Anita Mahfood – Margarita – Heather Augustyn

Margarita the Rose

December 12, 2016February 23, 2023 haugustyn

Last week I interviewed the legendary Ferdinand “Bobby” “Little Bra” Gaynair over the phone. From his home, we talked over the course of a few days for a total of six hours and let me say, it was perhaps the best experience of all of my work. I cannot express in words the generosity and warmth in spirit of this gentle man. He and his wife Anne feel like family to me. He is 88 years old and his recollections of his life, from his childhood seeing elephants in the streets of Kingston during a visiting circus, to today, practicing scales on his saxophone, are why I do what I do–to record and share these stories so they are never forgotten. The interview will be featured in my upcoming book on Alpha Boys School. My co-author Adam Reeves and I are nearing completion.

One story Mr. Gaynair shared with me was about Margarita, with whom he was very close. It was ironic that he told me this story the very same week as the death of Rudolph Bent, Margarita’s ex-husband, the boxer, the Dark Destroyer. I was surprised to learn from Mr. Gaynair that Margarita was once his girlfriend. Here he tells the painful story, his voice unable to hide the sorrow still in his heart:

“Don Drummond wanted to kill me. Seriously. His girlfriend was my girlfriend before she became his girlfriend. Yes. Bless her soul, she was a beautiful young lady, and she loved me, because of my profession. Margarita loved me. There was a certain time when I control her hunger. She was so hungry and I had food to give her and then she was comfortable and satisfied and she never forget that. She could do anything with me, and sexually and otherwise I never interfere with her. And I knew I could do anything with Margarita and she would love it, I could even take her life and she’d love me that much that she trusts me. There were men in Jamaica who loved Margarita because she was a great dancer, an excellent dancer. I played the type of music that Margarita love and made her dance and do some marvelous things on stage. She was sexy but when she did those things she was more sexy.

Drummond knew those things and he knew good music and he knew his music was too progressive, mostly jazz. Professionally he plays everything perfect, but apart from music, he was definitely what you call mad now. He was a mad man. But with me, he would interact with me normally because he knows if you are going to talk to me you are going to have to act normal and I don’t show him or tell him that he is crazy, I just deal with him as a normal person. So probably that helped us both to communicate. If it is a sickness or whatever, it could trigger at any time. When all that is finished in the studio and he is by himself, he look at me, and whenever he look at me the jealousy come up. And he really love Margarita. He was really in love with her. But he didn’t realize it wasn’t me alone who love Margarita, it was the whole Jamaica love Margarita.

After he committed the crime and kill Margarita was in love with another, what do you call it, beauty and the beast? There was another beast who love Margarita and it wasn’t me. Because she told me that this other beast, his name was Bobby, so he thought it was me, and everybody talk about Margarita was with Bobby and they thought it was me, but it wasn’t me, it was another guy who I call beast named Bobby who she was with. I wouldn’t take her sexually, I respect her.

She was a prophet because she told me before I leave Jamaica one day when we were reasoning and she was madly in love and on the brink, she had a rose and she was picking the petals of the rose and she said, ‘Uncle Bobby, Brother Bobby.’ She called me Uncle and Brother. I said, ‘Why are you destroying a beautiful rose, Margarita?’ She said, ‘This is what I’m trying to see, how my lover is going to destroy me, just like I am destroying this rose.’ And I said, ‘What you mean by that? You mean he is going to kill you?’ And she said yeah. I said, ‘What can I say. What can I do to help your situation?’ At that time I was living in the wilderness in my shack and she came to my shack and I was playing a tune for her and Count Ossie was playing the drums, and it was so nice, you could hear it for miles, the drums. This was the greatness in the wilderness. When we play the music, that sound went over the whole city, and goes out in the harbor, and all the fisherman, and boy that music was beautiful. It was a nice time, and a terrible time.

Margarita Dreams of Stardom

October 16, 2015February 23, 2023 haugustyn

Anita Mahfood, stage name Margarita, had aspirations of one day traveling to the United States to pursue a career in show business, according to her sister Conchita. Here is a photo from the Star Newspaper in 1961 that shows Margarita in her attempt to fulfill her dream of life on the stage. She was not only a rhumba dancer, but she was an actress as well and a performer extraordinaire. Here she rehearses for a performance with Vere Johns Jr., son of Vere Johns and Lucille Johns who were not only both impressarios of the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour (the talent show that launched so many musical and comedy careers on the island), but were actors themselves. This caption reads, “Money Talks Soldier–The curvesome Margarita (noted Jamaican dancer) and Vere Johns Jr., American-born son of Mr. and Mrs. Vere Johns, have teamed to form the latest dancing combination. They are here seen rehearsing the sequence entitled ‘The G.I. and the Girl.’ Junior served three years in the U.S. Armed Forces.”

It wasn’t the first time that Vere Johns Jr. and Margarita had teamed up for performances with a Vere Johns Production. The following advertisement ran in the Daily Gleaner on April 1, 1956 for the Vere Johns Production of “Easter Frolics” where Margarita is billed as the “shimmy-shaking bombshell” and Vere Johns Jr. appears in the same performance.

That Christmas season, Margarita also performed during a Vere Johns Production with Vere Johns Jr. in “Xmas Morning Revels” and the two performed a “Rock and Roll” scene.

In fact, Margarita was so much a part of the Vere Johns Production team, she played the role of a dance club dancer in the documentary, “It Can Happen to You,” which was filmed by the Jamaica Film Unit in the 1950s. In the film, which I was finally able to find last year after many years of searching, Margarita tastefully dances the rhumba in a costume full of ruffles that she herself designed and sewed, and among her are bar patrons enjoying the band and dance. One of the main extras in the film is none other than Lucille Johns herself. Below is a photo of Vere and Lucille Johns, who is wearing the same dress in which she appears in the film.

The following is an excerpt from my book, Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World’s Greatest Trombonist: [Margarita] began dancing at clubs all over Kingston and she made her own costumes since she was skilled at sewing. Faye Chin says, “We danced together. We were in a group on stage. She used to do rumba; I do creative dancing, limbo dancing. It’s Alan Ivanhoe Dance Troupe I was in. She was an individual dancer and whenever they’re having performance like pantomimes or the theater used to have opportunity hour, she would dance there. She was a terrific dancer and she taught herself to dance. We became friends and we really became close and we were friends for a long long time until she passed.” Saxophonist Herman “Woody” King knew Margarita in those early days and says the clubs were her calling. “She was a great rumba dancer. The clubs would want her. Of course she had to go. That’s how she earned her living and she enjoyed it too,” King says.
Margarita always began her dance the same way with the same air of anticipation, the ultimate show-woman. As the spotlight hits one spot on the center of the dance floor, the music begins and Margarita is in the corner of the room, out of view. She saunters to the center, ruffles rushing through the tables of men, women, who turn their heads to see her passage to the light. When she comes into full view, the rhythms of the drums at their height, the audience is captivated, fully immersed in her powerful magic. She was auditioning for her dream. One day she wanted to dance on the stages in the United States, but she had to make a name for herself.

Margarita performed with the same circuit of performers, as did most Kingston entertainers of the day. She first met Don Drummond in the 1950s at the Bournemouth Club when they appeared on the same bill together. Ads appear in the Daily Gleaner in June, 1955 for Drummond and “Marguerita (Rhumba Dancer)” together on the same bill with others, including Pam Pam & Gloria, jitterbug dancers, with whom Margarita frequently performed. Margarita performed at the Ward Theatre, Club Havana, Club Baby Grand, Club Adastra, Carib Theatre, Glass Bucket, Rialto Theatre, Ritz Theater, and Queens Theatre, among others where she frequently received top billing. She played the role of a dance club dancer in the documentary, “It Can Happen to You,” which was filmed by the Jamaica Film Unit in the 1950s. On November 23, 1955 she performed in a show called the “Sundown Serenade” at the Ritz Theater with Bim & Bam, Danny Hyacinth Clover, Wonder Brothers and Did & Don’t. This type of billing with a theme for the show was a common feature for clubs in an attempt to attract tourists. Another was at the Ward Theatre on Christmas morning 1959 for a show called “Chrismania” which featured, among others, The Jiving Juniors, Lascelles Perkins, and music by Ken Williams and his Club Havana Orchestra. She also performed that same morning at the Carib Theatre for a show called “Xmas Morning Revels” featuring a similar line up with the addition of Vere Johns and Mrs. Vere Johns, music by Frankie Bonitto and his Orchestra. Artists frequently performed in multiple shows all over the city for Christmas. The clubs themselves also tried to capture themes, and Club Havana, where Margarita frequently performed, advertised itself as “Jamaica’s Latin Quarter.”

Anita Mahfood - Margarita, Uncategorized

Margarita–Ambassador of Reggae

October 2, 2015February 23, 2023 haugustyn

I have long continued the argument that Margarita was a champion, an ambassador, of the Rasta drumming that would go on to become the foundation for the reggae rhythm, and without her, it is possible that reggae would not be the same today. I have found now evidence in the Star Newspaper that furthers this argument.

In my book, Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the Greatest Trombonist, I write: Her relationship with the brothers and sisters in the hills was strong, and so when she performed one time on stage, she refused to dance without the accompaniment of Count Ossie and his group, which were once known as the Rastafarian Repatriation Association of Adastra Road in Eastern Kingston and later became known as The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. Verena Reckord writes, “The group got its first legitimate stage break in the late fifties. It was an occasion when the late, famous rhumba queen Marguerita (Mahfood) insisted that she would not appear on a Vere Johns variety show (Opportunity Knocks) at the Ward Theatre on Christmas morning unless Ossie’s group was on the bill. Johns was wary then about using Rastas on his show, but Marguerita was his star attraction. He had no choice. Count Ossie and his drummers were hired. They were a hit. They soon became regulars on Vere Johns’ show and other functions.” Margarita was the one who introduced Rasta music into mainstream culture, as well as the jazz musicians who accompanied them which is why Miller calls her a “seminal figure in the island’s musical and cultural growth.” In Helene Lee’s work The First Rasta, Brother Royer, a member of Count Ossie’s camp, credits Margarita with helping Rasta music come to the mainstream through her tenacity. Despite Norman Manley’s demand that “Anywhere you see Rastaman, you have to lock them up,” Margarita refused to perform unless Count Ossie and his drummers performed, and it was only after the “people got crazy about the new sound,” says Royer, that Rastas were from then on welcomed onto stages. “Great girl! Our Helen of Troy!” said Royer of Margarita. She was more like the Josephine Baker of Jamaica.

So imagine my delight when I found an article in the Star Newspaper, August 22, 1961 that mentioned the exact performance that Reckord referenced! The article reads: African Drums at Palace Hour. Fans who attend the Palace Theatre tomorrow night will see and hear for the first time on a stage Count Ossie and his African Drums, the band whose sounds have taken Jamaica by storm. They will also hear the famous “Carolina” which held the Number One spot on the Hit Parade for son long. Featured in the fast moving “Swingaree” which will be presented between two full length films at regular prices will be: The renowned Blues Busters fresh from the North Coast, the famous Wilfred Edwards, golden-voiced Lascelles Perkins and top favourite Hortense Ellis. Coming in from Montego Bay will be Phonso the Great. For variety there will also be Creative Dancer Margarita, Caribbean Rhumba Queen Yvonne Davis 9Just back from Nassau), whirlwind dancers Pam Pam and Colleen and Jamaica’s leading comedian, the inimitable Bam. The Drum sounds will also feature songs by Skitter and Winston and trombone selections by Rico Rodriques. All roads will lead to the Palace tomorrow night. –C.A.T.

The performances were a hit with crowds of the Palace Theatre, according to a Star Newspaper article on Monday, August 28, 1961. The article entitled “‘Swingeree’–A Big Hit,” reads: Upwards of 2,000eager fans thronged the Palace Theatre last Wednesday night to witness the first appearance of Count Ossie and His African Drums, with some of the island’s top entertainers. Scores had to stand and hundreds were turned away. The show was good to the last drop and every item was a winner from Compere Vere John introduced the opening number to Wilfred Edwards’ last song. First came Lascelles Perkins with two numbers and he was followed by Pam Pam & Colleen in a whirlwind dance number. Then Hortense Ellis gave out with “I am not a know it all” and got two encores, after which Count Ossie and the Sounds took over. The fans rocked to the favourite ‘Carolina’ sung by Skitter & Winston, swayed with Rico and his soulful trombone, moaned with Bobby Gaynair and his golden sax and enjoyed “Babylon gone.” Comedian Bam kept the audience in stitches for about eight minutes. Hit of the evening was the dance done to the curvesome Margarita to the beat of the African drums in colourful costume. She received an ovation. Then came the Blues Busters and the audience just wouldn’t let them go even after three numbers. Caribbean Rhumba Queen Yvonne (Electric Eel) Davis also made a tremendous hit with the fans as she gyrated in superb rhythm. Finally Wilfred Edwards closed the show with three favourite selections. ‘Swingeree’ featuring Count Ossie & His African Drums will be seen at the Odeon Theatre, Half Way Tree, tomorrow night at 8.40 o’clock between two great films. It will also be presented at the Gaiety Theatre on Thursday night at the same hour. Supporting stars for these two shows will be The Blues Busters, Margarita, Hortense Ellis, Pam Pam & Colleen and top Comedian Bam. –C.A.T.”

Credit is due to Prince Buster for first recording the drums of Count Ossie that formed the backbone for reggae, but credit is also due to Margarita, Anita Mahfood, for bringing these drums to the stage, where their sounds mixed in the air, knowing no boundary between upper and lower classes. Until this time, and long after this time, the Rastafari were persecuted and considered the outcasts of society. But Margarita championed their cause and their creativity. She used her status as a headlining dancer, a woman from a wealthy family, and her talent to help bridge the class divide by introducing their sounds to the stage. Just a few days later, on September 8, 1961, a photo of Count Ossie and his drummers appear with the caption “Bearded Sounds.” The following month an advertisement for a show at Adastra Gardens appears for Count Ossie, calling his sound “Strange Music from Africa.” All of this was amid article after article of horrible treatment of the Rastafari, headlines claiming they burned babies as a sacrifice, were lunatics, and were murdered, were common during these years. Here are a few of them, and only a few, from 1961 and 1962:

I post these to put into context what Margarita did by supporting the drums of Count Ossie. She took a great risk. Prince Buster may have brought the drums to the studio, but Margarita brought them beyond the hills, beyond Orange Street, to the audiences that viewed the Rastafari as these articles present them. She was a true renegade and a heroine and we owe her a great debt.

Anita Mahfood - Margarita, Don Drummond

Don Drummond and the Murder of Margarita

August 16, 2015February 23, 2023 haugustyn

I have heard over the years, read in books, and still hear today that on that fateful night, January 1, 1965, that Margarita did not give Don Drummond his medication, or gave it to him late, thus causing him to sleep through his Skatalites gig and, in anger, stab her when she returned on January 2nd in the wee hours of the morning. I want to take a moment to address this myth because I think what this argument does is very subtly places blame on Margarita for her demise, takes away some of the responsibility from Don, and gives some sort of justification or reason where there is no reason other than untreated insanity.

First on this matter, an excerpt from my book, Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World’s Greatest Trombonist.

But many have thought over the years that Drummond became upset when he finally awoke to find he had not only slept through his performance, but that Margarita was gone. His defenders claim that Margarita manipulated his medication dosage or gave it to him late so she could go dance at the Baby Grand on Crossroads for her first show, and at Club Havana in Rockfort where she had her residency to dance the rumba for wealthy gawking men. There is no way to prove such a claim that Margarita somehow altered Drummond’s medicine he took to treat his schizophrenia, nor is there any way that anyone would know such information. Zola Buckland Sergi, Margarita’s niece, feels that many fans, band mates, or Rastafarians are skeptical of the events and merely looking for an explanation, looking to put the onus on Margarita for Drummond’s actions. She dispels this myth saying, “People say she must have given him his medication improperly and so he slept through it. She didn’t give him his medication! He took his own medication! My mom said it was impossible and people are looking for a reason why he killed her. The reason is, he was nuts!”

Now, let’s take a moment to think logically about this argument. How would anyone know that Margarita gave Don his medication late or not at all? Don never showed up at his gig that night, so he never left the house and was asleep. Margarita, the only person involved in the interchange, was dead, so was unable to tell anyone that she had done such a thing. If Don later told someone that Margarita had given him his medication late, that would be an excuse offered by the murderer, so is suspect, and has never been stated by any of the musicians. Instead, what we have are musicians or friends of Don who offer this as a sequence of events, as a way to provide reasoning. It is blaming the victim of abuse and it simply defies logic. But it speaks to the love for Don, that his friends and musicians would want to protect him, give him a reason. The reason, as Zola says, is he was insane and it was untreated properly. That is the reason, the only reason, and it is sad and horrible, but time that we accept it.

Here’s a similar blog post I wrote in October 2013. Still the myth persists, so I write it again.

http://old.skabook.com/foundationska/tag/anita-mahfood/

Anita Mahfood - Margarita, Don Drummond

Margarita and Domestic Violence

February 15, 2015February 23, 2023 haugustyn

American news has been finally focusing on the epidemic of domestic abuse, particularly in professional sports like football. It always brings to mind, for me, the abuse that Margarita, Anita Mahfood, suffered at the hand of her professional boxer husband Rudolph Bent before leaving him to enter a relationship much worse, the one with Don Drummond that would end in her death at his hand. This past week I traveled to Kingston where I combed through the Star Newspaper archives which are still in original form, never digitized or put on microfilm, and with white-gloved hands, turning the pages of the yellowed and crumbling bound editions of the newspaper, I came across the following article. I picture it here and have transcribed the text below and ask the following question for those who have claimed that Margarita liked the violence, and yes, there are those men who have even spoken publicly about this theory of theirs–tell me how a woman likes this? That is all I will say for fear of letting my anger toward such claims run away with me.

From The Star, Saturday, November 21, 1964

Chopped, hit, kicked by her boxer husband

Repeated beatings by Jamaican and British Honduran middleweight champion, Rudolph Adolphus Bent (now in America), of his dancer wife, led her to seek her freedom from him in the Divorce Court yesterday. The court heard her story, of a number of violent assaults in which the boxer’s fists were brought into play, in her undefended petition.

Petitioner was Anita Bent (nee Mahfood), who is Jamaica’s premier rhumba and interpretive dancer with the stage name of “Margarita.”

Mr. Justice Shelley granted her a decree nisi with costs against her husband. Custody of the two children of the marriage is to be decided in Chambers. Petitioner was represented by Mrs. Margaret Forde, Legal Clerk.

Mrs. Bent wept as she told the Court that her husband had forcibly taken away the children and transported them to his homeland, British Honduras where they now reside with his mother. Mrs. Forde said that respondent entered an appearance only with regard to their custody.

Petitioner said that they were married in St. Andrew on March 15, 1961, but were never happy as he gave her no monetary support and had too many girl friends. She gave her present address as 32 Coral Way, Harbour View.

Assaults

She recounted some of the many assaults made on her by respondent. She said in June, 1961, he came home about 3 a.m. and when she spoke to him he told her, “Why don’t you take your pickney and go and leave me in peace?” Then he hit her with his fist in the right eye and on the mouth, which was cut and started bleeding. He grabbed her by the hair, opened the door and threw her outside. Next he threw their little daughter, Susie, after her.

Shelter

She ran up Slipdock Road to a friend in her nightgown and found shelter. In July, 1961, they quarrelled over money and he said, “You want money. Well, you’re not getting any from me.” He twisted her arm and choked her.

In September, 1961, there was another row over money and a girl and he tore off her dress and punched her down on the bed. He put a pillow over her face and tried to suffocate her. Another boxer in the house came in and rescued her, she said. A further assault was committed in November, 1961, when he choked her and tore off her clothes. She then left him to live apart as she was afraid of him.

In February, 1962, he asked her to return to him and hen she said she would not, he dug his two fingers into her eyes, hit her on the chin with his elbow, chopped her on the side of the neck with his open right hand and kicked her down. This took place while she was alone in her father’s home.

After they returned living, in July, 1963, he dragged her by the hair, thumped her with his fist in the face and tore off her clothes. Her sister came to her rescue.

Blood

Fay Roberts, dressmaker of 2 Glasspole Avenue, gave evidence of the assault committed in June, 1961. She said she was at the Slipdock Road address when Mrs. Bent came screaming into the home with blood flowing from her mouth and her eye swollen. She was in her nightgown and was carrying her baby.