PRODUCTION OVERVIEW

The Dream-Scape & Planning-Site

Producer/Director/Creator Benford Standley

Associate Producers James and Austin Court

the great grandsons of Jimmie Rodgers

Buffalo Multimedia, LLC

THE EVENT WILL BE STREAMED

WORLD WIDE LIVE & VIRTUALLY LIVE

online for months and on multiplatforms after

the live broadcast we go virtually live...

 Musicians, Actors, Venues, Filmmakers, Sponsors,

Production Staff,

Volunteers

Jump on the Train

Contact us Below if you

want to be part of the festival

CONTACT US FOR A LIST OF

MUSICIANS, ACTORS

& CHARACTERS

META EXTRAVAGANZA IN THE MAKING...

Dream and brainstorm with us to create a one of

kind Festival of Music, Film, Digital Media, Art, Books and History

STREAMED LIVE AND VIRTUALLY

North, Central and South America

September 8-11, 2024

Jimmie Rodgers Texas Music & Film Fiesta

On Houston Street in Downtown San Antonio

 Will be a 4-day event will be a Fiesta of music, films, books food and spirits,

with special Music and Film Awards...a Multiplatform and Multicultural Roundup of unique talent that is a blend of the music history of the State

of Texas with a cast of artist from across the miles and miles of Texas.

JUMP ON BOARD AND HELP US BRAIN STORM...DREAM UP

AND CREATE THE BEGINNING OF A FUN AND EDUCATIONAL

EVENT FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY AND GIVE REGARDS TO

THE MANY TEXAS MUSICIANS AND PLAYERS THAT HAVE

MADE THEIR MARK IN A WIDE RANGE OF MUSIC STYLES.

Producer Benford Standley has a long history on the digital cutting

edge and STREAMING EVENTS going back to 1995 at the Troubadour

in Hollywood, producing one of the early online webcasting  events.  In 1997 he streamed Willie Nelson from the Jimmie Rodgers Festival in Kerrville, Tex working with the Bob Dylan camp and Sony Multimedia

as broadcast partner. Later streamed the Ronnie Mack Barn Dance from corner of Hollywood and Vine in 1998.  From 1999 to 2004 he streamed

the Malibu Film Festival.  November 2008 he launched the Paso Robles

Digital Film Festival for a 4 year run leading to the first Silicon Valley.

 

PASOROBLESDIGITALFILMFESTIVAL.COM

DIGITALMEDIAFESTIVAL.COM

 

JIMMIE RODGERS SAW MILES

AND MILES OF TEXAS AND

MOVED TO SAN ANTONIO

CLICK PICTURE BELOW

JIMMIE LOVED SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

The Event is Dedicated to

Jimmie Rodgers, Merle Haggard,

and runaway children & youth...

Austin Court, Buffalo Benford, James Court

 James and Austin are Great-Grandsons

 of Jimmie Rodgers

contact us

westmultimedia@gmail.com

for more info or ideas

JIMMIE RODGERS RIDES THE DIGITAL TRAIN OF TECHNOLOGY

Jimmie Rodgers story rides the same track that the cutting edge of the advancement of the

entertainment business and the technologies that drove it along.  From running away with a

medicine show as a boy then later producing his own tent show.  He was doing radio in

the early days, before he was recorded on some of the first portable recording equipment

in 1927, with his record being released on the wind-up Victrola on cylinders, record and

disks.  He was discovered at one of the early field recording of Victor Talking Machines.

From the 1830s and for the next 100 years wandering troubadours, medicine shows, and

traveling circus, wild west and minstrel shows, tent shows, rag-operas, tent repertoires,

or tent reps as the were called, the tabernacles, freak shows and dime museums, store

shows, and concert saloons gave stage to the medicine doctors, charlatans, and bombastic

grifters, the buffoonery of the barkers, and the snake oil doctors with tonics, ointments,

liniments, elixirs and snake oil jive "that it will cure whatever ales you," were traveling

from town to town. Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Gene Autry to Buck Page

of the Riders of the Purple Sage made their first money as musician in medicine shows.

Riding the train technology in 1929 to Hollywood, where he would star in one of the

early "talkie" films at RCA's new studio to further their ride into "sound on film" when

they teamed up with Columbia Screen Gems to produce a 3 song movie short of

Jimmie Rodgers in his brakeman's uniform before he took the actual train back to

his home in Texas.  Rodger's story rides the history of the early days of technology.

PLEASE CLICK TO SEE MORE

Texas Premiere of the film Jimmie Rodgers

Saga as one of the Festival's events coming

to downtown San Antonio.  During the Festival scenes for the biopic movie Jimmie Rodgers:

The Man That Started It All will be filmed.

Four Act Extravaganza

Act I: The Medicine Show

Act II: The Tent Show

Act III: The Vaudeville Show

Act IV: The Motion Picture Premiere

Remember it is a

FILM & DIGITAL MEDIA FIESTA

Back is Steven Johnson, grandson of Robert

Johnson and setting in the front is his dad

Claude Johnson the son of Robert Johnson.

The TJRMFF is proud to have the association of

Steven Johnson the grandson of the one and only

Robert Johnson.  Steven and his band will be at

the Sept 2024 Fiesta to honor his grandfather and

his historic 1936 recording session in Rm 414 of

San Antonio's own Gunter Hotel and flagship hotel

for the JRTMFF and where you can meet special

guest Stephen, and see some of the artifacts from

the RobertJohnsonBluesFoundation.org

You can visit Steven Johnson at:

StevenJohnsonMusic.com

IF YOU'D LIKE TO PERFORM OR  HAVE A DOWNTOWN LOCATION

AND/OR WOULD LIKE TO BE PART OF THE FIESTA, AS VOLUNTEER,

EXTRA IN THE MOVIE, ON STAFF, OR A SPONSOR...contact us below

We want to not only celebrate the music of Jimmie Rodgers each year, but celebrate

the cross section of who he'd became during the last 5 years of his life in Texas. The

range of influence in music has inducted into the Blues, Country, Rock, Grammy

& Songwriter Halls of Fame, and at the same time the rich heritage, the diversity

and wide range of music styles born of the Great State of Texas from the Mexican,

Blues, Tejano, Western, Country to the Austin Cosmic Cowboy Outlaw, Gonzo

Armadillo music scene. from  rocker Steve Miller from Dallas, Buddy Holly from

Lubbock, Bob Wills from Kosse, Rosie Flores from San Antonio, JoJo, Henry,

Ringo of Los Lonely Boys from San Angelo, Guy Clark from Monahans, Willie

Nelson from Abbott, Roy Orbison from Odessa, Lefty Frizzell from Corsicana,

Gene Austin from Gainesville and on and on across the miles and miles of Texas.

EACH YEAR ONE OF THE EVENTS WILL BE THE AWARDING OF

MUSICIANS CREATING A JIMMIE RODGERS HALL OF TEXAS FAME

The Cast of Characters for the show will

be entertainers and actors from a cross

section of their career in the music history

of our star Jimmie Rodgers, who will be

played by Chance Wilson.  Some will be

from the cast of our actual documentary

and many musicians from Texas music

scene performing a wide range of music

styles together with variety acts, movie stars...plus many Surprise Guests...

A VAUDEVILLE EXTRAVAGANZA

EMAIL FOR INFO

westmultimedia@gmail.com

From 1916 Jimmie was in and out of San Antonio, Texas, in 1929

he bought a house in Kerrville and had a suite he was living in at the

Gunter Hotel, and buying a house in 1931 in San Antonio.  He became

an horary Texas Ranger, wrote songs about Texas, had a radio show in

San Antonio, living there the last 4 years of his life...Our hope is that

the city of San Antonio will make him a Favorite Son after our Festival

and jump on board this Wild West Runaway Train and the First annual

JIMMIE RODGERS TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL

___________________

The Book Barn Expo

GET IT ON THE PAGE

IN ADDITION TO MUSIC, FILMS, FOOD, DANCE & SPIRITS,

WE WILL HAVE A NUMBER OF AUTHORS ATTENDING

WITH THEIR BOOKS ON MUSIC HISTORY TO GIVE

TALKS AND PRESENT THEIR WORKS...

AT THE WRITERS EXPO THERE WILL BE AUTHORS LIKE

 KATHLEEN HUDSON, DAN SaSuWeh JONES,

DAVID LEE HOMB, CHRIS FELVER, BOBBY BRIDGER, GARY P. NUNN, BARRY MAJOR,

...and more

westmultimedia@gmail.com

JIMMIE RODGERS

& THE RKO VAUDEVILLE SHOW

OPENS THE

MAJESTIC THEATER

JUNE 14, 1929, WITH 18 CURTAIN CALLS

Nine decades ago in 1929 all seats for the grand opening of the Majestic

Theater were reserved and ticket prices ranged from $2-$10. Headline

act was "The Singing Brakeman" himself Jimmie Rodgers, who'd hit the

the top of the Hillbilly Charts with his million seller "T For Texas".  He

was one of the biggest radio and record stars in America and on RCA

Victor was not a bad train to ride.  There were  performances by banjoist

Mexican Troubadour Don Galvan, aka Banjo Boy, acrobatic group called

the Seven Nelsons, Eddie Sauer and his jazz band called the Syncopators,

comedians Morton and Stout, the Shaw-Carroll Dance Revue, Harrington

Sisters, "Rays of Sunshine" and few other local acts.

The Proceeds were donated to the Ella Austin Orphans Home and the

Children’s Hospital fund of SA Junior League, and 94 years later both

organizations are still active in San Antonio helping children. The night

featured the moving picture show Follies of 1929 by Fox Movietone, one

of the early films that William Fox produced with Multicolor sequences

filmed in the experimental Grandeur wide-screen.  These were the times

that the "talkies" were presented the same night with the vaudeville shows

as this form of entertainment was going the way of the medicine shows,

vaudeville stages would become movie houses and movie theaters.

The Majestic Theater was a theater chain part of RCA Victor and RKO

Radio Pictures Vaudeville Shows aka the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Interstate

Circuit originating with deals between David Sarnoff of RCA Victor/NBC

and Joseph Kennedy. The original beginnings evolved from the Orpheum

Circuit, a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters founded in 1886 where in

1927 it was merged into the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation evolving

part of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) Corporation.

The Majestic was compared to the Fox in Atlanta and the Paramount on Broadway in New York.  The opening night of the 4-day run was a very

formal night with the Texas Governor and a number of dignitaries.  It was

a big night for Jimmie, for he was a local boy with his suite at the Gunter

Hotel across the street and house in Kerrville, Texas and he received 18

curtain calls as reported in the local news papers.

JIMMIE RODGERS TEXAS MUSIC and FILM FIESTA IS ABOUT HISTORY

With percentage of the proceeds going to help

Runaway Children & Youth

Dedication

The movie and the production is dedicated to

Jimmie Rodgers and my pal Merle Haggard,

plus the millions of runaway, homeless and

missing children in these United States...

Merle and Jimmie were both runaway kids

Standley has written 3 books on the subject.

Benford's Kid Work Bio

We plan to support and call to center stage

three great organizations that are helping to

lessen the tragedy of homeless, runaway,

missing and abused children and youth.

ELLA AUSTIN COMMUNITY CENTER

Help with early childhood, youth services while

promoting healthy life styles, leadership skills,

and self sufficiency to kids in San Antonio.

ROY MASS YOUTH ALTERNATIVE

Where they are restoring hope one child at a time... An

emergency shelter service and 24 hour drop in center,

long term residential center, transitional living program

and family counseling. RMYA's goal is to create brighter

futures for kids in crisis by promoting success in a healthy

living in a safe, healing environment and giving kids and

the families the tools to end the cycle of abuses

TEXAS YOUTH HOTLINE -866-638-7925

Originally called Peace of Mind in 1973 and operating still

today.  Producer of the Jimmie Rodgers Fiesta has a special

relationship with the program since those days for the 50

years the program has been in existence.

From 1929, till he passed away Jimmie Rodgers would

have a suite at the famous Gunter Hotel on Houston Street

The Hotel was built in 1909, the historic hotel's roots date back to the first year of the Republic of

Texas. In 1837, at the corner there had been a old Frontier Hotel and the location was stop when

the stage coach came in town.  There is a long and exciting history to the landmark and it's

known that Jimmie Rodgers, actor/writer/ humorist Will Rogers, Mary Pickford, Mae West, and

cowboy film stars Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Gene Autry stayed at the hotel, with

Will and Jimmie having suites there.  Jimmie bought a house in Kerrville in 1929, yet he was

spending most of his time in San Antonio where he was doing a radio show at KMAC, and living

in his suite at the Gunter Hotel, and bought a house in Alamo Heights.  In 1931, when Jimmie

Rodgers and Will Rodgers began their historic tour to raise money for the Red Cross they had

a huge send off party at the Gunter Hotel's Crystal Ballroom with the Mayor and the who's who

of San Antonio.  The tour is known to have saved the Red Cross from bankruptcy due to the

Depression and the Dust Bowl days, the situation that set the California migration in motion.

Blues singer Robert Johnson who was a big fan of Jimmie Rodgers and played many of his

songs, considered him a music influence and would end up in room # 414 for the first of the

only two recording sessions he would ever record in that room on November 23, 1936, some 3

years after Jimmie's death.  A talent scout had arranged the session with Don Law who had

produced Lefty Frizzell's 1951 tribute album to Jimmie Rodgers.  Johnson recorded 16 songs

that session and later Law would produce the Bob Wills recording "San Antonio Rose."

We are excited to announce that Steven Johnson, Robert Johnson's

grandson to be part of the celebration, and we plan to team up with

the San Antonio Blues Society to make this a big part of the

Jimmie Rodgers Texas Music Festival, blues band and all...

The Wild West Runaway Train set

will include medicine and tent shows

EXPERIMENTAL THEATER SYNOPSIS

Theater with a digital century twist, cow-chips to computer

chips vaudeville-style extravaganza combined with the

premiere of the Jimmie Rodgers Saga  "talkie" ...in

 Hollywood dialect "It's a medicine show meets rag opera

canvas tent show movie premiere in a vaudeville theater

staging...where a snake doctor brings out his troupe of vaudevillians to gather him a crowd, being our audience,

and they're transported to a Hollywood red carpet movie

released of a musical play documentary film during the

Jimmie Rodgers Texas

Music & Film Fiesta

An over the foot-lights show that'll be a true integrated

multimedia theatrical dime museum experience. With

singing cowboys, rope tricks, Mexicans vaqueros, Tejas

hill country Native Americans, famous characters from

history including Bob Wills, Will Rogers, Sam Houston,

Texas Troubadour Ernest Tubb, and others all presented

 in lost gonzo cosmic vaudevillian musical theater style...

Houston St. the old Theater District of

San Antonio will rock like the era of

the 1920's and 1930's...for the times

they were a changin'...

St. Louie Blues

The song was written in 1914, and considered by many

as the most important blues/jazz song ever written.  This

16 minute film directed by Dudley Murphy and working with

WC Handy who wrote the song and got Bessie Smith to

star in the movie, and is the only song of her singing on film

anywere.  Filmed in 1925, it is considered one of the first

music videos and one of the most important recordings in

history.  Erin Murphy, Dudley's daughter will screen her

Dad's film and do a Q&A about him coming out of the

silent film era into the "talkies" the "soundies" AKA

the beginning of the sound on film era.

A BIG PART OF

THE FESTIVAL

WILL BE THE

SCREENING

OF MUSIC

DOCUMENTARY

MOVIES...

We will show films all three

days of the festival, not as

a traditional "film festival,"

but a festival of movies &

new media on music history.

TO SUBMIT A FILM

contact us at email below

Blaze Foley: Duck Tape Messiah

A documentary on the everyday man behind the legend

Blaze Foley.  Born in  a tree house, killed in a friend's

living room and 86'ed from his own funeral, said to be a

kind of character that kept Austin weird. Merle Haggard

called him a hero and recorded some of his songs as

did Willie Nelson, John Prine and Lyle Lovett. I was

proud to première the film in 2008 at a Digital Film Fest. 

Written and directed by Kevin Triplett who we're going

to Stream to the screening from where he is living in the

Middle East.  Recently Ethan Hawke produced a very

successful biopic about the life of Blaze Foley.

Carrie Rodgers

Jimmie's Wife who lived

until her death in San Antonio

..

Jimmie Rodgers

Chance Wilson

Playing Jimmie Rodgers