In the early 1950’s, a very young black man walked into a bank in downtown St. Louis, Missouri to get a loan. He was carrying an old acoustic guitar his late uncle left him. He had learned to play and wanted to buy an electric guitar and amp and start a band. The guitar was his collateral.

The bank was Mound City Trust Company, and the banker was my father, Oliver Troxler, head of the loan department. He had been sizing up this young man as he spoke. When he finished telling his story, Ollie Troxler looked him in the eye and said, “The bank cannot accept a guitar as collateral for a loan … but I believe you are an honest young man and will repay the loan. So I am going to lend you the funds myself. I’ll charge you the same interest the bank charges. But I want you in that chair every Friday to make your payment. ”

The young black man was Chuck Berry. He took the funds and bought his white Gibson and an amp. Then he went to Chicago and found Muddy Waters and asked him who to record with. Muddy sent him to his studio, Chess Records. If you’ve seen the movie “Cadillac Records”, you should, just for Chuck's audition scene with Leonard Chess. Chuck Berry never forgot my father’s kindness to him, and started a weekly visit that lasted thirty years.

Dedicated people with vision, like Chuck Berry, willing to fearlessly take on great odds, can achieve great things and change history. Ollie Troxler had no idea when he made a personal loan to a young man that he would go out and change the world with his guitar, but that’s what happened. To a community banker, it was the only fair thing to do. Oliver Troxler spent 50 years at Mound City Trust Company, helping his community.

Chuck never knew it, but Oliver Troxler was continuing his father's legacy of community support. His father had owned a hardware store, and Ollie had to work there as a child, and never liked it. When he graduated high school and got his first job as a clerk at Mound City Trust Company, he was reaching beyond his blue-collar legacy. So when he met Chuck, he saw another young man reaching for more.

I am now married to a blues musician who loves to tell this story. He tells his fellow musicians, "my wife's father financed Rock N Roll", and in a way I guess he did.

-- Mary Luketich, www.TroxlerSoftware.com/about/

Thanks for the Fantastic story Mary, and Thanks to your Dad!!!

Doug

Move On Up Just A Trifle Further!!!

What an amazing, wonderful story! Thank you! And thank you Mr. Troxler! Peter

I wonder how this amazing story was digged out and appeared at the surface after two generations time !

Jan

The Gibson wasn't his first electric. Chuck Berry told the story of his first electric to Guitar Player back in 1987:

"I remember my first electric. I got it from Joe Sherman, who played The Sacred Heart Club, a religious program on WEW in St. Louis. He'd got a new one, so he let me have his old one for $30.00. I was making $10.00 a week, and he let me take it after I'd paid a $10.00 installment. I really started to play a lot after that-- it looked so good, you know, and it was easier to play tha the other ones I'd had."

A couple of the earliest pictures show you with an Epiphone non-cutaway arch-top electric.

"I never recorded with it. Those pictures were taken before ""Maybellene." And I had a little matching Epiphone amp. It was just so beautiful, made of maple-- the whole thing was lovely wood-- and on the front of it was a carved E, or maybe a treble clef sign."

Did you ever record with that amp?

"No, when we went up to Chicago I had one of the little Fenders with the flat control panel carved out of the back, and the whole thing was covered with a leatherish, funkyish, table cloth material."

But he soon gets to the Gibson:

On those first Chess sessions were you using the blonde Gibson ES-350T arch-top hollowbody you were so often pictured with.

"Yes. I probably got that guitar at Ludwig's Music in St. Louis. It's at home now."

Thank you for your kind words. My father would not have wanted his good deeds shared due to religious views. (They felt that good deeds must be keep secret to "work", and would have seen this as bragging.)

I am happy to share this story, I would have done it sooner but I did not know about the site. I still hope for some response from Chuck. I'm sure he remembers Ollie Troxler.

Sorry if I got the brands wrong, I'm no guitarist. Guess only Chuck has the rest of the story.

-- LittleDove

I doubt you got the brands wrong-- if he needed a loan, I'll bet it was the Gibson!