THE CHAW MANK COLLECTION
Chaw Mank appearing to mesmerize his Blue Ribbon band (circa 1940s)
The Chaw Mank Collection is one of the most extensive collections on an individual in the American Museum of Paramusicology (AMP). It includes vinyl records and musical scores, contracts, letters, and photographs, pamphlets, books, clothing, and other ephemera pertaining to Chaw Mank (1902-1985). Charles “Chaw” Mank, Jr. was a pianist, bandleader, and songwriter, a DIY country music producer and publisher, record label owner, celebrity psychic, author, radio persona, silent movie organist, fan club pioneer, memorabilia collector, and life-long resident of Staunton, Illinois.
Beginning in the 1920s, Chaw pioneered the mail order celebrity fan club in America, becoming an extensive memorabilia collector and a personal friend to many celebrities. Running his own record label and directing his own band (both called Blue Ribbon), Chaw co-wrote and produced numerous records reflecting the stylistic evolution of country music--his song “Bringing Mary Home” is now a bluegrass standard. Meanwhile, by the 1980s Chaw's DIY publishing inspired the neoist “mail art” movement on the West coast. Despite this cultural impact, Chaw has largely been forgotten--most of his belongings were posthumously taken to the dump or pilfered and sold on eBay. The AMP began acquiring this collection from a Mank family friend in 2022.
Regarding the AMP's area of interest, Chaw's life and music were deeply invested in the paranormal. He grew up with significant “psychic” experiences and later collaborated with figures like pagan queer activist Leo Martello and paranormal author Brad Steiger. Chaw's songs often thematized the afterlife; he published numerous books pertaining to spiritualism and celebrity culture; and he was a personal psychic consultant to many. The AMP also celebrates Chaw's joy and social service, his archive fever, and his broader DIY approach to life through self-publishing. N.B. This site will be evolving.
The Chaw Mank Collection includes materials, figures, and themes relevant to country music history and outsider music, the spiritualist movement, occultism and mediumship in the arts, celebrity studies, queer studies, DIY praxis, and the inter-related histories of fan clubs, social media, print culture, and mail art.
"I Dreamed I Saw Elvis in Heaven," one the many co-written songs Chaw released on his Blue Ribbon label.
A poem from one of Chaw's self-published pamphlets.
Chaw's paranormal confessional, a collaboration with author Brad Steiger.