The Chitlin' Circuit was a collection of performance venues found throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States. They provided commercial and cultural acceptance for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers following the era of venues run by the "white-owned-and-operated Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOBA)...formed in 1921." [1] The Chitlin Circuit sustained black musicians and dancers during the era of racial segregation in the United States from the 1930s through the 1960s. [2] [1]
The name derives from the soul food dish chitterlings (boiled pig intestines). [1] It is also a play on the term "Borscht Belt", which referred to particular resort venues (primarily in New York State's Catskill Mountains) very popular with Jewish performers and audiences during the 1940s through the 1960s. [3]
Chitterlings are part of the culinary history of African Americans, who were often limited to the intestines of the pig to eat as opposed to the bacon or ham. Henry Louis Gates Jr. suggests the food symbolized acquiring a taste out of necessity and eventually coming to like it. [4]
The term "Chitlin' Circuit" did not appear in print until a 1972 article on Ike & Tina Turner in The Chicago Defender . [5] In the 21st century, the term is applied to the venues, especially in the South, where contemporary African-American blues singers such as Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, and O.B. Buchana continue to appear regularly.
Ebony magazine prefers the term "urban theater circuit" for recent work like that of playwright and actor Tyler Perry. In a January 2004 interview with Perry, the genre's leading practitioner, Ebony wrote his work marked "a new chapter in the urban theater circuit as a whole—a genre that has been dogged by criticism from some Blacks in the traditional theater. Perry, as the most visibly recognized player in the circuit, has felt the brunt of this criticism." "They say that Tyler Perry has set the Black race back some 500 years with these types of "Chitlin' Circuit" shows. The problem with the naysayers is that they don't take the opportunity to see my shows,' Perry argued. "With my shows, I try to build a bridge that marries what's deemed 'legitimate theater' and so-called 'chitlin' circuit theater,' and I think I've done pretty well with that, in bringing people in to enjoy a more elevated level of theater.'" [6]
Leading figures in establishing the Chitlin' Circuit were the Black Indianapolis entrepreneurs Sea and Denver D. Ferguson. [1] After the collapse of the Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOBA) in 1930, the Ferguson brothers drew on bandleader and influential columnist Walter Barnes and his contacts to bring top Black entertainers to Indianapolis in the 1930s. [7] When their businesses' licenses were revoked in 1940, they opened Ferguson Brothers, a booking agency, which grew rapidly and became the most powerful Black-owned talent agency in the country. [8] They helped various orchestras, bands, and vaudeville shows book gigs, including Jay McShann, King Kolax, Tiny Bradshaw, Roosevelt Sykes, Claude Trenier, the Bama State Collegians, Carolina Cotton Pickers, Snookum Russell, Milton Larkin, Clarence Love, Gene Pope, and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and organised tours around the South playing to Black audiences. [9] Musician Sax Kari described Denver Ferguson as "the man who invented the chitlin’ circuit". [10]
The Chitlin' Circuit was primarily by, for, and about black people. [1] There are discrepancies among different sources about when the Circuit peaked, whether it was the 1930s, after World War II, or during the heyday of the blues. [11] Several definitive books reviewed on NPR's Fresh Air have recognized "the names and careers of men and women – and, yes, some of the toughest of these people were women – who ran bars, booking agencies and clubs, where traveling musicians could come into a black community, play, make money and go to the next town." [12]
The exclusionary systems of racial segregation necessitated the creation of a touring circuit for numerous African American, then Negro or Colored, musicians to make a living in U.S. cities from Indianapolis, Indiana and Clarksdale, Mississippi to "unlikely places like North Dakota and Minnesota" [1] and more:
[V]enues ranged from rudimentary juke joints in rural areas to nightclubs, restaurants, and higher-end theaters in larger cities. For decades, the circuit was strongly associated with blues, jazz, rock, and soul musicians and singers such as Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Denise LaSalle, and James Brown. Entertainers felt they had “made it” if they performed at one of the highly coveted venues: Atlanta’s Royal Peacock, Baltimore’s Royal Theater, Chicago’s Regal Theater, Detroit’s Paradise Theatre, Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater and Washington, D.C.’s Howard and Lincoln Theaters.
The Chitlin' Circuit "eventually brought about the birth of rock 'n' roll" in the 1950s as the Civil Rights Movement emerged. [12]
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Noted theaters, nightclubs, and dance halls on the Chitlin' Circuit included:
Seasonal venues included the still-standing auditorium at John Brown's Farm (also known as "the Kennedy Farm") outside Sharpsburg, Maryland; [25] Carr's and Sparrow's Beach in Anne Arundel County, Maryland; and Rosedale Beach in Millsboro, Delaware.
According to Ruth Brown, an artist needed to play at four specific theaters to prove they had made it: the Regal in Chicago, the Howard in Washington D.C., the Uptown in Philadelphia, and the Apollo in New York City. This was called the "litchman chain". [26] [1]
The song "Tuxedo Junction" was written about a stop along the Chitlin' Circuit in Birmingham. Once the performance was over, the band would leave for the next stop on the circuit. After composing the music, Erskine Hawkins explained the reason for the title to Buddy Feyne, who created lyrics to express the concept. [27]
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Notable 20th-century performers who worked on the Chitlin' Circuit included:
A historic marker designated by the Mississippi Blues Commission on the Mississippi Blues Trail was placed in front of the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The 100 Men Hall is one of the rare still standing, still active blues venues on the trail. The second historic marker designated by the Mississippi Blues Commission on the Mississippi Blues Trail was placed in front of the Southern Whispers Restaurant on Nelson Street in Greenville, Mississippi, a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit in the early days of the blues. The marker commemorates the importance of this site in the history of the blues in Mississippi. [28] [29] In the 1940s and 1950s, this historic strip drew crowds to the flourishing club scene to hear Delta blues, big band, jump blues, and jazz.
The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California.
Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the high volume of live music venues in the city. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international lineups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, Central East Austin, the Red River Cultural District, the Warehouse District, the University of Texas, South Congress, and South Lamar.
Theatre Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s. The theaters mostly had white owners, though about a third of them had Black owners, including the recently restored Morton Theater in Athens, Georgia, originally operated by "Pinky" Monroe Morton, and Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia owned and operated by Charles Henry Douglass. Theater owners booked jazz and blues musicians and singers, comedians, and other performers, including the classically trained, such as operatic soprano Sissieretta Jones, known as "The Black Patti", for black audiences.
Don Deadric Robey was an American record label executive, songwriter, and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for developing the careers of many rhythm and blues artists in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first African American record mogul, 10 years prior to Berry Gordy's Motown label.
Victory Grill is a historic music venue located at 1104 E. 11th St, Austin, Texas. The nightclub was on the Chitlin' Circuit and hosted famous African American acts such as Bobby Bland, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, W. C. Clark and B. B. King when Austin was legally segregated. Victory Grill was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 16, 1998.
"Tuxedo Junction" is a popular big band song recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, becoming a No. 1 hit in 1940. The music was written by Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash and the lyrics by Buddy Feyne. The song was introduced by Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra, a college dance band previously known as the Bama State Collegians. RCA released it in 1939 and it climbed to #7 on the American pop charts.
Sherman Houston Dudley was an African-American vaudeville performer and theatre entrepreneur. He gained notability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as an individual performer, a composer of ragtime songs, and as a member and later owner of various minstrel shows including the Smart Set Company. Dudley is also notable as one of the first African Americans to combine business with theater, by starting a black theater circuit, in which theaters were owned or operated by African Americans and provided entertainment by and for African Americans. He created the first black operated vaudeville circuit and led the way for what became the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.).
Walter Barnes was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader.
The Uptown Theater is an Art Deco building built in 1927. It is situated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by the Philadelphia-based architectural firm of Magaziner, Eberhard & Harris, the theatre is located on 2240 N. Broad Street. It became a major venue on the Chitlin' Circuit, from 1951–1978. In 1982, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Regal Theater was a night club, theater, and music venue, popular among African Americans, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum, and opened in February 1928. It closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1973.
Fred "Sweet Daddy Goodlow" Ford was an American blues and jazz artist, composer, arranger and educator. Ford was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Boss Fred Ford and Nancy Taylor Ford.
New York is a major center for all types of music. Its diverse community has contributed to introducing and spreading many genres of music, including salsa, jazz, folk, rock and roll, and classical. New York's plethora of music venues and event halls serve as popular markers which have housed many noteworthy artists.
Black Vaudeville is a term that specifically describes Vaudeville-era African American entertainers and the milieus of dance, music, and theatrical performances they created. Spanning the years between the 1880s and early 1930s, these acts not only brought elements and influences unique to American black culture directly to African Americans but ultimately spread them beyond to both white American society and Europe.
Annie Laurie was an American jump blues and rhythm and blues singer. She is most associated with the bandleader and songwriter, Paul Gayten, although she also registered hit singles in her own name. Laurie first recorded in the mid-1940s and her professional career lasted until the early 1960s. Appraisal of her qualities appear to vary between Dinah Washington stating that Laurie was her favorite singer, to Irma Thomas, who opined – "Annie Laurie? She was okay."
Sax Kari, born Isaac Columbus Toombs Jr., sometimes known as Isaac Saxton Kari Toombs or simply Saxton Kari, was an American multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, A&R man and promoter, who had a wide variety of roles during a career in African American entertainment and R&B music lasting from the 1920s to the 1990s. He also used pseudonyms, including Ira Green, Texas Red, Dirty Red Morgan, and Candy Yams.
William G. Harvey was an American rhythm and blues saxophonist and bandleader.
Denver Darious Ferguson Sr. was an American businessman and nightclub owner in Indianapolis, who had a leading role in establishing the "Chitlin' Circuit" of United States entertainment venues for black entertainers and audiences in the 1930s and 1940s. Earlier in his career he established a newspaper, The Edmonson County Star, in his home town of Brownsville, Kentucky, before moving to Indianapolis, where he established a printing company. His younger brother, Sea Ferguson, helped in the print shop and with Denver's other business ventures.
Andrew "Sunbeam" Mitchell was an American Memphis-based businessman. He operated the Mitchell Hotel which lodged well-known musicians, and soon he began operating nightclubs on the Chitlin' Circuit such as the Club Handy, Club Ebony, and the Club Paradise. Mitchell ran nightclubs for 40 years until selling off his holdings in the 1980s.
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program formed in 2017 to aid stewards of Black cultural sites throughout the nation in preserving both physical landmarks, their material collections and associated narratives. It was organized under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The initiative which awards grants to select applicants and advocates of Black history is led by architectural historian Brent Leggs. It is the largest program in America to preserve places associated with Black history and has currently raised over $150 million.
Denver D Ferguson.