NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — We have all learned of some random subject and then gone down a rabbit hole researching it. Well, this story is just that. Now, this is random.
"My wife's family, apparently this was in their stuff," viewer James Keeton said, sitting at a table with things he'd found.
One was a Channel 5 programming guide mailed out in the 1960s. It was from the time the station was known as WLAC.
I found something else Keeton had most interesting, something from the early days of WLAC radio. It's called a souvenir folder. This one has the lyrics of a song called A Kiss and A Memory, copyright 1946. Inside the little folder was a picture of the writer and singer, Big Jeff Bess.
"I didn't know about him until I looked him up!" Keeton said.
I wanted to know more about Big Jeff Bess too.
I went to the guy who runs the Nashville Musical History Tour Facebook page, Brian Mansfield.
"We're out in the Glencliff neighborhood," Mansfield said, walking by a house. "Neighbors tell us this was a house Jeff and Tootsie Bess lived in when they were married, so late 50s."
Tootsie Bess is, yes, that Tootsie. She was the former owner of the iconic Tootsie's Orchid Lounge downtown.
Mansfield knew Larry Weakley, grandson of Tootsie Bess.
"She just loved people," Weakley said. "She always had a witty side to her. She was very funny."
Weakley knew Renee Martin.
"My granddaddy is Big Jeff Bess," Martin said.
Starting in the 1940s, Big Jeff Bess was a major musician and presenter with a radio show on WLAC.
"You tuned into WLAC AM, and there was Big Jeff Bess and the Radio Playboys," Weakley explained.
"Maybe one of the biggest music figures that wasn't really associated with the Grand Ole Opry," Mansfield added.
"He was so stubborn, he wouldn't join the musician's union," Martin said. "The Opry stayed after him. They wanted him on the Opry."
At WLAC, Big Jeff Bess did have some major connections.
"Roy Acuff and Big Jeff anchored the afternoons for a little while at WLAC, and that's not nothin'!" Mansfield said.
Big Jeff Bess also helped launch a lot of careers.
"He had a knack for knowing who was going to be a star," Martin said.
"A lot of the musicians who would go on to play in Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys played in Big Jeff's band, the Radio Playboys first," Mansfield said.
It was through the radio show, Big Jeff Bess met 'Tootsie'.
"In her early days with Jeff, she was a comedian," Weakley said.
"They hit it off," Martin continued. "Got married. Tootsie's opened in 1960."
"He and Tootsie bought Mom's Place on Broadway," Mansfield said. "People started calling it Jeff and Tootsie's."
"That was the only place musicians hung out back then," Martin said. "They would barrel out the backstage door at the Ryman into the backdoor of Tootsie's in between Opry shows."
"When they divorced, my grandmother bought him out and remained there from 1960 to her passing in 1978," Weakley said.
The legacy of Big Jeff Bess includes 16 years at WLAC, honky tonks he owned, and films he would star in including A Face in the Crowd with Andy Griffith.
That's a journey I took because Keeton found something in storage, which led me to call Mansfield who knew Weakley who knew Martin.
"Completely random!" Keeton laughed.
"I do love a random story!" Mansfield said.
Aren't those random journeys grand?
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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