the El Dorado.” 5
    Black social clubs and fraternal organizations dominated the El Dorado Ballroom, and the
Houston Informer
usually covered their festivities. On March 9, 1940, for example, the
Informer
reported: “Amid a conglomeration of laughter, colorful gowns, well-fitted tuxedos and good music, sepia Houstonians came to the realization, last Tuesday evening at the swank El Dorado Ballroom, that this hitherto flat and backward Southern town has definitely broken into the glorious