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SAM HINTON
Folksinger, educator and marine biologist Samuel Duffie Hinton was born March 31, 1917 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was raised largely in Texas, and after graduating high school he studied zoology for two years at Texas A&M, helping to finance his education via singing appearances. Leaving college, he moved to Washington D.C. to stay with his parents, where he worked as a window decorator for a department store and did scientific illustration for the Smithsonian in the evenings. While in Washington he and his two sisters formed a semi-professional singing group called "The Texas Trio," and and performed locally. In 1937 the group visited New York City to win a Major Bowes' Amateur Hour competition, at which time he was invited to join the treavelling Bowes troupe as a single act. Hinton left school to tour the country with the troupe, finally settling in Los Angeles three years later, where he enrolled at UCLA to study marine biology, and met his wife, Leslie. During his stay in Los Angeles, he landed a role in the musical comedy Meet the People alongside then-unknowns including Virginia O'Brien and Nanette Fabray. After graduating from UCLA in 1940, Hinton was appointed director of the Desert Museum in nearby Palm Springs, where he served from 1942 to 1944, moving on to San Diego, California in 1944 as Editor of Illustration at the University of California Division of War Research (UCDWR), a University of California-wide wartime laboratory that was located at Pt. Loma. In 1946 he was appointed Curator of the of the Thomas Wayland Vaughan Aquarium Museum at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. In 1965, Hinton moved to the upper campus and became UCSD's Assistant Director, Relations with Schools, and in 1967 he became Associate Director. Despite his professional duties, he has continued performing throughout his life.
In 1947 Hinton recorded the album Buffalo Boy and the Barnyard Song for the Library of Congress. His first commercial recording, "Old Man Atom," followed on Columbia in 1950. Over the next several years he also made a number of singles for Decca's Children's Series, and in 1952 issued his first LP, Folk Songs of California. After three more efforts for Decca — 1955's Singing Across the Land, 1956's A Family Tree of Folk Songs and 1957's The Real McCoy — he moved to Folkways for 1961's Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts and 1967's The Wandering Folksong. None of Hinton's musical projects distracted him from his academic duties, however, and from 1948 onward he taught UCSD courses in biology and folklore; for the National Education Television network, he also hosted a 13-part series on folk music, and for several years even wrote a regular newspaper column, "The Ocean World," for the San Diego Union. Hinton additionally co-wrote two books on marine research, Exploring Under the Sea and Common Seashore Animals of Southern California.
Sam Hinton made what many contend was his final public appearance at the May 11, 2002 San Diego Folk Heritage Festival. Though it may be his last performance, festival organizers are making sure Hinton won't fade into San Diego folklore obscurity. The daylong event at the Children's School in La Jolla has been permanently renamed the Sam Hinton Folk Heritage Festival.
"It's a tribute to a truly great man," said Tim Day, who is the vice chairman of San Diego Folk Heritage and a folk musician and singer as well. "It's amazing how beloved he is. Sam is an icon of folk music along with people like Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton." Because Hinton is in his 80s, Day said the recognition of his accomplishments is long overdue. "We want to recognize Sam while he's still with us," Day added. "He's getting up there in years, and we want to honor his contributions. This has been well-accepted by the folk community." Considering Hinton founded the San Diego Folk Song Society more than 50 years ago and remains a local musical legend, renaming the 14th annual festival after him seems only appropriate.
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(Incomplete) Discography and Bibliography:
Hinton, Sam
"Singing Across the Land" (Decca 45-rpm album ED-832, LP DL-8108)[1956]
Hinton, Sam
"Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts, and Other Folksongs for Children."[LP] Scholastic Records SC 7530. [1957]
and:
"Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts, and Other Folksongs for Children." [LP] Folkways Records FC 7530. [1961]
Hinton, Sam
"A Family Tree of Folk Songs" (Decca LP DL-8418)[195?]
Hinton, Sam
"Sam Hinton Sings the Songs of Men: All Sorts and Kinds." [LP]
Folkways Records, FA2400. [1961]
Hinton, Sam
"The Wandering Folksong." [LP]
Folkways Records FA 2401. [1966]
Hinton, Sam
"I'll Sing You a Story: Folk Ballads for the Young."[LP]
Folkways Records FC 7548. 1972.
Hinton, Sam
"Sam Hinton: Library of Congress Recordings March 25, 1947." [CD]
Label: Bear Family, ASIN: B00003L2WY [1999]
"Folk Song America Vol I: a 20th Century Revival." [CD] Smithsonian Collection of Recordings:
Recorded between May 1, 1919, and Dec. 4, 1955. ASIN: B0000017TC [1991]
Odetta, Paul Robeson, Sam Hinton, Merle Travis, Martha Schlamme, Harry Belafonte,
Fisk Jubilee Singers, Marian Anderson, Golden Gate Quartet, Leadbelly, and others.
"Newport Broadside: Topical Songs at the Newport Folk Festival." Vanguard VSD-79144 [1963]
Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Sam Hinton, Bob Davenport, The Freedom Singers,
Jim Garland, Ed Mccurdy, Phil Ochs, Peter La Farge, Joan Baez, and others.
"American Folk Singers and Balladeers." Book-of-the-Month Club, [1964][4 LPs] No.: RL 5644 Book-of-the-Month Club from Vanguard
Ramblin Jack Elliot, Sam Hinton, and others
"How the West Was Won." [New York] : RCA Victor LP LSO 6070, [196-?]
Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Sam Hinton, Deseret Mormon Choir, Jimmie Driftwood,
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and others. Program notes adapted from the Life magazine series by Shanna Alexander
"Anglo-American Songs and Ballads." Library of Congress AFS L21, [196?]
Joan Baez, Erik Darling, Jack Elliot, Maybelle Carter, Sam Hinton, Odetta,
Ian And Sylvia, Mike Seeger, Mississippi John Hurt, Hedy West, Doc Watson and others.
"San Diego Folk Festival 1974" [LP] KPBS Records 101 [1974]
Sam Hinton, Johnnie Walker, Frankie Armstrong, Kenny Hall, Martin Henry,
Sam Chatmon, Utah Phillips, and others
"Cowboy songs." [LP]
National Geographic Society 07786. p1976.
Saul Broudy, Sam Hinton, Mickey Clark, and others
"Good Time Music." National Folk Festival, Philo 1028 [1975],
Highwoods String Band, Sam Hinton, Snuffy Jenkins, Pappy Sherrill, and others
Seashore Life of Southern California; An Introduction to the Animal Life of California Beaches South of Santa Barbara. University of California Press, 1969.
Hinton, Sam
Exploring Under the Sea. Illustrated by Rudolf Freund. Garden City, N.Y., Garden City Books [c1957]
Hedgpeth, Joel Walker, 1911-
Common Seashore Life of Southern California.
Illustrated by Sam Hinton. Edited by Vinson Brown.
Healdsburg, Calif., Naturegraph Co., c1961.
Hinton, Sam
History of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
[Compiled by Sam D. Hinton. La Jolla] 1951.
Hinton, Sam
The T. Wayland Vaughan Aquarium-museum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, University of California.
Raitt, Helen.
Papers, 1936-1985 bulk 1952-1954, 1973-1976.
(correspondence, notes, manuscripts, and other materials concerning the
Capricorn Expedition, Tonga, and her work as owner and editor of Tofua
Press. original illustrations by Sam Hinton.)
Self-published tapes:
"From an East Texas Childhood" (TEX01) (1986)
"Of Frogs and Dogs and Such [21 Songs that Kids Like]" (SH Enterprises C1) (1991)
"Tis the Season" [21 Songs - Mostly for Christmas]" (SH Enterprises G-2)(1991)
These can be ordered from Sam Hinton,
9420 La Jolla Shores Dr. La Jolla, CA 92037
The Folkways material can still be obtained from: Smithsonian/ Folkways.
(Thanks to Dick Gaughan and Abby Sale for the Discography and Bibliography)
The Sam Hinton Website
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Interview with
Allan McCollum