husband of Aida Walker, was the real “Bon Bon Buddy” singer and starred
with Williams in “Sons of Ham”, “Bandanna Land”, “In Dahomey” etc.
“Bob” Cole, as leader of the renowned Cole and Johnson Company, won a
great deal of his stage glory in the presentation of “The Red Moon”.
As well as an actor he was a composer of note and among his best
productions that attracted wide attention and afforded much amusement
for the theatre goers were “A Shoo Fly Regiment”, “Katydid” and “I Must
Have Been A Dreaming.”
Before going any further mention ought to be made of the world-famed
Ira Aldridge, who was born in Bel Air, Maryland in 1810 and therefore
can be rightly classed as an American product, although he spent most
of his years and died in Europe. Even today he is considered as one
of the greatest actors the Negro race has ever had. Going to Europe
when young and studying at Glasgow University, Scotland, he excelled
in composition work and won many prizes. Winning one success after
another, he finally reached his zenith in the playing of Othello,
the Moor. From that time until his death he was without a peer in
portraying that character, and few have equaled him since. His acting
was infused with so much intelligence, personality, naturalness and
composure that he was always assured of over-crowded theatres and was
constantly entertained and awarded gold medals of honor by the crowned
rulers of England, Prussia, Austria, Russia and many other important
countries in Europe. As Mr. Aldridge made his home in London, his widow
and two talented daughters, Luranah A. Aldridge, a contralto singer of
European fame, and Amanda Aldridge, a celebrated composer known by her
professional works as “Montague Ring”, continue to reside in that city.
(Ref.: Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, pgs. 335).
The name of Samuel Milady (better known as Sam Lucas) will ever go down
in Thespian circles as one of the greatest performers in the old school
of Negro actors. He not only wrote the sensational play of his day,
“My Grandfather’s Clock”, but played its leading role. But his world
popularity and fame were mostly won through his impressive playing of
“Uncle Tom” in the original white “Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company.”
S. Tutt Whitney and J. Homer Tutt, with their “Smarter Set” Co., are
to stageland today what Williams and Walker were with their Company
years ago. The team work of Whitney and Tutt is without doubt the most
wonderful combination of versatile comedy acting put forth over the
footlights within the past ten years. They produce and act their own
compositions to full houses whenever and wherever they perform, and one
of their latest hits is “Bamboula.”
A Colored comedian who is in a class by himself is the many-sided Billy
King. His ability to make people laugh without tickling them in their
ribs or even on their knees is nationally known. Beside being a genius
in acting, he is versatile composer of over a hundred stage productions
in which he has played the leading parts in scores of them. His show
is such a financial success that it is said he annually pays over two
hundred thousand dollars as salaries to the half hundred or more people
in his employment. Billy King is without doubt the greatest individual
producer-performer of high-class musical comedy in the Negro race
today. He is also one of those (scarce-as-hen-teeth) human beings on
earth who seems to have been born under certain stars whose horoscopic
influences magnetize dollars from every place and steadily drop them
into his pockets whether he is working or playing. For Mr. King is
just as financially successful in his insurance company and other
business seriousness as he is in his theatrical fun making.
Two of the leading moving picture actors among the American Colored
people are: Noble Johnson who has appeared in such national reels as
“Intolerance” and “The Death Warrant”, and Donald Lashley who has acted
and posed for pictures with Alice Joyce, played forty-five weeks with
Billie Burke in “Caesar’s Wife”, and took part in “The Passion Flower”
with Norma Talmadge. During the four years he has been acting for the
screens he has played in company with many other white moving picture
stars.
According to an article that appeared in the May 27, 1921 issue of
the Negro Star of Wichita, Kansas, Colored people in America own and
operate seven film companies producing pictures with Negro casts.
One of these companies is The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, which
is incorporated in California and has been producing moving picture
films for the past five years. Negro actors and actresses are wholly
featured in its reels that are shown in Colored theatres and other
institutions throughout the United States. Among its star reel features
are: “Realization of a Negro’s Ambition”, “The Trooper of Troop K.”
“Law of Nature” and “By Right of Birth.” The Micheaux Film Corporation,
Chicago, Ill., is another nationally known moving picture producer.
The founder and president of this company is Oscar Micheaux, who is
recognized as America’s foremost Negro producer. His chief productions
are “The Brute”, “The Homesteader”, “The Gunsaulus Mystery”, “The
Symbol of The Unconquered” and “Within Our Gates”.
Some of the leading Colored moving picture stars of today are: Dick
Abrams, Jack Austin, L. De Bulger, Jim Burris, Lawrence Chenault,
Louise Dunbar, Iris Hall, Evelyn Preer, E. G. Tatum, Walker Thompson,
Lee Whipper and Mattie Wilkes, W. H. Herman.
Right here before the facts again slips from the writer’s mind, must be
mentioned two actors, the late Tom Brown and Ernest Hogan. On account
of their seemingly unlimited theatrical abilities, their earnestness in
performing and their cheerful and lovable dispositions, those two were
among the best and most popular actors during their times.
S. H. Dudley aside from having shone in the center of the actor’s
spotlight when taking active parts on the stage, has become one of
America’s leading Colored theatrical promoters, builders and managers
in the country. He is owner or part owner of theatres in Washington,
D.C., Petersburg, Va. and other cities. In theatrical circles the name
of Dudley is as familiar and popular among Colored people as the name
of Keith is among white people.
“The King Pin of ’em all” (A humorous and fitting description made by
the “Old Roll Top Desk Man, With the Million Dollar Smile”) is Charles
S. Gilpin the world-famed dramatic actor, who was given the highest
thespian honors of the season on Broadway.
“Never in the history of the stage has an actor been accorded the class
of press notices handed Gilpin during his present engagement. What he
did in a dramatic way in “Abraham Lincoln” attracted the plaudits of
the critics of the metropolitan press; but his wonderful work in “The
Emperor Jones” has more than eclipsed anything seen on Broadway in many
years. Indeed, some writers claim that never before has a character
been portrayed in as graphic a manner as is the title role in Gilpin’s
present vehicle.” The above is an extract taken from an article that
appeared in the March 26, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender and which
article was written by Tony Langston, Dramatic Editor and Advertising
Manager of that paper.
To the thoughtless observer the sudden leap to fame by this Colored
actor looked like a streak of good luck: but not so. Years ago
when Gilpin was working as a coal miner, butler, porter and many
other menial jobs he was, perhaps unknown to even himself, making
preparations to face some big event that his elevating aspirations
pushed him on to meet. He was an actor then, but he had not found
himself and his talents were undeveloped. When he organized the first
Lafayette dramatic players in New York many years ago he was beginning
to find and unfold himself. This unfolding continued for sometime
until he was given a cast in John Drinkwater’s “Abraham Lincoln.”
Then (what Gilpin knew for years but did not get a chance to show)
the nation learned that in this man were the qualities and abilities
of a great actor. So when the big opportunity came for Gilpin to play
the principal actor in Eugene O’Neill’s play, “The Emperor Jones”,
this Colored man’s previous years of hard struggles in and out of
his avenues of cherished hopes had well equipped him for the place.
Chance may have put him there, but luck did not keep him there. Only
long preparations and the proper qualifications that are allied with
those preparations can balance and keep a man on such a high and dizzy
steeple point as that, and also enable him to hold a Spingarn Medal.
Some of the other Colored actors and actresses in America who have
mounted high enough upon the Thespian ladder to catch glimpses of
its topmost rung and are rapidly climbing thereto, are; Dick Abrams,
George Allen, Mrs. Chas. Anderson, Chas. Anderson, Emmett Anthony,
Austin & Delaney, “Chick” Beaman, Andrew Bishop, “Eubie” Blake, Laura
Bowman, Clarence Brooks, Shelton Brooks, Teressa Brooks, Ida Brown, L.
De Bulger, Jim Burris, H. B. Carter, Estelle Cash, Lawrence Chenault,
Inez Clough, Lulu Coates, Julian Costello, Amon Davis, Hazel Davis, A.
B. DeComathierre, Cleo Desmond, Evelyn Ellis, Ada Forman, Charlotte
Freeman, Lottie Ghee, Ella Goodloe, Alice Gorgas, Richard Gregg,
Lawrence Griner, Iris Hall, Harper & Blank, Grace Howell, Maud Jones,
Joe Jordan, Sidney Kirkpatrick, Margeurite Lee, Tom Lemonier, Florence
McClain, Irvin C. Miller, Abbie Mitchell, Lionel Monogus, Frank
Montgomery, Francis Mores, Moss & Frye, Clarence Muse, Chas. Olden,
Laura Prampin, Harry Prampin, Ethel Pope, Evelyn Preer, Gladys Price,
Arthur Ray, “Bob” Russell, Gertrude Saunders, Seamore & Jeanette,
Arthur Simmons, Nobble Sissle, “Bob” Slater, Mildrew Smallwood, Eddie
Stafford, Susie Sutton, E. G. Tatum, Walker Thompson, “Babe” Townsend,
Andrew Tribble, Lee Whipper, Maybelle Whitman, Fannie Wise, Eddie
Brown, Marie Lucus.
Elocutionists
Some of the foremost dramatic readers and elocutionists of today are;
Hallie Q. Brown, who is also president of The National Association of
Colored Women, Wilberforce, Ohio, Fannie H. Clint, New York, Madame
Coppage, Norfolk, Va., Henrietta V. Davis, Washington, D.C., Richard B.
Harrison, Chicago, Ill., Madamme Johnson, Berkley, Cal., Maud Jones,
New York, Frances E. Motin, St. Louis, Mo., Elmer L. Payne, Bethlehem,
Pa., Theodore Shackelford, New York, Ruby Pelleford, Sabina, Ohio,
Anna Teney, Chicago, Ill., Charles W. Wood, Tuskegee, Ala., and Alonzo
Jackson, Phila., Pa., who is Founder and Principal of the Garrick
Dramatic School in that city.
RED BLOODED AIRY PLAYS
Theaters of the Negro Race
Today try hard in every case
To ventilate their ceilings space
And thus save lungs within the Race.
--_Harrison._
“According to J. A. Jackson, of the Billboard, Negroes support 328
Vaudeville and 611 motion pictures theatres in 21 States. The smallest
theatre seats 200 and the largest 1,800. Since September, 1920, 25 new
acts, 14 companies and 12 theatres have entered the field.” The above
quotation is an extract from the July, 1921 issue of The Crisis. John
T. Gibson, Phila., Pa. owner of the New Standard and Dunbar Theaters
in that city, and Rufus G. Byars, Washington, D.C. owner and promoter
of a chain of theaters, are recognized as two of the most successful
theatrical owners and promoters in the Negro Race today.
The writer presents the following names as being only a few belonging
to the many many foremost Colored theatrical owners, managers,
promoters, editors, writers and critics, who are using their utmost
talents and energies to inspire and present intelligent entertainment
and clean, wholesome amusement for the Colored theatre goers:
C. P. Bailey, Clarence Bennett, E. C. Brown, Romeo L. Dougherty, E. B.
Dudley, S. H. Dudley, C. H. Douglass, Hubert H. Harrison, H. J. Huey,
Jas. A. Jackson, Georgia H. Jones, Tony Langston, F. M. Murray, A.
B. Nordecai, E. L. Pankey, Sam E. Reevin, W. S. Scales, Jesse Shipp,
Milton Starr, E. S. Stone, W. J. Styles, C. H. Turpin, Lester B.
Walton, and G. Grant Williams, Deacon Johnson.
Perhaps the greatest collective sign of the rapid and wonderful
progress made along executive lines by Colored theatrical promoters and
performers in America is seen in the formation of at least three big
organizations pertaining to their own management and welfare.
The National Managers’ Protective Association is an organization
to encourage the progress and promote the welfare of all connected
with the Negro stage. Three of its chief duties are; first, to see
that Negro players be encouraged in every way to entersperse their
acts with clean, worth while offerings in songs and new material;
secondly, to agree to such arrangements that the booking exchange,
will give acts contracts that will be played as given, eliminating
lay-offs, with shortest possible jumps, and salary in keeping, and
thirdly, to arbitrate all complaints of managers, actors or agents,
and see that a just settlement is given the parties, each case to be
decided upon its merits. The officers of this organ are as follows:
President C. H. Turpin, of the Booker T. Washington Theatre, St. Louis,
Mo., Vice-President, E. B. Dudley, of the Dudley Theatre, Detroit,
Mich., and Secretary-Treasurer, T. S. Finley of the Lyceum Theatre,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Theatre Owners’ Booking Association by its own name implies what
its chief duties are, and it is only necessary to say that the rapidly
increasing numbers of theatre managers who are joining this association
in order to be assured of regular and best plays being booked for their
houses, vividly shows the necessity and value of such an organ. Its
President is Milton Starr, Nashville, Tenn., Vice-President, C. H.
Turpin, St. Louis, Mo., Secretary, W. S. Scales, Winston-Salem, N. C.,
and Treasurer-Manager, S. E. Reevin, Chattanooga, Tenn.
A most recent organization along these lines is known as The Actors’
Legion with headquarters at Cincinnati, Ohio. Its membership is to be
composed of actors and actresses.., and one of its chief duties is
to see that matters of importance to performers will be speedily and
properly adjusted. The writer was not able to get a list of the names
belonging to the officers of this body.
Tony Langston, born in Detroit, Michigan, (fortunately several years
after Noah’s Flood and a few years before Volstead’s Drought) and today
living in Chicago never very far from nor out of sight of “Dear Old
State Street”, is without question the most popular Colored theatrical
writer not only in America but throughout the world. He writes the
widest variety of subjects of any present-day penman in that line and
is read by more than one million people each and every week. Nine years
ago he entered the establishment of the Chicago Defender by way of
its back door and on a salary less than the devil (printer’s) himself
receives. To-day, he (Tony, not the devil) walks in and out the front
doors of this firm as the highest paid writer in the history of Colored
journalism.
When he first took hold of the dramatic sheet of this paper and held
it up before the sun (son--excuse the pun), he could see just about as
much matter on it as is seen in the hole (whole) of a doughnut. Since
then he has been constantly thumping and pounding on Colored theatrical
Boards with such hard and well-aimed blows (not with hammers and nails,
but with ability, hard work, tact, cheerfulness, sympathy, friendliness
and a “Million Dollar Smile”) that to-day the dramatic construction of
the Chicago Defender averages over thirty thousand dollars yearly in
advertising.
Aside from being Advertising Manager of the above mentioned journal,
which is popularly known as the “World’s Greatest Weekly”, this
all-round journalist, who is fondly called the “Old Roll Top Desk Man,”
holds similar positions in connection with the Avenue, Grand, States,
Phoenix, Lincoln, Atlas, Monogram, Owl and Pickford Theatres. He is
also President of the Langston Slide and Advertising Company.
“REAL WHITE” FRIENDS
HOPEFULNESS AND GRATEFULNESS.
Through all his trials upon this land,
Some white folks take the Negro’s stand;
And this has kept his hopes alive
For higher things to ever strive
So as to show his worth and thanks
To those who share their brains and banks.
--_Harrison._
From the year 1619 when Negroes were first brought from Africa to the
American Colonies, Colored people had from the very first a few of the
truest kind of friends among a certain class of broad-minded, clean
hearted and Christian white people. This group of people never was in
favor of slavery but they could not stop it because their numbers were
so much smaller than those who wanted and did have slaves. But white
friends of those shackled human beings rapidly increased in numbers
until 1861 when they felt that at last they were not only evenly
matched but also had the sentiment of the rest of the world with them
against the Southern white enemies of the Negro in freedom. Even during
the darkest days of slavery there were white men and women in both
the North and South, who after having slaves given to them by their
parents, became so heavy of heart and worried in mind because of their
parts in such soul damming sins and crimes that they would not longer
keep their Colored people as slaves but set them free. Then again on
account of some valuable deeds or services they had performed, many
slaves were made free outright or were allowed to work their freedom
out on easy terms. Some owners, while they were not quite Christianized
or civilized enough to free their slaves, were in several ways quite
kind to them and sometimes secretly (for the laws of the land forbid
owners educating their slaves) taught them to read and write in
somewhat the same amusing and pitying manner that tender-hearted boys
and girls of today are kind to their pet birds and rabbits and teach
them several smart tricks but yet will not open the cage doors and turn
them loose.
Thus in the above ways there were during the whole period of slavery
in the colonies a certain number of Negroes who had secured their
freedom as well as good educations in many instances. This explains how
it is possible for the writer to truthfully mention within these pages
historical facts relative to certain Colored people becoming noted
teachers, preachers, doctors, newspaper editors, etc., long before the
Civil War and the freedom of all Negroes in America.
Through the agencies of such organizations and societies as named below
thousands of Northern white people either by means of their money or
through actual service among the Colored people in the South showed
their unquestioned friendships for the Negro race. Some of the most
important of those friendly organs were as follows:
“Freedman’s Bureau, American Missionary Association, The American
Freedmen’s Union Commission, The Baltimore Association for the Moral
Educational Improvement of the colored people, The Western Freedmen’s
Aid Commission, National Freedmen’s Relief Association of the
District of Columbia, The Soldiers’ Memorial Society of Boston, Old
School General Assembly Presbyterian Church, American Baptist Home
Mission Society, The New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, and The
Pennsylvania Friends’ Freedmen’s Relief Association of Philadelphia.
The two Presidents of the United States who have proved themselves,
through both words and deeds, truly to have been the greatest white
friends the Negro race has ever had in the White House were Abraham
Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
The following are a few names handed to the writer by capable
estimators as being among the many thousands of America’s “real white”
people, who, either before or during the Civil War, Reconstruction
Period or during the present times, have shown by their encouraging and
fearless words and their generous and helpful deeds that they had or
have within them the deepest brotherhood interest for the truest humane
welfare and progress of the Negro Race:
Wm. Anthony Aery Editor
Samuel Chapman Armstrong Educator
Miss Alice M. Bacon Philanthropist.
Dr. Gamaliel Bailey Editor, Abolitionist
Henry Ward Beecher Preacher
Arthur Brisbane Journalist
Arnold Buffum Abolitionist
Horace Bumstead Educator
Benjamin F. Butler General
Natalie Curtis Burlin Composer-Author
John Brown Agitator-Abolitionist
Dr. Wallace Buttrick Educator
George W. Cable Novelist
Dorothy Canfield Novelist
Andrew Carnegie Philanthropist
Gen. H. W. Carpenter Philanthropist
Dr. J. M. Clark Educator
Joshua Coffin Abolitionist
Mrs. Mary Crozier Philanthropist
Frank W. Darling Philanthropist
Miss Jane E. Davis Editor
Dr. Jas. H. Dillard Educator
Dr. J. Stanley Durkee Educator
L. C. Dyer Congressman
John T. Emlen Philanthropist
Samuel Ettleson Senator
Mrs. Mary Evans Philanthropist
Calvin Fairbanks Underground R. R. Agent
Homer L. Ferguson Philanthropist
Dr. C. H. Fisk Educator
Jos. B. Foraker Lawyer-Senator
A. S. Frissell Banker
Dr. Hollis Burke Frissell Educator
F. Nathan Fritch Manufacturer-Merchant
Wm. Lloyd Garrison Agitator-Abolitionist
Eugene G. Grace Manufacturer-Merchant
Dr. Jas. E. Gregg Educator
Mrs. J. H. Hammond Publicity Worker
Warren G. Harding President
Atticus G. Haygood Educator
William Hayward Colonel
Mrs. Mary Hemenway Philanthropist
O. O. Howard General
Julia Ward Howe Philanthropist
Dr. G. W. Hubbard Educator
Collis P. Huntington Philanthropist
Mrs. C. P. Huntington Philanthropist
Miss Elizabeth Hyde Educator
Mrs. D. Willis James Philanthropist
Miss Anna T. Jeanes Philanthropist
W. N. Harthorn Philanthropist
Mrs. John S. Kennedy Philanthropist
Robt. T. Kerlin Educator-Author
F. H. Keys Philanthropist
F. E. Lewis Lawyer and Ex-Mayor
H. E. and R. A. Lewis Manufacturers-Merchants
Colonel Little U. S. Army
Elijah P. Lovejoy Preacher-Abolitionist
Martin E. Madden Congressman
Joseph C. Manning Congressman
Frederick L. Marquand Philanthropist
Samuel J. May Underground R. R. Agent
Dr. F. A. McKenzie Educator
Mendell McCormick Senator
Dr. C. M. Melden Educator
Dr. C. F. Meserve Educator
Lucretia Mott Philanthropist
John R. Mott Y. M. C. A. Worker
Robert C. Ogden Philanthropist
Mary White Ovington Authoress-Lecturer
Robt. W. Paterson Philanthropist
Geo. Foster Peabody Philanthropist
Wendell Phillips Agitator-Abolitionist
Dr. Geo. P. Phenix Educator
Dr. John B. Rendali Educator
R. J. Reynolds Philanthropist
John D. Rockefeller Philanthropist
Theodore Roosevelt President
Julius Rosenwald Philanthropist
Mrs. Russell Sage Philanthropist
J. G. Schmidlap Philanthropist
Charles M. Schwab Manufacturer-Merchant
Herbert J. Seligman Author
John Sherman Senator
John F. Slater Philanthropist
R. C. Solt Banker
Joel E. Spingarn Philanthropist
Miss Caroline Phelps-Stokes Philanthropist
Moorefield Storey Lawyer
Mrs. Valeria Stone Philanthropist
Harriett Beecher Stowe Novelist-Abolitionist
Wm. Jay Schieffelin Philanthropist
Prof. T. L. Stewart Educator
Charles Sumner Senator-Abolitionist
Dr. F. A. Sumner Educator
Robert S. Taylor Lawyer
Dr. W. P. Thirkield Bishop
Oswald Garrison Villard Editor
Dr. E. T. Ware Educator
John Wanamaker Philanthropist
Mrs. Sarah E. Whitin Philanthropist
John Greenleaf Whittier Poet
Linderman, Warren & Robt. Wilbur Bankers
Henry Wilson Abolitionist, Vice-President
(Some names in above list are extracts from Work’s Negro Year Book,
1918-1919 edition, p. 34.)
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.