What Happened to Johnny Ace?
It’s the evening of Christmas Day, 1954, and Johnny Ace — one of the biggest singing stars of the day — is due to take to the stage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas. But backstage, a gun goes off… and he never makes it.
Depending on who you ask — or which version of the story you hear — it was either a tragic accident… a reckless mistake… or something darker.
Early Life
Born John Marshall Alexander Jr. in 1929, he was the sixth child in a large, deeply religious family. His father, John Alexander Sr was a Baptist minister and his mother Leslie sang in the church choir. John sang there for a while too.
There was a piano in the Alexander family home, but according to his mother, John showed little interest in it as a child. He received no formal musical training and didn’t begin taking music seriously until after leaving school and spending a short time in the Navy.
After returning to Memphis, John was jailed for six or seven months in Mississippi for trespass. It was there that he began playing guitar. He picked up the piano later—the instrument he would eventually build his career on.
In July 1950, at the age of 21, John married 16-year-old Lois Jean Palmer after she became pregnant with their first child, Glenn. Although they married without his parents’ knowledge, Lois Jean was allowed to move into the family home. Their daughter, Janet, was born in 1952.
By the following year, however, John and Lois Jean had separated, and he had also become estranged from his family. His parents disapproved of the kind of music he performed, although they said they had never told him so.
The Beale Streeters
John started his music career as a pianist, playing gigs in the Beale Street district of downtown Memphis — known as the home of the blues. He was part of a loose group of musicians who would later become known as the Beale Streeters. This included Earl Forrest, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Herman “Little Junior” Parker, Johnny Ace and the now legendary BB King. They often stayed at the Mitchell Hotel on the corner of Beale and Howard Streets, the owner Andrew “Sunbeam” Mitchell loved music and was known to give free room and board to musicians who could play the blues or had a compelling story. At one time, John, Earl Forrest and BB King all stayed at the Mitchell Hotel and according to Forrest they all wore the same suit size and would often share clothes.
The Palace Theatre on Beale Street held amateur nights, hosted by Nat D Williams, and later Rufus Thomas, both DJs on WDIA Radio. Everyone that got up and performed would get $1, and in those days, you could buy a full dinner on Beale Street for 20cents. The winners, and losers, were decided by the audience who were known to be a tough crowd, throwing objects at acts they were particularly unimpressed by. John, BB King and the other Beale Streeters were all regular performers there.
WDIA was one of the first radio stations in the country to switch to an all-Black format and had a reach that extended far beyond the city itself. By the early 1950s, stations like WDIA were connecting audiences across the South and helping turn local records into regional hits. King was initially hired to sing a jingle for Peptikon tonic, a product owned by the station's founders. This eventually led to them giving him his own show.
The Beale Streeters served as B.B. King’s band for his WDIA radio segments and played on many of his early recordings. In 1950, under the advice of Ike Turner — then working as a producer and talent scout for Modern Records —the Bihari Brothers signed B.B. King to their RPM label. After he won the amateur night at the Palace Theatre, Rosco Gordon was also scouted by Ike Turner. By 1951 both BB King and Rosco Gordon had scored hit singles with the label. It seemed one by one the Beale Streeters were getting their break, but John Alexander seemed content sitting behind the piano, out of the spotlight. That was at least until BB King’s first hit record took him away from Memphis, so John took over the band, but he still left vocal duties to Bobby Bland.
Becoming Johnny Ace
At the end of 1951 WDIA hired a new program director, David James Mattis, and shortly after settling into his new job he set up his own record company, Duke Records.
Unlike other small labels who played it safe by signing established artists, Mattis was keen to capture the raw talent coming into the station off the street. The first artist he recorded was Rosco Gordon who following his top 10 hit with RPM had recorded some singles for Sam Phillips at Sun Records.
The next recording scheduled for May 1952 was to be Bobby Bland, who was due to join the army soon after. John Alexander was booked to play piano for the session and he arrived early, and well prepared. While he waited for Bland to arrive, he warmed up by jamming his own version of Ruth Brown’s “So Long”. When Bobby Bland arrived Mattis discovered that he was not nearly as ready as John, he hadn’t learned the song they had planned to record and as he was illiterate, he couldn’t simply read and sing along. Mattis scrapped the session he had planned but rather than waste the time he rewrote the lyrics to “So Long” to fit John’s piano arrangement and 15 minutes later the song was recorded. Mattis changed the title from “So Long” to “My Song”, and so as not to shame his family John Alexander Jr, became Johnny Ace.
“My Song” went to number one on the R&B charts…and stayed there for nine weeks. From there, everything accelerated. He began touring relentlessly—more than 300 shows a year—for the next two years. Hit followed hit. Eight successful records in a row. In 1955, a national poll of radio DJs named Johnny Ace the most-played R&B artist of the year.
But in 1950s America, success didn’t exist on a level playing field. The music industry was segregated…just like the country itself. Black artists were placed into Rhythm & Blues charts—or what had only recently been called “Race Records.” White artists dominated the Pop and Country charts, even when the music didn’t fit neatly into those categories.
Johnny Ace was one of a small number of Black artists pushing against those boundaries. His records weren’t just succeeding on the R&B charts…they were beginning to cross over onto white radio and into the pop market. But success like that didn’t happen on its own. It was being driven…managed…and controlled…by a man named Don Robey.
Don Robey and Duke Records
Long before Russell Simmons and the black music industry moguls of the Hip Hop era, before Berry Gordy built the Motown empire, there was Don Robey. Black Swan Records, founded in 1921 by Harry Pace, is regarded as the first black-owned record label, and while it was historically important and structurally pioneering, Harry Pace ran it more like a cultural social enterprise, with the artists and the audience at the core of the business. Like how people think record companies should be run. Like many well-intentioned endeavours, Black Swan was short lived. Don Robey and his business practices were different from Harry Pace in almost every conceivable way. Robey thrived because of this, not despite it.
So, who was Don Robey?
Don Deadric Robey was born in 1901, in Houston Texas, to a Jewish mother and African American father. He seemed to embrace his mixed heritage, often expressing that he felt he had the best of both worlds within him. Although he dropped out of school early, by the early 1930s he had established himself in the local business community, first establishing a taxi company, then an amusement parlour before setting up cafés and nightclubs. In 1945 he set up The Bronze Peacock Dinner Club, which was described by local historian Roger Wood as “arguably the most sophisticated African American owned and operated nightclub in the south during the 1940s and 1950s”. There he promoted events that featured some of the biggest jazz and blues stars of the day, such as Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.
He was part of an informal network of African American nightclub owners, gamblers, and entertainment kingpins across the South and Midwest. They controlled the venues in what was known as the “Chitlin Circuit”; their business practices and reputation were often compared to the mafia. Robey would take the cash takings from the Peacock Club and boldly walk up to the bank with a shotgun for protection. He had a reputation as someone you didn't cross.
By 1947 Robey had launched the Buffalo Booking Agency and was managing some of the artists that performed at his club, his first act Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown was plucked from the audience when T-Bone Walker fell ill. Robey recognised the talent and set about trying to find the young musician a record deal. After the artist managed only moderate success on Aladdin Records Robey decided to set up his own label, Peacock Records although the job of researching the mechanics of the music industry and writing a business plan was left to the Peacock Club’s office manager Evelyn Johnson. “He didn’t know a record from a hubcap!” Johnson said of Robey.
Nevertheless, with Johnson’s business planning and the talent of the musicians Robey had assembled the label began to make money, but Robey wanted more. In the 1940s and 1950s the real money and power in the music industry was in publishing. Owning and controlling compositions could be much more lucrative than owning recordings.
Publishers earned from every recording, every cover version, every live performance of the songs they owned, and in the 1950s it wasn't uncommon for a hit song to have a dozen or more cover versions within weeks of the original. So, the next obvious step was to move into publishing. Robey began purchasing the rights to songs his recording artists had written, often for a fraction of their potential value or in exchange for cars, expensive clothes and jewellery. He would also claim partial or full song writing credits for himself under the name Deadric Malone, thereby securing both the publisher's share and the writer's share for himself. It's unclear how many, if any, of the 1200+ compositions credited to him he actually wrote.
As Robey’s recording, publishing and artist management businesses grew, he turned The Peacock Club into a recording and rehearsal studio.
Also in 1952, Robey made a deal with bandleader Johnny Otis to take some of his artists with him on tour with his California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, which toured the country extensively. Otis himself had been named R&B artist of the year in 1950 by Billboard and was gaining a reputation as something of a “star maker” having recorded prodigious talent like Esther Phillips and unearthing a 13-year-old Etta James.
Having artists on his bill, even just opening shows, was expected to give them a boost. Johnny Otis also agreed to produce recordings for the artists he took on tour. One such artist was Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. She began as the opening performer but proved to be a hard act to follow so eventually got moved up the bill to be the one closing the show.
Meanwhile, back in Houston, Duke Records was releasing Johnny Ace’s debut single, “My Song” but David Mattis had a problem, the popularity of the first release was putting pressure on the fledgling label. He had invested around $5000, the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s money, and the records were selling. However, the cash returns from the distributors and retailers were slow to come back in. “Sunbeam” Mitchell came to hear about the teething problems at Duke and informed Don Robey. As one of the venue operators on the Chitlin Circuit, Sunbeam had dealings with Robey, and would often keep him up to date with what was going on in Memphis.
After listening to “My Song” Robey was keen on the idea of some kind of deal with Duke but as a black business owner in the Jim Crow South he knew it may raise some eyebrows if he began making moves on a white owned business. So, he sent his sales manager Irving Marcus to meet with Mattis in Memphis instead. Mattis would have understood exactly what Robey and his network could do for Duke, and Marcus would have been one of best people to put Peacock’s case forward, he had been instrumental in building a national distribution network for Robey’s label having gained considerable experience at King Records. Whatever he said to Mattis impressed him and a deal was made late in July between the 2 labels. Robey was due at National Association of Music Merchants annual trade show at the end of July, and it was an ideal opportunity to promote his labels to all the buyers in the industry. However, there was no time to press any copies of “My Song” so Robey just took the master with him, and played it to a handful of distributors crammed into a hotel room. It went down a storm and Robey reportedly secured over 40,000 orders for the single.
In early August 1952 Billboard reported that Peacock Records had taken over the Memphis label, later that month Robey took out a full-page advert in Billboard announcing “Peacock Proudly Introduces Duke Records” and featuring Johnny Ace’s single. Less than a week later the single was in the R&B retail top ten. By September it was the number 1 selling R&B record according to Billboard.
Back In August 1952, Johnny Otis recorded “Hound Dog” with Big Mama in Los Angeles, with the then teenage song writing duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller but the copyright application submitted in September 1952 listed Don Robey and Willie Mae Thornton as the writers. Plans to release the single were delayed.
Robey moved the Duke operation to Memphis and seemingly cut Mattis out of the action. In November, Mattis confronted Robey about the mechanics of their partnership. According to Mattis, Robey pulled a big automatic pistol out of his drawer and slammed it on the desk. The argument ended with Mattis selling his share of Duke to Robey for $10,000, giving Robey full control of the label, and its artists. In January 1953 Johnny Ace’s 2nd single “Cross my heart” was released and it also made it to number 4 on the R&B best sellers chart, and number 3 for jukebox plays. In late February 1953 Big Mama’s “Hound Dog” hit the stores, it had been so long since it was recorded Big Mama said she had forgotten the words. By the following month the positive reviews in Billboard, Cash Box and other publications had started to translate to sales and the popularity of the record began to grow and the single started to climb the charts. In June Johnny Ace’s 3rd single “The Clock” was released, it made it to the top spot on the R&B charts for both sales and jukebox plays, making it 3 hits in a row for Ace.
“Hound Dog” was now gaining momentum and it eventually made number 1 on the R&B chart and remained at the top for 7 weeks. Robey claimed that demand for copies of the single was so great that he had to buy 2 new presses and run them day and night to meet the demand, and he boasted the record had sold more than half a million copies. Whatever the exact figures were, one thing was clear. With Johnny Ace and Big Mama, Robey had 2 of the hottest names in R&B on his books.
Thornton’s next single “Cotton Picking Blues” didn’t sell anywhere near as well as “Hound Dog” and failed to chart but ticket sales for her shows with Johnny Ace were seemingly unaffected.
In September 1953, in an attempt to capitalise on Ace’s stardom Modern Music – the label Johnny had recorded with as part of the Beale Streeters sessions organised at the recommendation of Ike Turner, released “Midnight hours journey”.
The Billboard review noted that he sounded nothing like the Johnny Ace on the Duke releases and concluded, correctly, that these were old recordings. Nevertheless, they praised the performance and encouraged their readers, a large number of whom were buyers for record stores and jukeboxes, that it would likely sell well and get lots of jukebox spins. Even if just on name recognition alone. In fact, Johnny’s name and reputation could do more than shift records, The Johnny Ace show, with Big Mama, was proving to be a box office hit and much like how Big Mama got a boost from her appearance on Johnny Otis’ show, The Johnny Ace show was also able to give rising stars a platform.
A 20-year-old Little Richard had signed with Peacock earlier in 1953 after an unsuccessful run of singles on RCA Camden and his group The Tempo Toppers was an opening act for some shows on Johnny Ace’s tour including a 2 week stay in New Orleans. While his singles on Peacock didn’t trouble the charts, Little Richard’s appearances at these shows began to establish his reputation as a high energy flamboyant performer.
The touring schedule was relentless — sometimes two or three shows a day, often the extra performance was due to segregation, it would be one show for the white audience and another for the black people.
Night after night, town after town. From Texas through Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida… up the East Coast, across the Midwest… then back down to Texas to start all over again.
Sometimes they would stop off at a studio somewhere, record some songs for future releases and then on to the next show.
While passing through Florida, Johnny acquired a gun. A small calibre revolver. Some say he got from another musician on the circuit, other reports say he bought it from a pawn shop. Either way, once he got the gun, he would play with it constantly. Shooting the Os in stop signs and zeros in speed signs from the car he was travelling in. He was also known to point the unloaded gun at people and pull the trigger. SNAP!
Johnny Ace appeared on the cover of the October 3rd Cash Box. His first 3 singles had together sold more than 1 million copies and to mark the occasion Johnny was presented with a gold clock, a little nod to his 3rd single “the clock”. It was presented to him on behalf of the nation’s jukebox operators by George Miller the president of the Music Operators of America, with Don Robey, Irv Marcus and a number of other industry figures.
Later that month, Johnny released his 4th single on Duke, “Saving My Love” with “Yes Baby” a duet with Big Mama on the B-side. However, her contribution was hardly promoted, with Cash Box describing her as merely “an unknown fem thrush” and not the voice behind one of the biggest hits of the year. The single peaked at number 2, continuing the sequence of hit records.
That run continued with his next single “Please Forgive Me” peaking at number 6 on the R&B charts.
That was followed by "Never Let Me Go” also a “hit” by the metrics of the day, reaching number 9 on the R&B charts but as well as a lower peak position it didn’t dominate across the 3 types of charts of the day - sales, airplay and jukebox spins – like his other singles had.
In 1954, Big Mama Thornton released several singles, none of which charted, but she continued to be prominently billed on live shows alongside Johnny Ace.
With so many consecutive hit records, Johnny Ace had spent much of the past two years on the road. Show after show… city after city… the touring never really stopped.
As 1954 drew to a close, the schedule was still relentless. The final run of the year would take him back to Houston, Texas… to the City Auditorium.
Christmas Night, 1954
On Christmas Eve they had performed in Port Arthur and made the two-and-a-half-hour journey to Houston right after the gig, arriving in the early hours of the morning. Johnny had arranged to stay at his girlfriend, Olivia Gibbs’ house.
Around three thousand people were expected at the show that night. Just another stop on the circuit… but one of the biggest rooms he’d played.
BB King had played concerts in the venue every Christmas for a few years now, and out in the lobby a brand-new Cadillac sat on display, a gift from the community to King.
The audience was segregated, with the white people up in the seated area, and the black people standing in what would later become the dancefloor.
The show was due to start at 8pm, Johnny Ace, Big Mama and the other performers arrived around 720pm.
The night began with the band playing some instrumental songs, then at around 9pm Big Mama started her set of 5 songs, followed by the band playing a few more instrumentals then, Johnny Ace took to the stage. He started slow with his smooth ballads and his first set ended on his rousing duet with Big Mama Thornton, the band played 2 more instrumentals while Big Mama headed for the dressing room to change clothes ready for the second set. She stopped along the way to sign autographs. Johnny Ace arrived backstage shortly after.
Johnny Otis and his band took to the stage next, shifting the tempo up a few notches with some faster numbers. People were dancing now, some of the younger more adventurous white folk managed to make their way down onto the dance, where the real action was. Johnny Otis’ Latin flavoured R&B had the place rocking.
Backstage, Johnny was still complaining of a toothache that had been bothering him all day, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to go back on stage, he’d been drinking all day, but nothing seemed to numb the pain.
There were a few people backstage, Johnny, his girlfriend Olivia and her friend Mary Carter, Big Mama, her bass player Curtis Tillman and another singer, Joe Hamilton, among others. Johnny and Olivia are sitting together; Johnny has his revolver in his hand.
He waves it around, occasionally pulling the trigger, each time he does the firing pin hits an empty chamber with a loud SNAP.
He starts pointing the gun in the direction of other people in the room, and pulls the trigger. Again, each time he does the firing pin hits an empty chamber. SNAP.
The others in the room react… telling him to stop... but he doesn’t. He pulls the trigger. Again, the firing pin hits an empty chamber. SNAP.
The protests get louder and more direct.
But he continues…
Pointing the gun… Pulling the trigger… SNAP.
Johnny reassures everyone, the gun isn’t going to fire. To prove it, he puts the gun to his own head, and pulls the trigger.
BANG.
Johnny Ace falls to the floor.
Nobody reacted at first… it took a few moments for what had happened to sink in. Then Big Mama ran out of the room…
“Johnny Ace just shot his self,” she said.
She made her way to the stage… where Johnny Otis was still performing. She let the audience know the show was over… there would be no more music… and that Johnny Ace had been killed.
Within hours, radio stations were already reporting the story, and for many leaving the auditorium, the details came not from the stage, but from the radio on the journey home.
Back at the venue… police are on the scene… piecing together what happened from the people in the room. Homicide detectives PY Snow and DM Fults took care of the investigation.
At 12:40 a.m., Willie Mae Thornton gave a statement to police.
She stated that Johnny Ace was sitting on a dresser, with Olivia Gibbs on his lap, holding a pistol, which he was waving around the room and pointing at people.
She said he pointed the gun at Mary Carter and at Joe Hamilton.
According to Thornton, she asked to see the gun, and Ace handed it to her. She stated that when she turned the chamber, a bullet fell out.
She said Ace told her to put the bullet back, which she did, before returning the gun to him.
She stated that Ace then pointed the gun at Mary Carter and pulled the trigger. She said it clicked.
She said she told him to stop snapping the gun at people, but he did not listen.
She stated that Ace then put the gun to Olivia Gibbs’ head and pulled the trigger. She said it clicked.
According to Thornton, Ace then said, “I’ll show you it won’t shoot,” before looking at the gun, placing it to his own head, and pulling the trigger. This time the gun fired.
She stated that she then ran to the stage to inform the band.
Olivia Gibbs’ account differed slightly, she said Johnny had been playing with the empty pistol earlier in the day at her place so she didn’t think it was loaded when he started playing with it again. She said Johnny put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. She said he then looked at the gun before putting it to his own temple and pulled the trigger.
She said Johnny fell to the floor and then most people ran out the room leaving her. Mary, and Big Mama in the room. She then ran to the box office to tell Evelyn Johnson what happened.
Mary Carter also gave a slightly different account. She said she had only been in the room a few minutes before Johnny started playing with the gun, she confirmed he had been pointing the gun at other people in the room and pulling the trigger and each time the gun clicked. She said after a while he then put the gun to Olivia’s ear and pulled the trigger. Once again, it clicked.
She stated Johnny then leaned back in his chair and told them he was going to show them “how it worked" he then put the gun to his right ear and pulled the trigger. She said she heard a “pop" and Johnny fell onto the floor.
Curtis Tillman, the bass player in the band, backs up all 3 accounts. He said Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had a pistol he was waving around the table. Someone said ‘Be careful with that thing...’ and Johnny replied ‘It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded...see?’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face and ‘Bang!’ he confirmed Big Mama ran out of the room shouting "Johnny Ace just killed his self!"
The homicide detectives investigating the case said they found Johnny, fully clothed wearing a grey suit. He was on the floor of the dressing room, cluttered with whiskey and vodka bottles.
Justice of the Peace, Walter Raegan, was called to the scene and it didn't take long for him to make his judgement on the cause of death. “Playing Russian Roulette…bullet wound to right temple…self-inflicted” he noted.
Word of the official conclusion spread quickly with people who were in the audience that night saying they heard about the incident on the radio during their journey home, and already they were reporting that it was a game of Russian Roulette that caused the tragic death.
The newspapers took a little longer to run the story.
On the morning of December 27th, The New York Times ran a single paragraph buried on page 21, under the simple headline “Bandleader Killed In Roulette,” appearing to rely entirely on the United Press report, with no elaboration.
Later that afternoon, the Memphis Press-Scimitar carried a longer account, adding more detail — again framing the incident as Russian roulette.
Yet even within that report, there were signs of uncertainty. Lieutenant George W. Lee — described as an expert in “Negro lore” — reportedly noted that it was unusual for a Black man to be playing such a game of chance.
Despite that, the conclusion remained the same.
The Story Takes on a Life of Its Own
Within a week, the narrative — the myth — was already starting to take shape.
Cleveland’s Call & Post, the Chicago Defender, and The New Pittsburgh Courier all ran stories in their January 1st issues. The Defender, under the headline “Vocalist Johnny Ace Kills Self,” presented a more dramatized version of events — introducing last words not found in any witness statements, and inflating his success from five hit records to “at least a dozen.”
The New Pittsburgh Courier also increased his hit count — but made clear they were counting each side of the singles as a separate “hit.”
This is the legend of Johnny Ace forming in real time.
The Call & Post went further. Their retelling includes a “demonstration of Russian roulette,” with Ace deliberately removing all but one bullet, spinning the chamber, and placing the gun to the heads of others in the room.
His funeral took place on January 2nd, 1955 at Clayborn Temple. More than 4,000 people attended — double the church’s capacity — spilling out into the surrounding streets. It was one of the largest funerals Memphis had seen in years.
The list of attendees read like a who’s who of R&B. Among the active and honorary pallbearers were B.B. King, Big Mama Thornton, Rosco Gordon, Little Junior Parker, Don Robey, and Harold Conner — who coverage in the Chicago Defender suggested was being groomed to take over as leader of Johnny Ace’s band.
After the funeral, Johnny’s sister Norma went to Houston to meet with Don Robey and Evelyn Johnson to arrange some sort of payment for Johnny’s widow and two children. Johnny had no money due to him, they told her, in fact according to them he owed them money for unrecouped advances and other expenses. The Alexander family engaged a Dallas lawyer to take on Robey, but they advised them Robey was too powerful with too many friends in Texas for their suit to be successful, so they dropped the legal proceedings. For now.
A week later, industry publication Cash Box covered the Johnny Ace story — focusing not on the circumstances of his death, but on the loss to the industry, the label, and the stores selling his records.
That same week, The New Journal & Guide repeated the now-established “Russian roulette” narrative — but the four witnesses reported earlier had become seven, along with the claim that Ace had deliberately left a single bullet in the chamber.
As the weeks passed, the tone shifted again. What began as reporting became interpretation… and then something closer to moralising.
Articles no longer just described what happened — they tried to explain it.
Speculating on Ace’s character… his state of mind… even assigning meaning to the way he died.
The facts remained thin. But the story kept growing.
Not everybody welcomed the increasingly elaborate stories. One young woman from Brooklyn, wrote to the Pittsburgh Courier asking them to stop speculating. “There really shouldn’t be no such story, only God and Johnny know.” She said she had met him “person to person” and remembered him simply as a “wonderful fellow”.
While the newspapers were turning Johnny Ace’s death into legend, Duke Records was turning his absence into inventory.
“Pledging My Love” had been released only days before his final performance. Don Robey advertised the new single in the Christmas Day issue of Billboard—an issue prepared before Johnny was killed that night.
Records, Royalties and the Afterlife of Johnny Ace
When Billboard returned after the holidays, the story had changed completely. Its January 8 issue reported Johnny’s death and said that Duke was already receiving heavy orders for his records. Demand was growing not only for “Pledging My Love,” but for his back catalogue and recordings that had not yet been released.
The following week, Billboard made “Pledging My Love” a Best Buy. Sales had already been strong before Johnny died, but the publicity surrounding his death gave the record another surge. It was now attracting both R&B listeners and the wider pop market.
In the January 22 issue—using reports collected up to January 12—the record entered Billboard’s national R&B sales and radio-airplay charts at the same time: number ten in sales and number nine in airplay.
A week later it had climbed to number four in sales, while orders were arriving at Duke in quantities Billboard said were normally associated with the major record companies.
By February 5, Billboard was reporting that “Pledging My Love” had crossed into the pop market. Cover versions were appearing from Tommy Mara, the Four Lads and Teresa Brewer.
White performers covering records by Black artists was not new, but it was becoming an increasingly effective way of carrying R&B songs into the mainstream market. For the original performer, that could be a mixed blessing. If the singer had no songwriting credit, someone else’s version could reduce sales of their record without earning them any publishing royalties.
Don Robey owned the publishing rights to “Pledging My Love” and had also given himself a songwriting credit. Every new recording created another potential source of income, so he had every reason to welcome the covers.
The covers were only one part of the response. In that very same column, Billboard reported the arrival of records written about Johnny Ace himself.
Johnny Fuller had recorded “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter,” while Varetta Dillard had recorded “Johnny Has Gone.” Billboard described Dillard’s release as the first in what might become a whole series of tributes, its lyrics constructed from the titles of Johnny’s songs.
So, the covers and the tributes did not arrive as two neat, separate waves. They were happening together: some artists were recording Johnny’s music, while others were already recording the story of his death.
In the February 12 issue, Billboard reviewed the pop covers by Teresa Brewer and the Four Lads. It also gave “Johnny Has Gone” a strong review, although Savoy’s publicity went further than the record itself—promoting Varetta Dillard as Johnny’s girlfriend.
The original “Pledging My Love” was not displaced by any of them. By the end of February, it had reached number one on Billboard’s national R&B best-sellers chart, while Teresa Brewer’s recording was emerging as the leading pop cover.
On March 5, Johnny’s record stood at number one on all three of Billboard’s national R&B charts: record sales, radio airplay and jukebox plays—the industry’s so-called “triple crown.”
That same week, Duke announced that it was packaging Johnny’s recordings into an album, promoted as the first R&B LP and EP of its kind. The demand generated by his final single was now being used to sell his entire catalogue.
Meanwhile, the tribute records continued to spread. Billboard made Johnny Fuller’s “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter” a Best Buy in its March 12 issue, reporting strong sales in several cities.
But Fuller’s was not the only record with that title. Hollywood Records had already released its own “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter,” performed by Frankie Ervin with Johnny Moore’s Blazers, backed with “Why, Johnny, Why?” sung by Linda Hayes.
Both sides had appeared before Varetta Dillard’s record on Savoy. So, after initially declaring Savoy and Aladdin the first labels to release Johnny Ace tributes, Billboard printed a correction—and an apology to Hollywood Records for overlooking its prior claim.
Johnny’s death was no longer merely selling the record he had left behind. It had become the subject of an entirely new group of records—part mourning, part mythology, but all business.
Don Robey also distorted the facts somewhat in the interest of making the story more marketable, he moved the day of Johnny’s death from Christmas day to Christmas Eve as he felt it was more romantic.
Robey felt the time was right to follow up the single with another release, but Johnny Ace had died so suddenly and unexpectedly that he had only 6 unreleased songs, and Robey only had a writing credit on one of them. So, in March 1955 Duke Records released the first of 4 Johnny Ace albums that month. First was a 10 inch LP, the first Duke release at 33 ⅓ RPM, that was titled “Memorial Album for Johnny Ace”. He also released 2 EPs both titled “Johnny Ace” which between them had all 8 of Johnny’s songs, and a 6 track EP for jukeboxes.
As well as being inundated with orders for various Johnny Ace records, the label was also swamped with requests for photos of Johnny from teenage fans all over the US.
In July 1955 Robey released the first posthumous Johnny Ace single, “Anymore” which like
“Pledging My Love” was credited as being written by Fats Washington and Deadric Malone (Robey’s pseudonym). Robey promoted it as the last recordings Johnny made. While it was true that it was from Johnny’s last recording session, it actually took place in July 1954 and not just days before his final gig as Robey implied.
The following week Billboard named it the “Best Buy” after early sales reports. Don Robey ran ads in both Billboard and Cashbox later that month declaring 300,000 pre-release sales. It entered the national R&B charts on August 6th and reached its peak positions 2 weeks later, number 8 on the jukebox charts, number 9 in retail and 13 on radio airplay.
In a bid to maintain momentum, Robey ran another ad, this time insisting that ”Anymore” was “going pop”. Nevertheless, by the middle of September it had dropped off all the charts. Try as he might, Robey just couldn’t repeat the success of “Pledging My Love” which remained the most played R&B song of 1955.
Robey tried again the following year. He ran an ad in the January 7th issue of Billboard, claiming that before “that fatal Christmas night in 1954 Johnny Ace had just finished a recording session. From that session came this record - ‘So Lonely’ ”. He had implied something similar with the release of the previous single but this time he was less subtle. The B-side was indeed recorded in his final session, in June 1954 but the a-side “So Lonely” was recorded in the same session as “Pledging My Love”. In January 1954. Despite a glowing review of the single in Billboard, it failed to make it onto any of the charts. After more than 3 years since his debut single “My Song” was released, it seemed that Johnny Ace’s momentum was running out of steam.
The legend of Johnny Ace, however, was still going strong.
In March 1956, a young black man - 23-year-old Leon Carter - died after accidentally shooting himself. The incident was described as “playing Johnny Ace” by local newspaper The Shreveport Journal. This wasn’t the first time a gun-related killing was likened to the death of Johnny Ace. Back in February of 1955, singer Lola Mae Barbee was shot dead by her boyfriend after declining his marriage proposal. He then turned the gun on himself. There was little to connect this murder/suicide to the accidental death of Johnny Ace but still the Louisville Defender ran the story with the headline “A new tragedy similar to the Johnny Ace story makes the news”.
Don Robey was seemingly undeterred by the lack of success for “So Lonely”. In April he told
Billboard he was planning another Johnny Ace release, “to be followed by some sides by Buddy Ace”. Robey had signed Johnny’s brother St. Clair under the name Buddy Ace and had first told the press over a year earlier of his plans to continue the Ace name.
He ran an advert in July announcing the release of the “Last record on the immortal Johnny Ace” along with the “First record on the versatile Buddy Ace”.
Billboard were not enthused simply writing “another blues job by the late great Johnny Ace comes out of the can”, they spoke more highly of the Buddy Ace single but neither record made the charts.
In July 1957 Robey released “Johnny Ace Memorial Album Number Two” and promised “never-before-released items” but all 12 songs on the double 12” album had in fact been released before. That same month also saw the return of Buddy Ace, although this time it was Jimmie Lee Land, not St Clair Alexander performing as Buddy. Robey never made this clear and continued to promote Buddy as Johnny’s brother. Jimmie Lee Land had a 40-odd year career as Buddy Ace but never managed to emulate Johnny’s success, his death however echoed his namesake. Jimmie Lee Land died of a heart attack, at a Christmas gig in 1994 almost exactly 40 years after Johnny.
In December 1958, Johnny Ace was brought back to life for the last time. Robey had remastered “Pledging My Love” and overdubbed new vocals by The Jordanaires, known for their work with Elvis. He ran a half page ad in Billboard to announce the rerelease of Johnny’s biggest hit.
Bill Holford, the sound engineer responsible for the original recording disowned the record, insisting he had nothing to do with it, and Johnny Otis, who produced the track also hated it, describing The Jordanaires as “Soprano Eunuchs”. The record was a commercial disaster.
It was Robey’s last attempt to resurrect the career of Johnny Ace…but the questions around his death never quite went away.
The speculation wasn’t coming from anyone who was in the room that night though, or even in the building. Over time, multiple alternative theories began to emerge around Johnny Ace’s death — some more elaborate than others — involving hidden assassins and secret gunmen — drifting further and further away from the accounts given by the people who were actually there.
One of the better-known versions came from musician and songwriter Sax Kari. He had operated in some of the same musical circles as Robey during the 1950s. He didn’t witness the events of that night, but still believed that while Robey may not have pulled the trigger, he “pulled the strings” to make it happen. In his view, Robey coerced Big Mama Thornton to slip a bullet into the gun that Johnny thought was empty. In return, Robey would make Thornton his main artist.
Robey was supposedly inspired by the death and subsequent spike in sales of Hank Williams who had died around Christmas time, in 1953, causing his last single “I’ll never get out of this world alive” to be a posthumous number 1 hit.
Kari spoke about rumours that Johnny Ace was unhappy with his deal with Duke and was planning to leave the label, causing Robey to devise a drastic plan to profit from the artist…but there’s very little evidence from the time suggesting Johnny Ace was planning to leave Duke Records at all. The idea mostly appears later…attached to the conspiracy theory itself, rather than in contemporary reporting.
And while Don Robey undoubtedly profited from Johnny Ace’s death… he had already been profiting enormously from his success in life. Ace was one of the biggest stars in Black American music. He was earning far more than the average worker of the time, touring nationally, and still placing records on the charts.
Leaving Duke wouldn’t necessarily have meant greater success… or greater earnings. And for Robey, a living Johnny Ace — still recording, still touring, still crossing over into the white market — was potentially worth far more than a dead one.
History seemed to bear that out. Despite the enormous success of ‘Pledging My Love,’ Johnny Ace’s commercial momentum faded quickly afterwards.
Robey’s reputation helps explain why the theory gained traction… but it doesn’t really withstand scrutiny. Johnny was pointing the gun at people randomly, including Big Mama. He could easily have killed someone else… including her… instead of shooting himself.
As murder plots go… it depends on a lot going exactly wrong.
By the time theories like this began circulating more widely in the 1970s and 80s… conspiracy culture itself was becoming increasingly mainstream.
The assassination of President Kennedy… Watergate… even rumours that Paul McCartney had died and been replaced by a double… all fed a growing belief that official stories couldn’t always be trusted.
In that environment, the death of Johnny Ace was perhaps always going to be reinterpreted by some people as something more sinister.
In 1976 Johnny’s widow, Jean Alexander, filed a $50,000 lawsuit to once again try and secure payment for her and Johnny’s children. However, Robey had sold his entire music business to ABC/Dunhill in 1973 and died in 1975 so she filed suit against ABC Records, ABC/Dunhill Music, Duke Records, Peacock Records, Buffalo Booking Agency, Lion Publishing Company, Evelyn Johnson and the estate of Don Robey.
The lawsuit alleged that Johnny Ace had worked “day and night” for Robey and Johnson, but only received spending money and that after his death they “fraudulently concealed their obligations to the lawful heirs of the deceased”.
Jean refused the initial settlement offer of $5,000, but was convinced by her lawyers to accept the increased offer of $13,750 rather than risk the case being moved to Houston where the settlement may get reduced or withdrawn altogether. Jean received $3,333.34, each of her 2 children got $3,333.33 and the remaining $3750 went to the lawyers.
The following year, in 1977, Elvis Presley recorded ‘Pledging My Love’ for what would become his final studio album. Johnny Ace himself was gone… but the records — and the legend — continued to drift through American culture.
In 1983 the song appeared in the horror film ‘Christine’, about a possessed car from the 1950s… introducing it to another generation.
Also in 1983, Paul Simon released ‘The Late Great Johnny Ace’ — a song that linked the death of Johnny Ace to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon… and to a wider American fascination with fame, violence and mythology.
Nearly thirty years after that Christmas night in Houston… people were still trying to make sense of the story.
In 2025, Johnny Ace’s first hit, “My Song,” appeared in Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet. More than seventy years after his death, tens of thousands of people still listen to Johnny Ace every month.
So, what happened to Johnny Ace? We may never know exactly. But more than seventy years later, he hasn’t been forgotten.
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