Leadbelly (film) Leadbelly (film) Leadbelly is a 1976 film chronicling the life of folk singer Huddie William Ledbetter (better known as "Lead Belly"). The film was directed by Gordon Parks, and starred Roger E. Mosley in the title role. The film focuses on the troubles of Lead Belly's youth in the segregated South including his time in prison, and his efforts to use his music to gain release. Huddie Ledbetter leaves his father's house just barely into his twenties and arrives at a brothel on Fannin' Street ran by Miss Eula, who nicknames him Leadbelly and has him play at the bar.
When the War Was On with "Everybody Help the Boys Come Home" (1927) by William and Versey Smith, husband and wife. The other side of that record by the Smiths is "When That Great Ship Went Down", which relates to the sinking of RMS "Titanic". Johnson recorded his only other song on a temporal subject, "God Moves on the Water" (about the "Titanic" disaster), on the same day as he recorded "When the War Was On". It therefore seems likely that he knew that record. When the War Was On "When the War Was On" is a call and response blues song recorded in 1929