Resource Entertainment
Before the sun sets on a Saturday in August, Beale Street is abuzz. Accessorized brides-to-be and their girlfriends walk arm in arm, concertgoers head to FedExForum, and tourists, “Big Ass Beers” in hand, make their way through the crowd. Neon flashes, and live music emanating from one club competes with blues blaring from loudspeakers outside. But amid the commotion, every passerby stops for one quiet moment, lining the sidewalks to catch a focused glimpse of what’s happening on the stretch between Blues City Cafe and King’s Palace.
The brick road is clear, save for a handful of shirtless, Nike-clad young men performing for hundreds of spectators. Unlike the Las Vegas strip, New York City’s Times Square, or Bourbon Street in New Orleans — where street performers abound — Memphis’ most iconic street has but one consistent act: the Beale Street Flippers, whose acrobatic feats are known here, and around the world.
“That’s amazing!” exclaims one audience member as she captures video on her phone. Others watch, jaws dropped, and pull folded dollars from their wallets, offerings for the Flippers’ tip jar, a bright yellow Silky O’Sullivan’s “diver bucket.” On this night, Earron Bonds (10), Eric Bonds (14), Victor Lewis (18), and Terio Lewis (21) are among those demonstrating incredible athletic skill. For each of them, a running start leads to gravity-defying tumbling. With the force of a quick jump and a hand-spring bounce off the ground, Terio succeeds in nearly a dozen flips, with a few one-handed — and even no-handed — mid-air somersaults, and a suspended twist at the end of his flight for good measure. Applause and cheers rise from the crowd after each run back and forth down Beale.
The Flippers, in some incarnation or another, have been a hometown staple for 30 years. “I started this on Beale in 1986,” says Rarecas “Rod” Bonds, founder of the Beale Street Flippers who tumbled on the street for tips when he was in elementary school. A middle child among nine siblings, Rod recalls the first time he brought tip money — which he’d collected in red chitterling buckets — back to his mother at their nearby home on Pontotoc Avenue. “I walked up to my momma counting all the change out on the loveseat, and I said, ‘Momma, can I get 50 cents?’ That’s the fastest 50 cents I ever got in my life.”
Coming from a family with 10 kids and half as many aunts and uncles living in the same low-income home in a violence-ridden neighborhood, Rod decided then and there: “I’m going to Beale Street every day.”
Billy Morris
Taking Off
That pledge shaped his path.“All my life [has been] on Beale Street,” says Rod, 35. “Most of the things the black community is used to seeing, I’m not used to seeing. It’s like I grew up middle class. Because these people down here took care of me. These people taught me how to read and write, and about taxes. They taught me how to live life.”
The people who helped him along the way include some of Beale Street’s longtime bar owners and managers, servers, bartenders, doormen, and kitchen staff. “These people” were the ones who directed customers to check out his act or otherwise looked out for his well-being in the early days, when it was just one kid doing flips with an often unattended tip bucket. Tommy Peters, owner of B.B. King’s; Bud Chittom, owner of Blues City; and Preston Lamm, CEO of River City Management, are among the many named who offered rides home, a watchful eye, and meals. “My mom and family weren’t coming down here every day with me. A lot of [Beale Street] people were involved [in the Flippers’ success], and a part of us as a community,” Rod says. “At the same time, when I’d come down here, they’d say, ‘Where’s your report card?’”
Rod, who put away his flipping shoes a few years back but continues to mentor the “little flippers,” does push-ups in the alley behind Tater Red’s — a home-base of sorts — as he waits for this night’s crew of performers to arrive. He’s short yet stocky, and when engaged in conversation, he smiles often — and big — his pearly whites shine with a diamond sparkle. It’s no wonder he’s managed to build a business entertaining people; he’s charming and animated and knows how to reach the heart with few words.
What started as a way to help provide for himself and his family so many years ago — before he turned 10, he says, “I already knew to take care of the family; I knew I was going to buy cereal and milk for the kids” — has grown into a family business. After flipping solo for a while, he began to see more kids from nearby neighborhoods who wanted to flip for tips, so he asked them to join him. No longer a solo “flipper boy,” the Beale Street Flippers were born. His brothers joined, and later, cousins became part of the act. Today, his nephews flip, and the tradition continues.
Through the years, as his neighborhood has been overcome with gang activity, he’s chosen to recruit some of “the rough ones” — kids whose parents aren’t around, or are unable to provide. “I want the kids whose momma put them out. I want the kids who are begging you outside the store because they’re hungry, they need new shoes; they’re standing on the street corners. I want to show them how to do it for themselves,” he says. “Because they’re used to the vibe of the streets. These guys are more susceptible to robbing, stealing, and killing. If you don’t grab them young, they become [those kind of] people. But you can polish them; teach them respect. You can put a shine to them.”
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Rise and Shine
Rod’s nephew, Eric, who, come the following Monday will start 10th grade at Booker T. Washington High School, recalls Rod’s efforts in Cleaborn Homes, before the housing project’s demolition. When Eric was 5 years old, he and his friends would gather together for lessons. “We’d sit in the ’hood, and he’d teach us how to flip. Then he’d take us to Beale,” Eric says. “He brought us out of the ’hood. It was good because some [were in] a bad environment.”
Terio Lewis, 21, first met Rod at the YMCA and has been flipping for eight years, and it shows. Tattoos adorn his sculpted physique. A horse-drawn carriage rides down the alley behind Beale as the guys take a quick break at half-past six, and Terio offers the younger Flippers a bit of constructive criticism as they hydrate with Gatorade and water. Some of the dozen or so performers have been out since early afternoon this day, and many will stay until their Beale-mandated 9 p.m. curfew. Terio, a graduate of Overton High School with two years at Southwest Community College on the books, continues to flip for the comradery, and to supplement the income from his day job.
On the other end of Beale outside of Dyer’s, Vincent Bright, 24, oversees a half-dozen “little Flippers” who range in age from 5 to 11 and surely aspire to one day do big-time events, like NBA halftime shows around the nation, and beyond, as their mentors Eric, Terio, Vincent, and others have done. But tonight, it’s for tips — and practice. Vincent has 13 years under his belt, so he helps teach them the Flipping ropes. He stands by as the pint-sized acrobats — all smiles as the crowd cheers them on — work their magic. Off of Beale, Vincent enjoys cooking and has pursued continued education in culinary arts.
Flipping Out
These are just a few of the stories of our hometown boys who’ve carried Memphis’ name across the globe. Rod’s brother, Tommie Bonds, earned a Guinness World Record in Germany in 2007 for the “longest back-flip” after soaring 12.7 feet over the backs of seven (crouched) people. Following this feat, the crew was given a permanent local honor by way of their own brass note on Beale. In 2009, members of the group wowed judges on America’s Got Talent, securing a place in the televised quarter-finals in Vegas. Last year, the Flippers performed at the NBA All-Star game in Toronto, Canada. They’ve appeared at countless basketball games, baseball stadiums, and other events through the years, including a run with the Harlem Globetrotters and a trip to China.
A story about the Flippers wouldn’t be complete without mention of one of the first-ever big-time moments in the group’s collective history: when an 11-year-old Rod flipped down Beale alongside Tom Cruise during filming of The Firm. His mom heard the film crew was interested in “the Flipper boy,” so she drove to Emmanuel Center Church — where little Rod, then a drum major, was readying for an event — to pick him up. “My momma come running in the church like she was having a heart attack. She said, ‘Boy, come here! Tom Cruise is looking for you!’ I had no idea who Tom Cruise was,” he laughs. His mother took him to the Radisson Hotel downtown, where, Rod says, “a thousand people come up to me, talking and taking pictures. I didn’t know what was going on; didn’t know nothing about the scene. But when the man said, ‘Flip!’ I said OK.”
This was perhaps the first taste of fame for any of the Flippers, who have since shared a piece of Memphis’ non-musical soul far and wide. But times have changed on the street, both with the economy — tips have dwindled — and with the new blood on Beale, in the street’s police force and management.
“They’re looking at us like we’re just street guys, like young bad black kids,” says Rod. “But I’ve got a 50/50 chance with these kids. I’m going to lose some of them to the streets or to gang violence, but they might successfully go on.”
That hope for success drove many of the Flippers out of bad neighborhoods, and Rod continues to push as many as he can in the right direction, to keep them occupied during summers and after school and put some well-earned and much-needed money in their pockets.
As it has helped steer some toward a better path, it has also been a positive drive for our city and the group’s namesake street. “I know some people look at us like just some street kids,” Rod says, “but these street kids took Memphis and promoted Memphis all over the world for the last 30 years.”
