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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, while changing over time.
Oscar Hammerstein I was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of American playwright/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and the father of theater manager William Hammerstein and American producer Arthur Hammerstein.
African-American musical theater includes late 19th- and early 20th-century musical theater productions by African Americans in New York City and Chicago. Actors from troupes such as the Lafayette Players also crossed over into film. The Pekin Theatre in Chicago was a popular and influential venue.
Charles Sidney Gilpin was one of the most highly regarded stage actors of the 1920s. He played in critical debuts in New York City: the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln and the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premiere of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, also touring with the play. In 1920, he was the first black American to receive The Drama League's annual award as one of the 10 people who had done the most that year for American theatre.
Frank Luther Mott was an American academic, historian and journalist, who won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for History for Volumes II and III of his series, A History of American Magazines.
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.
Aubrey Lee Lyles, sometimes credited as A. L. Lyles, was an American vaudeville performer, playwright, songwriter, and lyricist. He appeared with Flournoy E. Miller as Miller and Lyles as a popular African-American comedy duo from 1905 until shortly before his death. in 1929 they appeared on film as grocers in the Vitaphone Varieties short comedy film They Know Their Groceries.
Joseph Taylor Jordan was an American pianist, composer, real estate investor, and music publisher. He wrote over 2000 songs and arranged for notable people such as Florenz Ziegfeld, Orson Welles, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Duchin, Benny Goodman, and others.
The Théâtre de la Gaîté, a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1759 on the boulevard du Temple by the celebrated Parisian fair-grounds showman Jean-Baptiste Nicolet as the Théâtre de Nicolet, ou des Grands Danseurs. The company was invited to perform for the royal court of Louis XV in 1772 and thereafter took the name of Grands-Danseurs du Roi. However, with the fall of the monarchy and the founding of the First French Republic in 1792, the name was changed to the less politically risky Théâtre de la Gaîté. The company's theatre on the boulevard du Temple was replaced in 1764 and 1808, and again in 1835 due to a fire. As a result of Haussmann's renovation of Paris, the company relocated to a new theatre on the rue Papin in 1862, and the 1835 theatre (pictured) was subsequently demolished.
Englert Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa, is a renovated vaudeville-era playhouse now serving as a community arts center and 725-seat performance venue. It is owned and operated year around by Englert Civic Theatre, a non-profit art organization. The building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. In 2021, it was included as a contributing property in the Iowa City Downtown Historic District.
Jesse Allison Shipp, Sr. was an American actor, playwright, and theatrical director, who is best remembered as a pioneer African-American writer of musical theater in the United States, and as the author of the book upon which the landmark play In Dahomey was based. Shipp played an influential role in expanding black theater beyond its minstrel show origins and is recalled as perhaps the first African-American director of a Broadway performance.
Patrick Henry Chappelle, was an American theatre owner and entrepreneur, who established and ran The Rabbit's Foot Company, a leading traveling vaudeville show in the first part of the twentieth century. He became known as one of the biggest employers of African Americans in the entertainment industry, with multiple tent traveling shows and partnerships in strings of theaters and saloons. Chappelle was described at that time as the "Pioneer of Negro Vaudeville" and "the black P. T. Barnum," and was the only African American to fully operate a traveling show solely composed of African-American entertainers.
Established on June 18, 1904, Chicago’s Pekin Theatre was the first black owned musical and vaudeville stock theatre in the United States. Between 1904 and around 1915, the Pekin Club and its Pekin Theatre served as a training ground and showcase for Black theatrical talent, vaudeville acts, and musical comedies. Additionally, the theatre allowed “African-American theatre artists with an opportunity to master theater craft and contribute significantly to the development of an emerging Black theater tradition”. It was known by various names.
Irvin Colloden Miller was an American actor, playwright, and vaudeville show writer and producer. He was responsible for successful theater shows including Broadway Rastus (1921), Liza (1922), Dinah (1923), which introduced the wildly popular black bottom dance, and Desires of 1927 starring Adelaide Hall. For thirty years he directed the popular review, Brown Skin Models, influenced by the Ziegfeld Follies but exclusively using black performers. "In the 1920s and 1930s, he was arguably the most well-established and successful producer of black musical comedy."
Gertie Brown Moore was a vaudeville performer and one of the first African-American film actresses. Brown is most famous for her part in the 1898 silent film Something Good – Negro Kiss, which went viral in 2018.
The Railroad Porter, also released as The Pullman Porter, is a film produced by The Foster Photoplay Company that was released in 1912 or 1913. It was the film company's first release and one of the earliest American films produced by African-Americans.
Charlotte Grady Roxborough was a singer, dancer, and comedian who performed in theatrical productions and vaudeville as well as films. She was born to Wesley, a white father, and Susan (Kelly) Grady. She performed at the Pekin Theatre in Chicago where she was a star member of its stock company. She starred in William Foster's The Pullman Porter, in 1912, the first black motion picture production.
Harrison Stewart was a comedic actor and lyricist in the United States. He performed at the Pekin Theater in Chicago where he became a star and received top billing.
J. Edward Green was an actor, playwright and production manager in the United States. He was born in New Albany, Indiana in 1871. In his early years, he was part of the Black American Troubadours, Black Patti's Troubadours, Scott's Real Refined Negro Minstrels, the King and Bush Colored Minstrels, and Rusco & Holland's Minstrels. He organized the Rag Time Opera Company in 1901 in Birmingham, Alabama, where he produced two musical plays, African Princes and Medicine Man. For several years, he was the straight man for Ernest Hogan, sometimes called the father of ragtime. In September 1906, Robert Motts hired Green to be the Director of Amusements at the Pekin Theatre, replacing Charles S. Sager. While there, he authored, directed, and acted in shows, staging works including musical comedies Captain Rufus, In Zululand, The Man from 'Bam, Mayor of Dixie, Two African Princes, Honolulu, Queen of the Jungles, Twenty Minutes from State Street, My Nephew's Wife, My Friend from Georgia, A Trip to Coontown, The Count of No Account, In Eululand, The Grafters and Doctor Dope. Doctor Dope was by Stanley Woods (playwright).
Charles H. Turpin was a constable filmmaker, theater owner, and judge in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1910, he became the first African American elected to city-wide office in St. Louis. A legal dispute contested his estate.
References
- ↑ Kenney, William Howland (October 27, 1994). Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904-1930. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-19-535778-3. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021– via Google Books.
- 1 2 Goncourt, Edmond de; Goncourt, Jules de (1956). "New York Supreme Court". p. 589. Archived from the original on 2021-10-11. Retrieved 2021-10-08– via Google Books.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hawkins, J.E. (1920-05-08). "The Negro and Chicago, Past and Present". The Chicago Whip. p. 8.
- 1 2 Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Deaths Index, 1878-1922
- 1 2 Hawkins, J.E. (1920-05-29). "The Negro and Chicago, Past and Present". The Chicago Whip. p. 8.
- ↑ [ dead link ]
- ↑ Hawkins, J.E. (1920-06-29). "The Negro and Chicago, Past and Present". The Chicago Whip. p. 8.
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