Kicha's photos with the keyword: Dancers

Black Patti Troubadours was a vaudeville company led by famous soprano Sissieretta Jones aka Black Patti . They toured internationally until 1915, performing operatic arias, and sentimental ballads. The Black Patti Troubadours, as pictured in their souvenir booklet, "Songs as Sung by the Black Patti Troubadours." Was the largest and most prestigious African American minstrel company of the ragtime era, ranked with the landmark black musical comedy companies led by Williams and Walker, Cole and Johnson, etc. The photo dates from 1897-1898, when the roster included both aging minstrel pioneer Sam Lucas, standing in the back row with top hat, and up and coming star Ernest Hogan, seated in the center, surrounded by the ladies of the company. Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933) was a pioneering African American concert singer who established an international reputation during the 1890s. When a critic for the New York Clipper dubbed her “the Black Patti” in reference to famed Italian soprano Adelina Patti, the name stuck. Her extensive tours across the Americas and Europe included performances for three Presidents and the Prince of Wales. In spite of these successes, she was denied many opportunities due to prevailing racial barriers, including a chance to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. Frustrated by such limitations, Jones formed her own traveling revue in 1898, known as the Black Patti Troubadours. The troupe comprised about 40 comedians, dancers, acrobats and singers, and featured such prominent black performers as Bob Cole, Sam Lucas and Ernest Hogan. The Troubadours toured for nearly two decades, presenting Jones’ operatic arias alongside minstrel songs and vaudeville acts, a unique blend of high culture and popular entertainment. Sources: Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," & The Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff

These young ladies were known as the Florida Creole Girls who performed at the Casino de Paris shortly after the turn of the 20th century. They were part of an American dance troupe who helped introduce and popularize the Cake Walk Dance in Europe. Founder of the dance group is Miss Shippert standing in the center. I'm only able to name five other ladies but have no clue who is who: Miss Stafford, Miss Hobson, Miss Adams, Miss Hall and Miss Fitch. Walery, Photographer

She was born Marjorie Smith, and grew up in Harlem, New York in its heyday. Seduced by ballet and other "Europeanist" genres, she dropped out of Hunter College, and wore herself out building a career as an adagio dancer in vaudeville between the late 1920s and the mid '40s. In 1933, using the stage name Margot Webb, she formed a partnership with Harold Norton, and the team of "Norton and Margot" was born. Their career was emblematic of the paradoxes and double standards which existed for black artists in white America. Had the pair been tap dancers, lindy hoppers, or an exotic act, they might have gained a reputation in the mainstream entertainment industry. Webb was light enough to pass for white though she never did, and her partner was often mistaken to be Spanish. But because they identified themselves as black, they were paid less, booked less, booked at less popular places, not allowed to stay in hotels next to their bookings, and shown off as spectacle than entertainment. After their 1933 debut in New York, the team performed with major bands of that era, including Roy Eldridge, Chick Webb (no relation to Margot), Earl Hines, Noble Sissle and Louis Armstrong. They toured extensively on the Black Vaudeville circuits in the East and Midwest. In 1937 they toured Europe first as part of the Cotton Club Revue and, later, as an independent act on Continental variety shows. They were well known in the Black nightclub and vaudeville circuits for fifteen years, filling a position in Black entertainment that faded into oblivion by the time of their retirement in 1947. Upon retirement Ms. Webb became a physical education teacher. Her partner Norton, had dropped out of sight. Sources: Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era by Brenda Dixon Gottschild; Murray Korman, Photographer

Eddie Anderson took time off from playing “Rochester” on the Jack Benny Program to appear with Katherine Dunham in Star Spangled Rhythm, a 1942 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures. The number is titled "Sharp as a Tack." Edward Anderson Eddie "Rochester" Anderson was born in Oakland in 1906. His father, Big Ed Anderson, had been a minstrel performer; his mother, Ella Mae, had been a circus tightrope walker until an accident ended her career. Eddie Anderson started out in vaudeville and had appeared in a number of films when he debuted as the voice of a Pullman porter on Jack Benny's popular radio show in 1937. Audiences responded with such enthusiasm that the canny Benny soon made Rochester his man Friday and inseparable sidekick, and the duo starred together on radio, in movies and on television for twenty-three years. He was born in Oakland, California, on September 18, 1905. As a child, Anderson sold newspapers on a street corner and permanently damaged his vocal cords (he had to yell loudly to attract attention), leading to his trademark "raspy" voice. Anderson began his show business career at age 14 in a song-and-dance act with his brother Cornelius and another performer. They billed themselves as the Three Black Aces. He began his career in Radio and in 1937, Anderson made what was supposed to be a one-shot appearance on the The Jack Benny Program. The audience loved his droll humor and he became a regular member of the cast and the first black performer to acquire a regular part on radio. The show easily made the transition to early television and as "Rochester van Jones" (known simply as "Rochester") Anderson constantly deflated Benny's pomposity with a high-pitched, incredulous, "What's that, boss?" As a legacy of blackface minstrelsy, the pairing of Benny and Anderson was based on comedy routines of the White master and his slave Uncle Tom. The high esteem in which the two actors held each other was evident upon Benny's death in 1974, in which a tearful Anderson, interviewed for television, spoke of Benny with admiration and respect. By 1942, he was earning $100,000 a year and for a time was the highest-paid Black actor in Hollywood. Anderson invested his money wisely and became extremely wealthy. In addition to his partnership with Benny, Anderson appeared in over sixty motion pictures, including Uncle Peter in Gone with the Wind, Cabin in the Sky, and as one of the taxi drivers in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He reprised his Rochester role in Topper Returns, this time as Cosmo Topper's valet (though he jokes about 'Mr. Benny' in the film). Anderson died in 1977 due to heart disease at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Eddie Anderson was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001. Source: Blackface!, Ken Padgett The above number Sharp as a Tack: vimeo.com/167177450

Aida Overton Walker pictured along with her hubby George A Walker in a publicity photo depicting their version of the famous Cakewalk in the 1903 play In Dahomey performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. The play was written by Will Marion Cook, Jesse A Shipp and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Synopsis: A musical comedy about a fraudulent scheme to return discontented Blacks to Africa. It was performed by a cast of about one hundred African American actors, and made a huge impact not only on the theatre but on fashion. Its display of dances such as the 'Cakewalk' and 'Buck and Wing' helped them become the latest dance hall crazes in the UK. Despite the show’s misrepresentations of Africa, it was a milestone because it was created and performed by an all-black cast and was the first to introduce an African theme to the musical genre. A few historical facts about the play In Dahomey : It was the first African American musical play. It was created and performed by an all African American cast. The show had 53 performances in New York,. Had a seven month run in England. The play ran between the years 1902 and 1905. All music and lyrics were written by African Americans, Will Marion Cook and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Source: V&A Theatre Collection