Click on the above picture to enlarge it. This is an advertisement for Gus Stevens Restaurant and Nightclub in Biloxi,Mississippi in 1968. The band is the Hot Papers. Formerly the Chocolate Papers. This band later became Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show two years later playing in Union City,New Jersey. Then they signed with Columbia Records and Clive Davis and the rest is history as they say.
George Cummings, Billy Francis,and Ray Sawyer were founding members of Dr. Hook. Popeye Phillips had quit the band by the time they signed their contract with Columbia Records around 1971. Popeye Phillips who was from Mobile, Alabama did appear later as the drummer on Little Hippie Boy with The Flying Burrito Brothers on their first album The Gilded Palace Of Sin.
Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis were from Mobile,Alabama originally and George Cummings was originally from Meridian,Mississippi.
That bit in the advertisment about being "Just Back From A Tour Of The Hollywood Las Vegas Circuit" is pure fantasy and was totally made up but big things were soon to happen for this band.
