(light jazz music) (cicadas buzzing) - [Announcer] Forget the eclipse and get ready for cicada totality, and there will be those who are going to do more than just tolerate these big bugs.

- Yeah, we'll probably be hearing about some cicada cook-offs.

- [Announcer] One of the world's worst archival disasters happened more than 50 years ago in St. Louis, and the efforts to restore military records continue to this day and beyond.

- Six million records, that's gonna take a really long time.

(laughs) - [Announcer] And the story of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson, gone now for almost 20 years, but certainly not forgotten.

- That's a good feeling right there, that this is my contribution to music.

- [Announcer] It's all next on "Living St. Louis".

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) - Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

Get ready, they're big, they're loud, and some would say they're ugly.

It doesn't matter, though.

The cicadas, they're coming, as they do every year, but this year, there's been a lot of talk about a bumper crop.

Brooke Butler went to check on, well, what the buzz is all about.

(cicadas buzzing) (light jazz music) - [Brooke] It's a familiar sound of summer, cicadas.

Emerging after spending most of their life underground, they make sure their presence is well known by greeting us with their powerful songs and leaving behind their exoskeleton for us all to remember them by.

- They do not bite, nor do they sting, so they truly are harmless.

Other than some people find them frightening because they're so large, there's really no harm that can come to you from interacting with a cicada.

- Erin Shank is an urban wildlife biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and one of her goals this year is to show people how cool and beneficial cicadas are, despite their icky reputation.

And 2024 is a great year for this goal because, as you may have heard by now, there is a rare phenomenon coming.

(suspenseful music) It's been referred to as the cicada-pocalypse.

Is that really what we're gonna see?

- No, no.

- No?

- There is nothing apocalyptic about cicadas.

This is not a biblical plague of any kind.

What we will see is a normal Brood XIX emergence in the St. Louis area.

- [Brooke] Brood is the term used to classify cicadas based on their lifespan, so Brood XIX, that we will see around St. Louis this year, only emerges every 13 years.

Your ears may still be ringing from their last emergence in 2011.

This year will be historic because there will also be a 17-year brood emerge in other parts of the Midwest.

This will be the first time the two broods overlap since 1803, but despite the cicada-pocalypse claims, the two broods will not appear in the same region at the same time.

- Soil temperatures have to reach 64 degrees about eight to 12 inches down.

That's where the cicadas have been living out their lives for the last 13 years, and so mid to late May, we will start to see them emerging.

As they emerge, they still don't have their wings, so what they typically do is climb a short way up a tree or a shrub, and you'll see them kind of shedding that last exoskeleton.

That's something that folks probably remember from our last cicada emergence, is you will see millions of those exoskeletons as well kind of stuck to where that final adult emerged.

- Once they take flight, they don't go far to mate, lay eggs, and complete their lifecycle.

The baby cicadas, called nymphs, then bury themselves underground, where the whole process starts again.

And while they may seem like a nuisance to humans, experts see an increase in other wildlife after these periodical emergences because cicadas provide so much extra nutrition for animals that feed on them.

Eaten by other wildlife and, as I've heard, a lot of people like to get creative with cicada recipes.

- Yeah, we'll probably be hearing about some cicada cook-offs.

Some coworkers of mine, we have done that in the past, and we'll do it again this year.

I'm not saying that I love it, but it is an interesting phenomenon, you know, and kind of a fun way to take part in a cicada emergence.

- [Brooke] It's safe to say that I will not be participating in any cicada cook-offs this year, but I think Erin has achieved her goal by showing me how cool cicadas can be, even if it's just from a distance.

- 51 years ago, there was a fire in St. Louis that destroyed and damaged millions of military personnel records.

As Leah Gullet shows us, restoration efforts have been going on ever since, and will continue for a long time to come.

- [Leah] Archiving and preservation is the guardian of our nation's history, and the United States Archives and Records Administration holds the documents and stories of U.S. citizens dating back to the late 19th century and the United States military records.

There are 40 national archive campuses across the nation, and here in North County St. Louis, the National Personnel Records Center is the 2nd largest national archives building in the country.

- The main archives in D.C., well, all of the archives, have all the federal agency records, but our main focus here, in the Preservation office, is to take care of the burned records from the fire in 1973.

- Tell me more, what is the exact date that that fire happened?

What time of the year was that, do you know?

- July 12th, I believe, 1973.

Yeah, it caught fire around midnight or so.

(bubbly piano music) - A disastrous fire broke out on the 6th floor of what used to be the National Personnel Records Center, the building right behind me.

It burned uncontrollably for almost 24 hours, destroying over 22 million military records.

It's known as one of the greatest losses of modern world history.

It started a salvaging project that would last for decades.

- Last year was the 50th anniversary of the fire.

We keep our records now, the burned records, in a temperature and humidity-controlled area to preserve them.

- The labor and care that is put into restoring these documents is a career that many people aren't aware of.

Here there are different labs and processes that they use to take care of these historical records.

Can you tell me what this process here is that you're using?

- Oh, this is the humidification chamber that we have this in, which puts vapor into this chamber here, and what it does is it'll relax that paper.

This paper here is really dry, so as the moisture goes in, it relaxes that paper and kind of gets some of the folds out.

(soothing instrumental music) - Right, now we're going into our Decontamination Lab.

This is where we do most of our work on the burned and moldy records.

(soothing instrumental music continues) This is a type of record that we see probably the most.

Sometimes there's a little metal depressor that goes along the top that just really rusts into the paper, and it's very difficult to get out, and either using your hands, which is kind of what I like to do, or you can use what's called a microspatula, you can slide up underneath there and lift those up, and it kind of helps you get that nice bit in.

I'm gonna get some of these pieces out so they don't crumble, and then I'm gonna find the back of this, and then I'm gonna slowly lift these off, doing my best to keep this ruffled char attached to the page.

(soothing instrumental music continues) - [Leah] There are other preservation and archiving projects that they work on outside of the burned records.

To prioritize the damaged military records would be counterproductive to their overall work, so they decided to work on them on a case by case basis.

- It would take hundreds of years, I think, to get them digitized, and for the burned records, there are 16 of us here to work on those, so that's gonna take a really long time.

(chuckles) Six million records, even having started, you know, in 1999 or 2000, with dealing with them, it's just more than we could ever do.

- Preservation is actually done by everyone.

So, we do conservation, right?

We do the treatments, but the littlest thing, how you put it into a box, how you set it on your desk, all of those lead to a long-term preservation of a document.

- [Leah] And the last stop, the Reformatting Lab.

Here they have one of their most revolutionary conservation methods for the burned documents and microfilm scanning.

- So, we're gonna show you a little bit about our content recovery process, which uses infrared light.

Humans can only see a very small amount of light, but using infrared technology, we are able to actually see through the totally charred areas of record and recover that information.

- The really interesting thing about the infrared camera and this documentation and this paper is that when the fire happened, the paper and the ink burned at two different temperatures.

And with it burning at two different temperatures, the ink is still there, and so what the infrared camera does, it refracts the light, and it draws out the ink so you can actually, it separates, and you can actually read the documentation that's underneath there.

And what is cool is, is that right around here, this little part could be someone saying that they were honorably discharged or not, and this could be the only information that could help that one individual to get benefits, or their family benefits, or their grandchildren to find out what grandad did or grandma did in service.

- It provides them with so many benefits, and I think that's really our focus here.

People are always interested in the past and their ancestors and what came before us, so I think there will always be a place for preservation and conservation.

(soothing orchestral music) - It's an old St. Louis riddle, who has played for both the Blues and the Cardinals?

Today, we have the answer.

(lively organ music) - My name's Jeremy Boyer, and I'm the organist for the St. Louis Blues, I play the organ for the St. Louis Cardinals, and I'm also the Director of Music and organist at St. Francis of Assisi in Oakville.

I think my earliest memory of playing music was when I was about 12 years old.

I was already abandoning school, and came home.

My mom had an organ at the house, and I decided to start kind of applying what I'd learned in music at school to the organ and started teaching myself how to play.

So, that was kind of my earliest memory of sitting down at the keyboard and trying to figure out how to play some stuff and learning how to play the organ.

So, growing up as kid, you know, in St. Louis, Ernie Hayes was the man, of course.

He was the guy playing the organ for the Blues and the Cardinals at the time, and, you know, sitting around the house, I'd always try to mimic what Ernie was playing on the radio or on TV, sitting down at the keyboard and figuring out what was he playing and how he played it.

One day, I got lucky enough to get to take lessons with Ernie at his home, in his studio, and that really fine-tuned my craft a little bit and got to know Ernie really well, which was a joy for me, and I became a better musician and a better organist, and, of course, learned what it takes to become a sports organist, too.

(lively organ music) (crowd clapping) (lively organ music continues) (crowd continues clapping) (lively organ music continues) (crowd continues clapping) I studied music at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, and I graduated there in 2004 with my Bachelor in Music Education degree, and played for baseball and basketball.

And a classmate of mine ended up being an intern for the Memphis Redbirds, the Cardinals' Triple-A team, and they needed an organist, and she was like, "Hey, I know somebody," so they gave me a call.

They were like, "Hey, could you come down and give us a shot," and I'm like, "Yeah."

So, I went down, started playing in Memphis for the Redbirds, and before long, the Blues had called me and asked if I'd be interested in coming up and auditioning for them, and I auditioned for them, and it all worked out, and I've been playing there ever since, about 17 seasons.

Two or three years later, the Cardinals asked me to come help out with games over there, and I came over to help out Dwayne Hilton, who also plays at Busch Stadium, and played some games at Busch Stadium as well.

(upbeat organ music) (upbeat organ music continues) I don't really get nervous playing anymore.

It's, you know, something I've done for so long now that I'm used to the situation, and, you know, I'm just focused on what I'm doing and I just play, and it all comes out, and I don't really get nervous too much about it anymore.

In my first year or two maybe, there were spots where maybe I got a little bit nervous, but, you know, as I've grown into the role, I've kind of lost those nerves or shaken them off.

(somber organ music) I think my favorite part about being an organist for a sports team is sharing what I love to do with the fans, both through my music and getting to share my music with the fans, but also the interactions with the fans, where they get to come up and see the organ.

You know, at Blues games, I'm out in the crowd.

You know, there's lots of kids that come up, and they're just big-eyed and got big smiles on their faces, and I love to share that with them.

I have 'em sit on the organ bench, I have 'em touch the keys, the whole bit, 'cause that might be what inspires them to one day play the organ, and, you know, I love to share that with them.

That makes it all worth it to me.

- Finally, this week in history, it was 19 years ago, April of 2005, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson passed away.

The summer before, I had the honor of meeting him and telling the story of a man who had finally gotten the recognition he deserved.

(bluesy jazz music) - Yeah, don't give me that, just give me a C. - [Anne-Marie] It's July 2004, and these guys weren't warming up for just any show.

This was a party, a birthday party, for one of Rock and Roll's greatest musicians.

Johnnie Johnson, known to many as the Father of Rock and Roll, was celebrating his 80th birthday.

- [Stage Announcer] Johnnie Johnson, y'all.

(lively jazz music) - [Anne-Marie] And more than 10,000 of his loyal fans came out to wish him well and hear a little music.

(upbeat jazz music) (backup singer clapping) (upbeat jazz music continues) (singer continues clapping) Johnnie was a self-taught piano player.

He never had a lesson.

His God-given talent got him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

His star is on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

He played with some of the world's greatest musicians.

In fact, Johnnie's contributions to rock and roll are so great that Mayor Francis Slay declared July 8th, 2004, which is Johnnie's birthday, Johnnie Johnson Day in the city of St. Louis.

♪ I've got the blues (bluesy jazz music) - But these accolades didn't happen overnight.

You see, Johnnie was a sideman.

He's best known for playing piano in Chuck Berry's band, a gig that lasted almost three decades, but he did no recording on his own, and it was almost a lifetime before he got any recognition for himself.

(traffic rumbling) East St. Louis is where things started for Johnnie Johnson.

During the 1950s, jobs were plentiful.

There were tire factories, steel foundries, and Johnnie moved here after the war to look for a job.

He worked a few places, including the railroad, and he had a very short stint at a slaughterhouse, a job that almost put at end to his musical career before it even began.

- One day, I stuck the knife in the sheep's neck, and the knife hit a bone, and ricocheted off the bone right through my thumb, and that said, I didn't even know I was cut until when I got to the end, where I would turn the sheep loose, I saw this thing dangling, and then looked, and it was my thumb.

And all of this was white meat up under here, but this was so quick, it didn't have time to bleed before I'd seen it, and then, naturally, they rushed me over to Barnes Hospital, put me to sleep, and sewed it back on.

That was, then, I worked for them exactly three hours and that was the end of that job.

(machines whirring) - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie found a different day job, but on the weekends, he took advantage of the East St. Louis music scene.

There were music clubs on every corner, entertaining crowds 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

- I formed me a little trio and called it the Sir John Trio, and I was playing different little clubs around in East St. Louis.

(lively jazz music) - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie's band played regularly at this now long-neglected building.

Back then, it was a hot spot, the Cosmopolitan Club, and on New Year's Eve, 1952, Johnnie found his trio one man short, and he made a decision that would change the course of music forever.

- One night, my saxophone player got sick and he couldn't make the job, and I had heard Chuck Berry 'cause he was playing right up the street from where I was, at a place called Huff's Garden, and I had his phone number.

One night, I gave him a ring and asked him would he sit in for that one night, and that one night lasted over the 20-something years that we stayed together, you know?

Chuck, playing this kind of music that he played, was something new to the Black people because they're used to hearing blues and whatever, and Chuck came in with this, what we called it that time, hillbilly style, and it went off like a Chinese firecracker.

(rhythmic piano music) - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie's rhythm and blues sound gelled perfectly with Chuck's hillbilly style.

Chuck would bring the lyrics to rehearsal, and Johnnie would score the music behind it.

It was the perfect partnership.

In 1955, Chuck and Johnnie went to Chicago to record "Maybellene", the first of many songs they would record together.

♪ Maybellene, why can't you be true ♪ ♪ Oh, Maybellene, why can't you be true ♪ ♪ You done started doing the things you used to do ♪ - And after "Maybellene" came out and whatever, then it became the Chuck Berry Trio because during that time, only the artist's name was mentioned on the 45s, no sidemen whatsoever.

♪ Just let me hear some of that rock 'n' roll music ♪ ♪ Any old way you choose it - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie thought they were just playing a shuffle-style of music, you know, the kind of music people could dance to, like the music of Fats Domino, but this dance music was about to get a name of its own.

- And we went on this Alan Freed tour, and we were playing in Brooklyn, New York, and Alan Freed was standing by security.

In fact, I was as close to him as I am to you.

He said, "Look at those kids.

Boy, they're just rocking and rolling," and right in the middle of this taping, he'd say, "Hey, why don't we call that music rock and roll music?"

And, boom, that's where the name comes from.

- [Anne-Marie] For the next 27 years, the man immortalized as "Johnny B. Goode" was Chuck Berry's sideman, providing numerous rock and roll classics with his own piano style, but as a sideman, Johnnie received little acknowledgement, and certainly no royalties.

- To the public, they didn't know who I was, but they also enjoyed my music 'cause I'd been told years later, "I often wonder who was that playing all that piano on Chuck Berry's records."

- [Anne-Marie] In 1973, Johnnie called it quits.

He said it wasn't anything personal, he was just tired.

(lively piano music) Johnnie didn't understand the business behind the music and never realized that he could've made an income from many of Berry's hits, and spent the next several years living an extremely hard life, a life of mere anonymity, stricken with poverty, and drowning in alcoholism.

While Chuck Berry was making millions from songs he and Johnnie created together, his loyal sideman was dirt poor and drinking himself to death.

But in 1986, Johnnie Johnson was given one last chance, not only for his music, but for his life.

(upbeat rock and roll music) ♪ Maybellene - [Anne-Marie] Chuck Berry was turning 60, and a feature film documentary was being done about his career.

In conjunction with the filming of "Hail!

Hail!

Rock 'n' Roll", an all-star performance was to be held at the Fox Theater, with such performers as Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Johnnie Johnson.

(upbeat rock and roll music continues) This documentary revealed what many in the music business already knew, but few outside were aware of, Johnson's piano style was instrumental in the development of rock and roll.

- He does "School Days" as da-da-da-da-da-da.

He ain't copying Chuck's riffs on piano.

Chuck adapted 'em to guitar and put those great lyrics behind them, but without somebody to give him them riffs, voila, no song, just a lot of words on paper.

- [Anne-Marie] In 2001, Johnnie did file a lawsuit against Chuck Berry for his share of royalties from songs they created together, but a judge ruled in Berry's favor, saying too much time had passed.

Johnnie did become sober, and he toured the world.

He recorded with Keith Richards, Bo Diddley, Bonnie Raitt, and Aerosmith, just to name a few.

Johnnie recorded a few CDs of his own, and in the end, was billed not as a sideman, but a frontman.

(lively jazz music) (lively jazz music continues) - He's a man who has been working in the music and the entertainment field for a great deal of time and who has experienced it on a variety of levels.

I mean, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, this guy has an opportunity to work on some extraordinary levels in his profession, and at the same time, he allows himself to funnel those kinds of experiences to the musicians which he worked with, especially to this band.

(lively jazz music continues) - [Anne-Marie] So, on his 80th birthday, his last birthday, Johnnie Johnson did what he did best.

♪ It was a long time coming ♪ But I knew I would see the day ♪ ♪ It was a long time coming ♪ But I knew I would see the day ♪ I never imagined I would go this far.

I never imagined I'd get into the Hall of Fame.

Just me knowing my music that I play has been recognized by the public, you know, I mean, it's a gift from God I think He wanted me to share with the public, you know.

That's a good feeling right there, that this is my contribution to music.

♪ Drink of tanqueray ♪ Aah-aah-aah-aah ♪ Drink of tanqueray That's this week's "Living St. Louis".

Follow us on social media and share your comments and story ideas with us at NinePBS.org/LSL.

For "Living St. Louis", I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

(lively jazz music) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.