Big Walter "The Thunderbird" Price collection

This collection contains audio, photographs, flyers, and documents related to Price's career. Portions of this collection were digitized as part of the Council on Library and Information Resources grant program, Hidden Selections of Houston’s African American and Jewish Heritage, 2020-2023.

Big Walter "The Thunderbird" Price was born near Gonzales, Texas on August 2, 1917. He attended school until he was around 11 years old. After leaving school, he worked in restaurants. Price joined the group the Northern Wonders, while working for the railway. He recorded at T.N.T. records aka Tanner 'N' Texas, Inc. with Bob Tanner in San Antonio.

In the 1950s, he moved to Houston and recorded with Duke Peacock Records. His hits included "Shirley Jean" and "Pack Fairand Square." He continued to record music off and on, as well perform until his 90s. He managed other talent and had his own record company, Sunshine Records. In the 1990s, Price was one of a group of plantiffs in the court case Brown v. Ames, which was tried in front of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which dealt with copyright infringement.

Price supplemented his music career by doing the following: crime photographer, private investigator, security guard, actor in the movie "Sugar Hill" and in the Alley Theater play, "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," and restaurant owner. After retirment, he played piano and performed up until the last years of his life and passed away in 2012.

The original materials are held by the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library. Search the finding aid/inventory for the Big Walter "The Thunderbird" Price collection, MS 0870.