Born for Hard Luck Tom Davenport, 1976

Born for Hard Luck is a film portrait of the black secular folk musician Arthur Jackson. But a 30minute film can go little beyond a snapshot in capturing the full character of a man. It looks at him from one perspective, sees him in only one period of time. The present film is in fact largely limited to showing Jackson in his role as the brilliant harmonica player and medicineshow performer Peg Leg These accompanying notes provide background information about that role, point up significant features of his songs, jokes and stories, give information about ways the filming affected his performances, hint at something of the man behind the showman s mask, sketch his relation to the culture from which he comes and list sources for further information about Mr. Jackson.