The 4th Pip: “Midnight Train to Georgia” - Part I

An evening at the Apollo Theater with the self-proclaimed “4th Pip,” the man who inspired the Midnight Train to Georgia.

NYC. Summer. 1985.

It was a Learning Annex adult-education event, held at a packed Apollo Theater on 125th Street. It was entitled “Stories from the Midnight Train (Dreams Don’t Always Come True... Nah-ah... No-oh)”

The instructor was a short Black man in his early 40s, prematurely greying, amply goateed, with horn-rimmed Cornell West glasses, a mustard colored suit, bellbottom pants, and a ruffled tuxedo shirt. The gentleman introduced himself as Wilfred Frank and set the agenda for the evening.

There would be a question and answer session followed by never-seen-before Pip Moves, music from his three-piece band, The Chainsmokers, and audience interaction throughout.

Everyone was there for the same reason. In the Learning Annex guide, Frank claimed to be the “4th Pip,” the “Superstar that Didn’t Get Far,” “the man that inspired the song Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips.”

It is fair to say that not a single person in the auditorium believed him. So, from a bang-for-yo…