Hilda Perleno was an American blues and jazz singer, known for her Broadway appearances in the 1920s and 1930s.
Hilda Perleno was an American blues and jazz singer, known for her Broadway appearances in the 1920s and 1930s.
Hilda Eugeana Perleno was a native of East St. Louis, Illinois, and attended the music conservatory at Howard University between 1918 and 1922. [1] [2] Her first role as a performer was as a chorus girl in the 1924 production In Bamville. [3] In September 1924, Perleno appeared on Broadway as a chorus girl in The Chocolate Dandie. [4] In 1925-6, she found work as a first soprano for the Harlem Production Company. [5]
In 1927 she recorded Donald Heywood's "Mango Lane" and "Susanne", singing a duet with Dan Michaels as the composer accompanied them on the piano. [6] [7] [8] In March 1927, she appeared opposite Berlena Banks and Jesse Shipp in the Negro musical comedy Lucky Sambo at the La Salle Theatre in Chicago. [9] Perleno, along with Amanda Randolph, was one of the Three Dixie Songbirds in the production. [3] She had been appearing in the production since 1925. [10] Perleno, along with Blanche Calloway, Anna Freeman, Byron Jones, Lew Keene and Evelyn Keys performed in the 1928 show Keep Shufflin' by Miller & Lyles at the Erlanger Theater, Chicago. [11] Perleno made regular radio appearances on WCGU in 1928; at times she was joined by Donald Heywood. [12] [13] [14]
In April 1929, Perleno appeared in the ensemble for Messin' Around, [15] and in June, at the Royale Theatre, she had a minor role as Sheila Nesbit in the play Bamboola . [4] [16] Perleno sang in the numbers "Ace of Spades", "Tampico Tune" and "Shoutin Sinners" in the musical. [17]
In 1930, Perleno appeared in Hot Rhythm, [4] and in April 1930 she appeared alongside Margaret Simms, Allen Virgel and Valaida Snow in a production of Shuffle Along in Werba's Brooklyn Theatre. [18] [19] By 1931, Perleno was one of the featured performers for Ed Smalls' Club Paradise Revue. Smalls, the owner of Smalls Paradise, produced regular revues for the club featuring the Smalls' Paradise permanent cast of entertainers. He commissioned original music for the revues, which were performed both at the club and also at local theaters. [20] [21] [22] [23] Jackie "Moms" Mabley was also one of those featured when the revue played at The Harlem Alhambra. [20]
In April 1937, she appeared supporting Ella Fitzgerald and the Chick Webb Orchestra during their one-week engagement at the Apollo Theater in New York City. [24]
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1928.
Ethel Waters was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Trixie Smith was an American blues singer, recording artist, vaudeville entertainer, and actress. She made four dozen recordings.
Playbill is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of Playbill are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's program.
Ann Reinking was an American dancer, retired actress, choreographer and singer. She worked predominantly in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco (1969), Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986).
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
André Robin De Shields is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer.
Tim Moore was an American vaudevillian and comic actor of the first half of the 20th century. He gained his greatest recognition in the starring role of George "Kingfish" Stevens in the CBS TV's The Amos 'n' Andy Show. He proudly stated, "I've made it a point never to tell a joke on stage that I couldn't tell in front of my mother."
Flournoy Eakin Miller, sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he formed a popular comic duo, Miller and Lyles, with Aubrey Lyles. Described as "an innovator who advanced black comedy and entertainment significantly," and as "one of the seminal figures in the development of African American musical theater on Broadway", he wrote many successful vaudeville and Broadway shows, including the influential Shuffle Along (1921), as well as working on several all-black movies between the 1930s and 1950s.
Joseph Taylor Jordan was an American pianist, composer, real estate investor, and music publisher.
Monette Moore was an American jazz and classic female blues singer.
Smalls Paradise, was a nightclub in Harlem, New York City. Located in the basement of 2294 Seventh Avenue at 134th Street, it opened in 1925 and was owned by Ed Smalls (né Edwin Alexander Smalls; 1882–1976). At the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Smalls Paradise was the only one of the well-known Harlem night clubs to be owned by an African-American and integrated. Other major Harlem night clubs admitted only white patrons unless the person was an African-American celebrity.
Village East by Angelika is a movie theater at 189 Second Avenue, on the corner with 12th Street, in the East Village of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the former Yiddish Theatre District, the theater was designed in the Moorish Revival style by Harrison Wiseman and built from 1925 to 1926 by Louis Jaffe. In addition to Yiddish theatre, the theater has hosted off-Broadway shows, burlesque, and movies. Since 1991, it has been operated by Angelika Film Center as a seven-screen multiplex. Both the exterior and interior of the theater are New York City designated landmarks, and the theater is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Donald Heywood was a Trinidadian-born American songwriter, composer, writer and director. He is best remembered for composing "I'm Coming Virginia" in 1926, which became a hit for Ethel Waters. He became a prominent figure in black musical theater, and produced scores for films such as Moon Over Harlem (1939) and Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941).
Emma Chambers Maitland, born Jane Chambers, was an American dancer, teacher, and boxer.
Cora Green was an American actress, singer, and dancer, billed as "The Famous Creole Singer".
Susie Sutton was an American actress who appeared in theater and films. She was a member of the Lafayette Players from 1917 until 1922 before joining productions by I. M. Weingarden from 1922 to 1924. In later theater productions she continued with Weingarden's company troupe until founding her own vaudeville troupe in 1926 called the Susie Sutton Company, though she also took part in productions with the Alhambra Players in the late 1920s. Her role in The Green Pastures in 1930 as Noah's wife is one of her most well known stage roles.
Lucky Sambo was a 1925 musical comedy staged on Broadway. It originally toured as Aces and Queens in 1923 and 1924. It was by Porter Grainger and Freddy Johnson. It played at the Colonial Theatre.
Jean Tennyson, also known by her married names Jean Tennyson Dreyfus and Jean Tennyson Boissevain, was an American soprano, musical theatre actress, philanthropist, and radio personality. She began her career performing in musicals and cabaret shows in Chicago; making her stage debut in 1919. She made her Broadway debut in the chorus of Albert Von Tilzer's 1923 musical Adrienne; ultimately taking over the title role four months into the shows run and performing that part on tour in 1924. After starring in the Broadway musical revue The Earl Carroll Vanities in 1928 and 1929, her career shifted towards opera and work as a concert soprano. She was a leading soprano in operas and concerts internationally from the 1930s through the 1940s, performing on the stages of opera houses like La Scala, La Fenice, the Vienna Volksoper, the Chicago Civic Opera and the San Francisco Opera.
