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Along with Gaillard's date of birth, his lineage and place of birth are disputed. Many sources state that he was born in [[Detroit]], Michigan, though he said himself that he was born in [[Santa Clara, Cuba]],<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book |editor1-last=Larkin |editor1-first=Colin |title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=1992 |publisher=Guinness |location=London |isbn=0-85112-939-0 |pages=934–935}}</ref> of an Afro-Cuban mother called Maria (Mary Gaillard)<ref name="Moore">{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=James Ross |title=Gaillard, Slim |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1802970 |website=oxfordindex.oup.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date= October 19, 2018 |date=February 2000|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1802970 }}</ref> and a German-Jewish father called Theophilus (Theophilus Rothschild)<ref name="Moore" /> who worked as a ship's steward.<ref name="JazzGreats"/>{{rp|674}}
During an interview in 1989, Gaillard added: "They all think I was born in Detroit because that was the first place I got into when I got to America." However, the [[United States Census|1920 census]] lists one "Beuler Gillard"{{sic}} as living in [[Pensacola, Florida]], having been born in April 1918 in [[Alabama]]. Bulee Gaillard's Draft Registration card dated October 14, 1940, and signed by Gaillard, lists his birth date as "Jan 4 1911" in "Pensacola Florida." <ref>Form D.S.S. 1 dated October 14, 1940 for 29 year old Bulee Gaillard found at Ancestry.com December 2024 https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44027_05_00096-01022?treeid=&personid=&rc=&queryId=f67bf30b-f3c1-4599-91d9-6ab2dd7d3ba8&usePUB=true&_phsrc=BdM52&_phstart=successSource&pId=193858088</ref> Researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc have concluded that he was born in June 1918 in [[Claiborne, Alabama|Claiborne]], Alabama,<ref name="bare">{{cite book |last1=LeBlanc |first1=Eric |last2=Eagle |first2=Bob |title=Blues: A Regional Experience |date=2013 |publisher=Praeger |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=978-0-313-34423-7 |pages=90, 429}}</ref> where a "Theophilus Rothchild"{{sic}} had been raised the son of a successful merchant in the small town of [[Burnt Corn, Alabama|Burnt Corn]]; other documents give his name as Wilson, Bulee, or Beuler Gillard or Gaillard.<ref name="bare"/>
At the age of twelve, he accompanied his father on a world voyage and was accidentally left behind on the island of [[Crete]].<ref name="JazzGreats" />{{rp|674}}<ref name="Huey">{{cite web|last1=Huey|first1=Steve|title=Slim Gaillard|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/slim-gaillard-mn0000750203/biography|website=AllMusic|access-date= August 22, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Yanow">{{cite book|last1=Yanow|first1=Scott|title=The Great Jazz Guitarists |date = 2013 |publisher = Backbeat |location =San Francisco |isbn=978-1-61713-023-6 |page=77 }}</ref> On a television documentary in 1989, he said, "When I was stranded in Crete, I was only twelve years old. I stayed there for four years. I traveled on the boats to Beirut and Syria and I learned to speak the language and the people's way of life."<ref name="Wall">{{cite AV media | people=Wall, Anthony (Director) | date=1989 | title=Slim Gaillard's Civilisation | medium=Documentary | location=UK}}</ref> After learning a few words of Greek, he worked on the island "making shoes and hats".<ref name="JazzGreats" />{{rp|674}} He then joined a ship working the eastern Mediterranean ports, mainly [[Beirut]], where he picked up some knowledge of Arabic.<ref name="JazzGreats" />{{rp|674}} When he was about 15, he re-crossed the Atlantic, hoping the ship would take him home to Cuba, but it was bound for the U.S. and he ended up in Detroit. He never saw either of his parents again.<ref name="JazzGreats" />{{rp|674}}
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{{quote box|border=none|fontsize=90%|quote=The MC would say, "Here they come, all the hopefuls!" Well, we may have been hopefuls but we weren't amateurs. Of course, you had to be a little bad in spots. If you were too good you'd lose the amateur image. I would be a tap dancer this week, next week I'd play guitar, two weeks later some boogie-woogie piano. They paid us $16 a show. I did one with Frank Sinatra, I got $16 and he got $16. Every time I see him I say, "Got a raise yet, Frank?"|salign=right|source=—Tony Russell, Jazz Greats, Issue #57.[2]}}
==Career==
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