Artist: Willie Smith

William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith, nicknamed "The Lion", was an American  jazz and stride pianist.  

Willie had wanted a new piano very badly, but every time he thought his mother was able to afford it, there was a new mouth to feed. Willie got a job at Hauseman's Footwear store shining shoes and running errands, where he was paid five dollars a week. "Old Man" Hauseman paid that much because he was pleased that Willie could speak Yiddish and also because Willie wanted to buy a piano with the money.

As it turned out, piano sellers Marshall & Wendell's was holding a contest: the object was to guess how many dots there were in a printed circle in their newspaper advertisement. Willie used arithmetic to help guess the number, won, and was delivered an upright piano the next day. He played the piano from then on. He would play songs he heard in the clubs, including "Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin, Cannonball Rag by Joe Northrup, "Black and White Rag" by George Botsford.

By the early 1910s, he was playing at clubs in New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Smith served in World War I, where he saw action in France. Legend has it that his nickname "The Lion" came from his reported bravery while serving as a heavy artillery gunner. Smith recalled: 

"When they asked for volunteers to fire the French 75, I stepped forward. French Captain-in-Charge told us: "Well, I think it will take you a month to learn the mechanisms, and then we'll shoot you up to the front." I learned that mechanism in six hours. They tabbed me as an A-1 gunner right off the bat. I shot those 75's at the Fritzies  for forty-nine days straight without a break or any relief. Word got back and the Colonel came up and said: "Smith, you're a lion with that gun." That name stuck with me ever since." He was a decorated veteran of the 350th Field Artillery.