Born in Helena Arkansas on November 30, 1909, Robert Lee McCollum, aka Robert Nighthawk, was part of the emergence of electrified, combo-based rural Southern black music in the mid-twentieth century. His 1930s recordings for Bluebird helped to create the sound we now call Chicago blues. Below is film footage of Nighthawk performing on Maxwell Street in Chicago in the early 1960s, and an in-depth interview conducted with him in 1964.