Helen Granger Boss - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

Kupchyk: Why did they call Bill Bailey "Peg Leg Bill"?
Boss: 056 1:1:14
Boss: He had a wooden leg. This thing fit up around his thigh, or it might have been
around his knee, I don't know. When it got down toward his foot it had a point on it like
part of a broomstick. -- about that big around -- that was put on right under the knee and
that was what he walked with. He didn't have a cane or anything. That was as good.
I know that artificial limbs must be a whole lot better in this day and age, but that's why
they called him "Peg Leg Bill". But they mostly called him Bill Bailey, but he was "Peg
Leg".
Kupchyk: Did he play the piano?
Boss: No, but we had a man there that did play the piano. That was a crippled man. He
used to play the piano at the saloon down here. I showed you where. We turned the
comer and I said my son owned the house. Well that place down there was called
Pierson's, Charlie Pierson's (yes, write that down). He was a big fixture in this vicinity.
Kupchyk: Why so?
Boss: Well, he had the largest glass of beer in the city for a nickel, that's true, and he
had a crippled man there named ...Gil Turner. This Gil Turner used to play the piano,
and he used to play this song, because he came to our house one time with my uncle, my
mother's step-brother.
Kupchyk: Let me stop and turn the tape around.
Boss: OK
((END TAPE I SIDE 1; BEGIN TAPE I SIDE 2))
Kupchyk: Yes, I noticed you recorder when I came in.
Boss: Anyhow, this Gil Turner. . .I don't know whether Gil was crippled or just had an
artificial leg or anything, but he played the piano. I think he had something wrong -­
whether he could walk with a crutch or what, I don't know.