JONES, JOSEPH LEROY WILLIAMS “JOE” also “MR. SPOONS” (1934-)

Mr. Spoons was a familiar sight for many years in the bars up and down Main Street in the Over the Rhine area of Cincinnati. He would come into each bar with a board with plastic flowers attached, his spoons, and sometimes his mother. As the band played, he would play rhythm with his spoons for tips and sell his plastic flowers. At one point in time, he went on the Gong Show in New York City, married a stockbroker, and lived in a penthouse. That life soon fell apart and he was back in Cincinnati playing the spoons. In 1975, photographer Cal Koval published a book about him, A Book Full of Spoons. In 1978, Lou Ukelson recorded him on a Vetco single as well as an LP with numbers such as “Dueling Spoons” and “Shucking the Spoons”.