Kicha's photos with the keyword: Actress

Billie Allen, one of the first black performers with a recurring network TV role, in 1955 on “The Phil Silvers Show,” with from left, Elisabeth Fraser, Barbara Berry, Midge Ware and Fay Morley. The Phil Silvers Show was the only one of that era to have several black actors play bit parts in non-menial roles. Billie Allen, an actress who appeared on and off Broadway when New York theater was not especially welcoming to black performers, and who helped integrate network television, making frequent appearances on “The Phil Silvers Show” in the 1950s and in commercials in the 1960s, died on December 29th at her home in Manhattan. She was 90. Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Carolyn J. Grant. Wilhelmina Louise Allen was born in Richmond, Virginia, on January 13, 1925, to Mamie Wimbush, a teacher, and William Allen, an actuary. Though not a marquee name, Ms. Allen was part of a significant theater cohort. She was a longtime friend of Ruby Dee (whom she directed in 2001 in “Saint Lucy’s Eyes,” an Off Broadway drama about abortion). Her second husband was the composer and arranger Luther Henderson, with whom she helped develop “Little Ham,” a musical based on Langston Hughes’s play of the same name about street life in Harlem. In 1973, with the actor Morgan Freeman and others, she was a founder of the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop in Harlem — a tribute to Silvera, an actor, director and influential teacher who died in 1970 — whose attendees have included Ntozake Shange, Charles Fuller and Samm-Art Williams. Ms. Allen, whose early performing interest was ballet, arrived in New York City from Virginia in the mid-1940s and danced on Broadway in shows including “Caribbean Carnival,” a 1947 musical revue; a 1952 revival of “Four Saints in Three Acts,” the Virgil Thomson opera with a libretto by Gertrude Stein; and “My Darlin’ Aida,” a 1952 adaptation of Verdi’s opera. She studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. As an understudy in the landmark production of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), she had occasion to go on as Beneatha Younger, the forward-looking sister of the play’s misguided protagonist. She played a maid to a theater critic (Henry Fonda) and his playwright wife (Georgann Johnson) in Ira Levin’s comedy “Critic’s Choice” (1960), and had a small part in “Blues for Mr. Charlie,” James Baldwin’s anguishing 1964 civil rights drama drawn from the murder of the black teenager Emmett Till in 1955. Her final Broadway appearance, in 1969, was in “A Teaspoon Every Four Hours,” a comedy about a Jewish widower whose son falls in love with a black woman. Co-written by and starring the comedian Jackie Mason (Ms. Allen played the young woman’s mother), the show earned Broadway notoriety for its absurdly extended preview period — 97 performances following which it closed after opening night. Of Ms. Allen’s many Off Broadway roles, the most prominent was Sarah, the central character of “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” Adrienne Kennedy’s 1964 study of the nightmarish torments of a young black woman. Ms. Allen was one of the first black performers with a recurring role on a network series, appearing (sometimes uncredited) as a member of the Women’s Army Corps on “The Phil Silvers Show,” the CBS military comedy that starred Silvers as the scheming Sergeant Bilko. She also grew to be in demand for television ads, appearing in commercials for Pampers diapers and cleaning products like Rinso and Tide. “Television viewers, at least those who don’t tune out their minds during commercials,” The New York Times reported in a 1968 article that featured Ms. Allen, “are now beginning to learn that Negroes can worry about dentures, dishpan hands and bad breath just as everyone else in TV land seems to.” Wilhelmina Louise Allen was born in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 13, 1925. Her mother, the former Mamie Wimbush, was a teacher; her father, William Allen, was an actuary. A ballet and opera devotee, she idolized Marian Anderson and attended her 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall. After graduating from high school, she attended Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) before moving to New York. Ms. Allen’s other television credits include “Car 54, Where Are You?” in the early 1960s and “Law & Order” in the early 1990s. She appeared in a handful of films as well, including “Black Like Me” (1964) and “The Wiz” (1978). Ms. Allen’s first marriage, to Duane Grant, an aerospace engineer, ended in divorce. Her marriage to Mr. Henderson ended with his death in 2003. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son, Duane Grant Jr.; a brother, Edward Allen; a granddaughter; and several stepchildren. Sources: NY Times article by Bruce Weber (June 2016); oldshowbiztumblr.com; Playbill Bill (Jan. 2016); CBS Archive, via Getty Images

Aida Overton Walker (1880-1914), dazzled early 20th century theater audiences with her original dance routines, her enchanting singing voice, and her penchant for elegant costumes. One of the premiere African American women artists of the turn of the century, she popularized the cakewalk and introduced it to English society. In addition to her attractive stage persona and highly acclaimed performances, she won the hearts of black entertainers for numerous benefit performances near the end of her tragically short career and for her cultivation of younger women performers. She was, in the words of the New York Age's Lester Walton, the exponent of "clean, refined artistic entertainment." Born in New York City, where she gained an education and considerable musical training. At the tender age of fifteen, she joined John Isham's Octoroons, one of the most influential black touring groups of the 1890s, and the following year she became a member of the Black Patti Troubadours. Although the show consisted of dozens of performers, Overton emerged as one of the most promising soubrettes of her day. In 1898, she joined the company of the famous comedy team Bert Williams and George Walker, and appeared in all of their shows—The Policy Players (1899), The Sons of Ham (1900), In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1905), and Bandanna Land (1907). Within about a year of their meeting, George Walker and Overton married and before long became one of the most admired and elegant African American couples on stage. While George Walker supplied most of the ideas for the musical comedies and Bert Williams enjoyed fame as the "funniest man in America," Aida quickly became an indispensable member of the Williams and Walker Company. In The Sons of Ham, for example, her rendition of Hannah from Savannah won praise for combining superb vocal control with acting skill that together presented a positive, strong image of black womanhood. Indeed, onstage Aida refused to comply with the plantation image of black women as plump mammies, happy to serve; like her husband, she viewed the representation of refined African American types on the stage as important political work. A talented dancer, Aida improvised original routines that her husband eagerly introduced in the shows; when In Dahomey was moved to England, Aida proved to be one of the strongest attractions. Society women invited her to their homes for private lessons in the exotic cakewalk that the Walkers had included in the show. After two seasons in England, the company returned to the United States in 1904, and it was Aida who was featured in a New York Herald interview about their tour. At times Walker asked his wife to interpret dances made famous by other performers—one example being the "Salome" dance that took Broadway by storm in the early 1900s—which she did with uneven success. After a decade of nearly continuous success with the Williams and Walker Company, Aida's career took an unexpected turn when her husband collapsed on tour with Bandanna Land. Initially Walker returned to his boyhood home of Lawrence, Kansas, where his mother took care of him. In his absence, Aida took over many of his songs and dances to keep the company together. In early 1909, however, Bandanna Land was forced to close, and Aida temporarily retired from stage work to care for her husband, now clearly seriously ill. No doubt recognizing that he likely would not recover and that she alone could support the family, she returned to the stage in Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson's Red Moon in autumn 1909, and she joined the Smart Set Company in 1910. Aida also began touring the vaudeville circuit as a solo act. Less than two weeks after Walker's death in January 1911, Aida signed a two-year contract to appear as a co-star with S. H. Dudley in another all-black traveling show. Although still a relatively young woman in the early 1910s, Aida began to develop medical problems that limited her capacity for constant touring and stage performance. As early as 1908, she had begun organizing benefits to aid such institutions as the Industrial Home for Colored Working Girls, and after her contract with S. H. Dudley expired, she devoted more of her energy to such projects, which allowed her to remain in New York. She also took an interest in developing the talents of younger women in the profession, hoping to pass along her vision of black performance as refined and elegant. She produced shows for two such female groups in 1913 and 1914—the Porto Rico Girls and the Happy Girls. She encouraged them to work up original dance numbers and insisted that they don stylish costumes on stage. When Aida Overton Walker died suddenly of kidney failure on October 11, 1914, the African American entertainment community in New York went into deep mourning. The New York Age featured a lengthy obituary on its front page, and hundreds of shocked entertainers descended on her residence to confirm a story they hoped was untrue. Walker left behind a legacy of polished performance and model professionalism. Her demand for respect and her generosity made her a beloved figure in African American theater circles. Sources: Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890-1915. Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, Thomas L Riis; James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

A Star Without a Star: An Oakland Man's Mission to Get his Aunt on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Long before the current reckoning with the Golden Globe Awards and the push for more diverse representation in media, Black actors in Hollywood's golden age paved the way in an industry that gave them few options and, often, no credit. In her seven-decade stage and screen career, Juanita Moore made more than 80 film and television appearances. Though she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the 1959 film, "Imitation of Life," she didn't reach the level of fame and recognition that might normally follow such a nomination. Her nephew, Arnett Moore, says her spotlight is long overdue. From his home in the Oakland Hills, 75-year-old Arnett has launched a one-man campaign to get his late aunt a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce only picks one posthumous candidate each year to get a star. Applications are due by May 28, and this is the third year in a row Arnett has submitted Juanita for consideration. “In the '50s when I was growing up, when you saw a Black person on the TV screen, you got excited. And Juanita was that face you saw again and again and again,” he says, "You might not know her name, but you knew that she was that person." Juanita was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, one of seven sisters, and the youngest of nine children, though one of her brothers died in childhood. Her other brother was Arnett's father. Juanita's mother moved all the children to Los Angeles around 1921. Her brother, Juanita's uncle, was a sleeping car porter and was able to get train tickets for the family to come to California. While attending Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, Juanita was part of the glee club, singing and dancing. A teacher saw her perform and suggested that she had the talent to pursue a career on stage. Arnett says she and a friend moved to New York City to do just that. "She was a showgirl at 18 at Small's Paradise, at the (Cafe Zanzibar), at several venues throughout New York, during the Harlem Renaissance. This is in the thirties." But soon after, says Arnett, Juanita headed to Europe, "Because Black entertainers weren't as well received in America as they were in Europe." She sang at the London Palladium, at the Moulin Rouge, and Arnett says she even had a chance to sing and dance with Josephine Baker, the entertainer and civil rights activist. Juanita returned to California after the death of her mother, and it was then that she began to pursue acting. "She started out in, they called it, Black cinema or race movies," Arnett says. These were films made by Black filmmakers featuring primary Black casts for Black audiences. "But these were all movies that you aren't getting credit for, for being a Hollywood star yet." Her first appearance in a mainstream movie came in the 1949 film, "Pinky," in which she had a few lines as a nurse. Many of the roles available to her were based on negative stereotypes, Arnett says. “She once said she was from the boudoir to the jungle,” he says, “In other words, she played a maid to a savage. And that was her early career.” Those were the roles available to Black women at the time, says Arnett, but Juanita had her limits. "One thing she wouldn't do is play the mammy role or the buffoon roles. She would not do those, and those that did became very successful. But she refused to do those." It wasn’t until 1959 that Juanita got her big break when she was cast in the drama, "Imitation of Life," alongside Lana Turner and Susan Kohner. Juanita plays Annie, a woman whose light-skinned daughter rejects her Black identity, to live her life passing as white. "I remember that it was a very emotional picture," Arnett says, "I once was asked by a friend of mine who was older, 'Did you cry during Imitation of Life?' I said, 'No!' I didn't want him to think I cried. But yes," Arnett admits, laughing, "I cry even today. And I cried then." During a 1995 interview with Turner Classic Movies, Juanita Moore remembered what the film’s producer, Ross Hunter, told her when she got the part: “'Juanita,' he said, 'I've put my neck out for you. If you’re no good, the picture is not gonna be any good.’" “That was significant pressure,” Arnett says, “Because really that was her coming out too. She had been in movies prior to that, playing small parts and some uncredited parts. But this was her opportunity to bust out at 44-years-old.” The film was a success and Juanita received an Academy Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She became the fifth Black actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar. Although she didn’t win, Juanita hoped she would get cast in more leading roles. But the offers never came. She didn’t work for a year after that. “I didn't want to carry the trays anymore,” recalled Juanita during the 1995 interview. “I knew that was the only kind of job that I was going to get. I knew that, but I did not want to do that. So I don't know if being nominated helped me or not.” But true to her passion, Juanita never quit acting. She went on to perform in mostly small roles. Her last role was in 2000, as a grandmother in Disney’s "The Kid" with Bruce Willis. She died just before New Year's Day 2014, at the age of 99. Arnett says his aunt never talked much about her career when he was a kid growing up in LA. He’s had to uncover much of her professional history himself after her death, including digging up hundreds of photos. A three-inch-thick binder holds much of the information he's found about his aunt, and many family photos too. Framed portraits of her sit in his living room. His affection and admiration for her is clear. “I'm very proud of her,” he says, “She had a lot of obstacles, the biggest one being racism … she's a star without a star.” Arnett recalls a conversation he had with Juanita just a few months before her death. "I said, Nita, do you want a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? And she says, 'If you think I deserve one, baby.' From that point on, I did everything I could to look and research and see how she could earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame." Arnett says he's mostly optimistic. If Juanita isn't selected this time around, he says he'll keep trying until she gets her star. Sources: kqed.org, The California Report; Amanda Font and Héctor Alejandro Arzate (May 22, 2021); Photograph courtesy of Ms. Moore's nephew Arnett Moore

Aida Overton Walker (1880 - 1914), dazzled early-twentieth-century theater audiences with her original dance routines, her enchanting singing voice, and her penchant for elegant costumes. One of the premiere African American women artists of the turn of the century, she popularized the cakewalk and introduced it to English society. In addition to her attractive stage persona and highly acclaimed performances, she won the hearts of black entertainers for numerous benefit performances near the end of her tragically short career and for her cultivation of younger women performers. She was, in the words of the New York Age's Lester Walton, the exponent of "clean, refined artistic entertainment." Born in 1880 in New York City, a city in which she gained an education and considerable musical training. At the tender age of fifteen, she joined John Isham's Octoroons, one of the most influential black touring groups of the 1890s, and the following year she became a member of the Black Patti Troubadours. Although the show consisted of dozens of performers, Overton emerged as one of the most promising soubrettes of her day. In 1898, she joined the company of the famous comedy team Bert Williams and George Walker, and appeared in all of their shows—The Policy Players (1899), The Sons of Ham (1900), In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1905), and Bandanna Land (1907). Within about a year of their meeting, George Walker and Overton married and before long became one of the most admired and elegant African American couples on stage. While George Walker supplied most of the ideas for the musical comedies and Bert Williams enjoyed fame as the "funniest man in America," Aida quickly became an indispensable member of the Williams and Walker Company. In The Sons of Ham, for example, her rendition of Hannah from Savannah won praise for combining superb vocal control with acting skill that together presented a positive, strong image of black womanhood. Indeed, onstage Aida refused to comply with the plantation image of black women as plump mammies, happy to serve; like her husband, she viewed the representation of refined African American types on the stage as important political work. A talented dancer, Aida improvised original routines that her husband eagerly introduced in the shows; when In Dahomey was moved to England, Aida proved to be one of the strongest attractions. Society women invited her to their homes for private lessons in the exotic cakewalk that the Walkers had included in the show. After two seasons in England, the company returned to the United States in 1904, and it was Aida who was featured in a New York Herald interview about their tour. At times Walker asked his wife to interpret dances made famous by other performers—one example being the "Salome" dance that took Broadway by storm in the early 1900s—which she did with uneven success. After a decade of nearly continuous success with the Williams and Walker Company, Aida's career took an unexpected turn when her husband collapsed on tour with Bandanna Land. Initially Walker returned to his boyhood home of Lawrence, Kansas, where his mother took care of him. In his absence, Aida took over many of his songs and dances to keep the company together. In early 1909, however, Bandanna Land was forced to close, and Aida temporarily retired from stage work to care for her husband, now clearly seriously ill. No doubt recognizing that he likely would not recover and that she alone could support the family, she returned to the stage in Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson's Red Moon in autumn 1909, and she joined the Smart Set Company in 1910. Aida also began touring the vaudeville circuit as a solo act. Less than two weeks after Walker's death in January 1911, Aida signed a two-year contract to appear as a co-star with S. H. Dudley in another all-black traveling show. Although still a relatively young woman in the early 1910s, Aida began to develop medical problems that limited her capacity for constant touring and stage performance. As early as 1908, she had begun organizing benefits to aid such institutions as the Industrial Home for Colored Working Girls, and after her contract with S. H. Dudley expired, she devoted more of her energy to such projects, which allowed her to remain in New York. She also took an interest in developing the talents of younger women in the profession, hoping to pass along her vision of black performance as refined and elegant. She produced shows for two such female groups in 1913 and 1914—the Porto Rico Girls and the Happy Girls. She encouraged them to work up original dance numbers and insisted that they don stylish costumes on stage. When Aida Overton Walker died suddenly of kidney failure on October 11, 1914, the African American entertainment community in New York went into deep mourning. The New York Age featured a lengthy obituary on its front page, and hundreds of shocked entertainers descended on her residence to confirm a story they hoped was untrue. Walker left behind a legacy of polished performance and model professionalism. Her demand for respect and her generosity made her a beloved figure in African American theater circles. Sources: Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890-1915. Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, Thomas L Riis

Anna Madah Hyers performed in black musical theater with her sister, Emma Louise Hyers. The Hyers Sisters & Co. produced the "first full-fledged musical plays in which African Americans themselves comment on the plight of the slaves and the relief of Emancipation without the disguises of minstrel comedy." Their first play was Out of Bondage (also known as Out of the Wilderness), followed by Urlina, the African Princess, The Underground Railway, and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Anna Madah Hyers (1855 - 1925), one half of the famous Hyers Sisters were important performers of musical theatre in northern California. They lived in Sacramento and started out as musical prodigies. Anna Madah was 12yrs and Emma Louise was 10yrs (although they were billed as ages 10 and 8) at their concert debut in 1867at the Metropolitan Theatre in Sacramento. Their parents, Samuel B. Hyers and Annie E. Hyers (nee Cryer), had come west from New York. As singers themselves, they had first trained their daughters before sending them for instruction to a German professor, Hugo Frank, and then to the opera singer Josephine D'Ormy. Anna was a soprano; Emma a contralto and gifted comedienne noted for her character songs. They performed for several years in the San Francisco and Oakland areas before embarking on their first transcontinental tour in 1871, under their father's management. For their east coast performances, including an appearance at the Steinway Hall in New York, Samuel Hyers engaged the services of Wallace King, tenor and John Luca, baritone. Mr. A.C. Taylor pianist of San Francisco, traveled with the sisters as accompanist. Early in their repertoire the sisters had included 'dialogues in character' and were said to possess 'great dramatic ability.' It was no surprise, when on March 26, 1876 at the Academy of Music in Lynn, Massachusetts, they presented a musical drama entitled, 'Out of the Wilderness,' which had been written for them by Joseph Bradford of Boston. For this show the quartet of singers was joined by Sam Lucas, a sometime minstrel actor slated to become a veteran comedian of the African American stage. Billed as the Hyers Sisters Combination, the troupe toured their show to New England towns, playing mostly one-night stands. In June the play's title was changed to 'Out of Bondage.' It was a simple tale of a slave family before and the Civil War. Four younger slaves go North as older folk hold back when Union troops arrive to liberate the South. In the end the family is reunited as the elders, who had stayed behind, visit their children, who have become professional vocalists. In 1883 the sisters decided to leave their father's management. Their parents had long been estranged, mother Annie Hyers having moved away from the family home in Sacramento, first to San Francisco then to Stockton. The breach with their father came in 1881 when he admitted into the company a young woman, 'little more than a teenager,' named Mary C Reynolds, whom he married two years later. He was then 53. Reynolds, billed as Mrs. May Hyers, was also a contralto and competed with Emma Louise (her stepdaughter) for roles. As the situation became untenable and likely to generate controversy, the sisters felt it incumbent on them to leave. At ages 17 and 19, they chose to be on their own. The sisters found new engagements for their combination of vocalists, at times in league with other managements, at other times contributing special items in companies of so called minstrels. Both sisters entered first marriages in 1883: Anna Madah to cornet player Henderson Smith and Emma Louise to bandleader George Freeman. The latter wedding took place in full view of the audience on the stage of the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco during a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Callender's Minstrels. By the start of the 1890s the sisters had been performing professionally for more than twenty years and had won recognition and respect for their talents and skills. Sources: A History of African American Theatre by Errol G Hill and James V Hatch; Moorland-Spingarn Research Center; The Huntington Library; Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection (UCLA Collections)

“I’ve never felt that fear is my enemy. Fear is my friend. It offers me a chance to stay alert, keep growing, continue creating something new. If you don’t take that sort of risk, you learn nothing.” Eartha Mae Kitt (1927 - 2008), was an international star who gives new meaning to the word versatile. She has distinguished herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television. Miss Kitt was one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for a Tony (three times), the Grammy (twice), and Emmy Award (twice). She regularly enthralled New York nightclub audiences during her extended stays at The Cafè Carlyle and these intimate performances have been captured in her recording, Eartha Kitt, Live at The Carlyle. Miss Kitt's distinctive voice has enchanted an entirely new generation of fans. Young fans loved her as YZMA, the villain, in Disney's animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove", (2001 Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance / Animated Feature). Miss Kitt was also featured in the sequel, "The Emperor's New Groove II" and reprised the role in the popular Saturday morning animated series "The Emperor's New School" for which she received a 2007 and 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program and a 2007 and 2008 Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance in an Animated Television Production. Miss Kitt was ostracized at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage. At eight years old, she was given away by her mother and sent from the South Carolina cotton fields to live with an aunt in Harlem. In New York her distinct individuality and flair for show business manifested itself, and on a friend's dare, the shy teen auditioned for the famed "Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe." She won a spot as a featured dancer and vocalist and before the age of twenty, toured worldwide with the company. During a performance in Paris, Miss Kitt was spotted by a nightclub owner and booked as a featured singer at his club. Her unique persona earned her fans and fame quickly, including Orson Welles, who called her "the most exciting woman in the world". Welles was so taken with her talent that he cast her as Helen of Troy in his fabled production of "Dr. Faust." Back in New York, Miss Kitt was booked at The Village Vanguard, and soon spotted by a Broadway producer who put her in "New Faces Of 1952" where every night she transfixed audiences with her sultry rendition of Monotonous. Her show stopping performance in "NEW FACES", which ran for a year, led to a national tour and a Twentieth Century Fox film version. Broadway stardom led to a recording contract and a succession of best-selling records including "Love for Sale", "I Want to Be Evil", "Santa Baby" and "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa", which earned her a Grammy nomination. During this period, she published her first autobiography, "Thursday's Child." Miss Kitt then returned to Broadway in the dramatic play "Mrs. Patterson", and received her first Tony nomination. Other stage appearances followed, as did films including "The Mark Of The Hawk" with Sidney Poitier, "Anna Lucasta" with Sammy Davis, Jr. and "St Louis Blues" with Nat King Cole. In 1967, Miss Kitt made an indelible mark on pop culture as the infamous "Catwoman" in the television series, "Batman." She immediately became synonymous with the role and her trademark growl became imitated worldwide. Singing in ten different languages, Miss Kitt performed in over 100 countries and was honored with a star on "The Hollywood Walk of Fame" in 1960. In 1966, she was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the series, "I Spy". In 1968, Miss Kitt's career took a sudden turn when, at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she spoke out against the Vietnam War. For years afterward, Miss Kitt was blacklisted in the U.S. and was forced to work abroad where her status remained undiminished. In December 2006 she returned to Washington and lit the National Christmas Tree alongside President and Mrs. George W. Bush In 1974, Miss Kitt returned to the United States, with a triumphant Carnegie Hall concert and, in 1978, received a second Tony nomination for her starring role in the musical, "Timbuktu." Miss Kitt's second autobiography, "Alone With Me", was published in 1976 and "I’m Still Here: Confessions Of A Sex Kitten" was released in 1989. Her best-selling book on fitness and positive attitude," Rejuvenate! (It's Never Too Late)", was released by Scribner in May 2001. Live theater was Miss Kitt's passion. In 2001, Broadway critics singled her out with a Tony and Drama Desk nomination for her role as Dolores in George Wolfe's "The Wild Party." Over the last few years, she has starred in National Tours of "The Wizard Of Oz" and Rogers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella". In December 2003, Miss Kitt dazzled Broadway audiences as Liliane Le Fleur in the revival of "Nine, The Musical." In December 2004, she appeared as The Fairy Godmother in The New York City Opera production (Lincoln Center) of "Cinderella." She also starred in the off-Broadway production of "Mimi Le Duck" (2006) and The Westport County Playhouse production of "The Skin Of Our Teeth" (2007). Miss Kitt remained devoted to performing in front of live audiences, from intimate cabarets to concert halls with local symphonies. Some of her engagements included appearances with The Atlanta Symphony, The Portland Symphony, Detroit's Music Hall, D.C.'s Blues Alley, Seattle's Jazz Alley, Palm Beach's Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, The Mohegan Sun, Sarasota's Van Wetzel Center for the Performing Arts Festival. In addition, she was especially proud to have brought her one-woman show to the 51st Annual JVC Newport Jazz Festival and the Miami Beach JVC Jazz Festival. In February 2007, Miss Kitt returned to London after a 15 year absence for a remarkable series of sold-out performances at The Shaw Theater. She returned to Great Britain in 2008 to critical raves at London‚Äôs Place Pigalle and to headline the prestigious Cheltenham Jazz Festival. On January 17 2007, Miss Kitt held a celebratory concert in honor of her 80th birthday at Carnegie Hall with a, JVC Jazz called "Eartha Kitt And Friends." Miss Kitt died on December 25, 2008 and is survived by her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, and four grandchildren. Sources: earthakitt.com; photo by Paramount Pictures "St. Louis Blues" (1957)

Emma Louise Hyers (1857 - circa 1901), one half of the famous Hyers Sisters. After the Gold Rush, a New York City barber named Samuel B. Hyers, 26, came west with his young wife. They settled in Sacramento, where he opened a barbershop and she devoted herself to the musical education of their gifted young daughters, Emma Louise and Anna Madah. The girls received pianoforte lessons and vocal training and were soon performing at private parties in order to gain experience in front of an audience. On April 22, 1867, the Hyers Sisters, 9 and 11, made their professional stage debut at Sacramento's Metropolitan Theater before a reported audience of 800. They received enthusiastic reviews in the Oakland Transcript and the Elevator, San Francisco's African American newspaper. When the girls were 14 and 16, they performed in Boston, singing mostly Verdi arias. By now their father was managing their career. "They are destined to occupy a high position in the musical world," the Boston critic wrote, citing the quality of Anna's high soprano (particularly her "faculty of reaching E-flat above the staff") and of Emma's phenomenal range, from mezzo-soprano to deep contralto. In 1872, the Hyers Sisters performed at the World Peace Jubilee, a festival held in Boston. It was the first major musical production in the country to feature artists of many colors together on the same stage. Their career reached its apex five years later, when a theater company organized by the Hyers family produced three musical dramas starring Anna and Emma. The shows "Out of Bondage," "The Underground Railway" and "Princess Orelia of Madagascar" were performed at San Francisco's Bush Theater. "Their production of 'Out of Bondage' (1890) was the first musical show to be produced by a black organization, thus signaling the transition from minstrelsy to black musical comedy in black entertainment." In 1883 the sisters decided to leave their father's management. Their parents had long been estranged, mother Annie Hyers having moved away from the family home in Sacramento, first to San Francisco then to Stockton. The breach with their father came in 1881 when he admitted into the company a young woman, 'little more than a teenager,' named Mary C Reynolds, whom he married two years later. He was then 53. Reynolds, billed as Mrs. May Hyers, was also a contralto and competed with Emma Louise (her stepdaughter) for roles. As the situation became untenable and likely to generate controversy, the sisters felt it incumbent on them to leave. At ages 17 and 19, they chose to be on their own. The sisters found new engagements for their combination of vocalists, at times in league with other managements, at other times contributing special items in companies of so called minstrels. Both sisters entered first marriages in 1883: Anna Madah to cornet player Henderson Smith and Emma Louise to bandleader George Freeman. The latter wedding took place in full view of the audience on the stage of the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco during a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Callender's Minstrels. By the start of the 1890s the sisters had been performing professionally for more than twenty years and had won recognition and respect for their talents and skills. The sisters announced that they were leaving the stage after a performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1893. Source: 'San Francisco Chronicle' by Heidi Benson and 'A History of African American Theatre' by Errol G Hill and James V Hatch Photo Source: Scrapbook belonged to Sallie Estell Ferris and passed down to her daughter, Ella Ferris Peck. The donor said that one of these women knew George M. Cohan (1878-1942), which explains why the album contains photographic prints of various performers active at the turn-of-the-century. Cohan was an entertainer, playwright, actor and director active prior to WWI. [Historic Charlton Park Village Museum]

She began her career as a child actress on radio and made her Broadway theater debut at the age of 15, when she snagged a role from 100 other girls for the Broadway play, "The Wisteria Trees," starring Helen Hayes. From then on, it was smooth sailing as she appeared on TV and radio and in seven other Broadway plays, garnering great reviews -- but still, as she put it during a TV interview, roles for "Black women were either mammies or whores." She chose another path and proceeded to create her own plays -- one-woman shows featuring a diverse group of characters from African villagers to American slaves to contemporary characters of all ages ranging from children to elders. The people she brings to life in these stunning vignettes exemplify the injustices she so hates. Her productions have been seen on Broadway, off Broadway, and in over 6,000 theaters, universities, and other venues on four continents. And they're still going strong as she continues to present them. She graduated from a Harlem high school at the age of 15, a member of Arista honor society, with a Classics Award in Latin, an American History Award, and a prize for excellence in English composition and literature. In recent years, Vinie acquired a Masters Degree in Performance Studies, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Summa cum Laude. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Paine College, for "achievements as artist, activist and scholar." This mother/grandmother and great-grandmother has been a fervent advocate for peace, joining together with 17 other grandmothers in October 2005 when they tried to enlist in the military at the Times Square recruiting center to replace America's grandchildren as a protest against the war in Iraq. This action resulted in arrest, time in jail, and a six-day trial in criminal court, at the end of which they were acquitted. Impressed with her oratorical brilliance and command of fact and theory, the Granny Peace Brigade quickly assigned her the task of often serving as spokesperson. Some of her honors include: • Michael Tigar Human Rights Award, University of Texas, Austin • NYS Peace Action Award • Eugene McDermott Award Council for the Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. • Silver Gavel Award American Bar Association - video narration • Emmy Nomination - video narration • Living Legend Award of The Black Theatre Festival • AUDELCO Award, Best Actress of the Year • Paul Robeson Award from Actors Equity Association www.vinieburrows.com

Theresa Harris, star of the theater relegated to portraying maids on film in Hollywood. Actress Theresa Harris (1909 - 1985), once shared with a reporter that her “greatest ambition was to be known someday as a great Negro actress.” Harris was born in Houston, Texas to Anthony and Ina Harris. Her father was a construction worker and her mother was a well-known dramatic reader and school teacher. In the late 1920s, her family relocated to Southern California, where Harris graduated from Jefferson High School with scholastic honors and then studied music at the University of Southern California Conservatory of Music and Zoellner’s Conservatory of Music. She briefly pursued a career in theatre, gaining her most acclaimed role as the title character in the Lafayette Player’s musical production of Irene. In 1933, Harris married John Robinson, a prominent Los Angeles physician. The same year, she received her first credited film role as a domestic in the drama Baby Face and subsequently became one of RKO’s most visible stock players. Although routinely donned in apron and head wrap, Harris refused to comply with the mammy stereotype and parlayed her dignified style in a plethora of Hollywood’s most classic films. Under RKO, Harris later graduated to glamorous film roles, semi-frequently showcasing her vocal abilities in solo segments. Recognition as one of the industry’s leading African American actresses followed rave reviews of her role as comedian Eddie “Rochester” Anderson’s costar in Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), which earned Harris a two-year, multi-picture contract with Paramount Studios. While the majority of her appearances remained minor or uncredited, Harris maintained visibility in more than 60 films and offered on-screen companionship to many of Hollywood’s greatest icons – including Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, and Barbara Stanwyck. As one of the industry’s first sable-toned actresses to receive credited and speaking roles, Harris also broke barriers by serving as a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), where she lobbied for dignified roles for African American actors. In 1974, Harris was inducted into the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame. She died in Englewood, California in 1985. Sources: On the Real Side by Mel Watkins; George Walters, Photographer (Los Angeles)

Nina Mae McKinney, who was called the first black movie star after showing off her talents in the 1929 film “Hallelujah.” About 20 minutes into “Hallelujah,” Hollywood’s first all-sound feature with an all-black cast, Nina Mae McKinney appeared on screen as Chick, a singer and dancer, in a sexy flapper dress. She had flashing eyes, an armful of jangly bracelets, and no qualms about cheating a handsome young cotton farmer out of the money he had just gotten for his family’s crop. Chick showed off her talents doing the Swanee Shuffle (“Just imitate the way a waiter/Walks with a plate of grub”); flirted shamelessly while close-dancing with the farmer (Daniel L. Haynes); and sweet-talked him into a fateful dice game with a con man. “Hallelujah” was a musical drama from an important white director, King Vidor, and McKinney would soon be called the first black movie star. After the film’s release in 1929, The Daily News of New York hailed her as “an honest-to-goodness screen star — the first colored girl to attain this distinction.” Some referred to her as the black Clara Bow. When African-American newspaper headlines called her only Nina Mae, everyone knew whom they meant. MGM gave her a five-year contract, then seemed to realize there were no leading movie roles for black women in the 1930s. Lamenting what he feared would be her fate, Richard Watts of The New York Herald Tribune wrote that her “exile from the cinema is the result entirely of narrow and intolerant racial matters.” It was 1934. She moved to Europe and began a successful musical and theatrical career there, punctuated by American comeback attempts. She left performing in the early 1950s, although as late as 1954 Hue magazine reported that she was “preparing a return to show business in a new act.” McKinney was 54 when she died at Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan on May 3, 1967. The cause was a heart attack, according to a short obituary in The New Amsterdam News. Her funeral was at the Little Church Around the Corner, whose ties to the theater world go back to the 19th century. “She could act, sing, dance and wisecrack with the best of them, but she came along too early and there was no place for her,” Fayard Nicholas of the dancing team the Nicholas Brothers is quoted as saying in “Nina Mae McKinney: The Black Garbo,” Stephen Bourne’s 2011 biography. The book quotes the film historian Donald Bogle as calling her “energy incarnate and delirious fun to watch.” Nannie Mayme McKinney was born to Hal and Georgia (Crawford) McKinney on June 12, 1912, in Lancaster, S.C., a small town near the North Carolina border. When she was 12, her parents moved to New York City looking for new job opportunities, and her father found work with the postal service. She stayed behind for four years, living with a great-aunt who worked as a housekeeper and cook, running errands for a white family and appearing in plays at Lancaster Industrial, an all-black school. Then she moved to New York herself. That first year, she was on Broadway, in the musical revue “Blackbirds of 1928.” It was there Vidor saw her in the chorus line and offered her the “Hallelujah” role. McKinney appeared in more than two dozen films and shorts over two decades, but about half of those were uncredited parts — often as a maid (the kind of role she had publicly vowed never to play) or an unnamed entertainer in a nightclub scene. One of her most acclaimed performances was as an undercover agent posing as a cabaret singer in “Gang Smashers” (1938), the best of her three “race movies” (low-budget features made for black audiences). Her last credited screen appearance came in “Pinky” (1949), Elia Kazan’s drama starring Jeanne Crain as a fair-skinned black woman passing for white. McKinney’s one scene, as a fiercely jealous girlfriend, was powerful: Crain is “nothing but a low-down colored girl trying to steal my man,” she tells police officers. But it didn’t revive her Hollywood career. Other movies included “The Devil’s Daughter” (1939), a drama set in Jamaica; “Danger Street” (1947), a mystery starring Jane Withers; and “Pie, Pie, Blackbird” (1932), a lauded musical short with Eubie Blake and his band. Leaving the United States was probably the best move McKinney ever made, and she did it early. A three-month European publicity tour for “Hallelujah,” starting in 1930, expanded to include club dates in Paris, London, Berlin, Monte Carlo and beyond. She returned to Paris in 1932, possibly inspired by Josephine Baker, the African-American entertainer who had recently become a Folies Bergère star. While in England, McKinney starred opposite Paul Robeson in the film “Sanders of the River” (1935), playing an African chief’s wife — with thin-plucked Hollywood eyebrows. She also had the distinction of being the first African-American entertainer on British television, as part of the BBC’s experimental broadcasts in the 1930s. She often topped the bill at British clubs. Reviews mentioned some frequent numbers: “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Stormy Weather,” “Lazybones” and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.” Almost two decades later, her last recorded public performance was less successful: as the prostitute Sadie Thompson in a short-lived staging of “Rain” at the Apollo Theater in 1951. Reports differ on whether McKinney was ever legally married to Jimmy Monroe, a jazz musician who later became Billie Holiday’s husband. McKinney and Monroe toured nationally with his band in the mid-30s, and a 1994 Daily News tribute shortly after Monroe’s death mentioned her as an ex-wife. Newspapers reported other marriages — to Robert Montgomery (nicknamed Charleston and not the white film star of that name) in 1939; to Frank McKay, a civil engineer, in 1949; and others — but they were unconfirmed. McKinney left no known survivors. In 1978, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Her first film director had recognized her gift. “It took no great effort to bring it out,” Vidor wrote in “A Tree Is a Tree,” his 1953 memoir. “She just had it. Whatever you wanted, whatever you visualized, she could do it.” NY Times: Overlooked No More: These remarkable black men and women never received obituaries in The New York Times — until now. We’re adding their stories to our project about prominent people whose deaths were not reported by the newspaper; Nina Mae McKinney An actress who defied the barrier of race to find stardom in Europe, By Anita Gates; Ms. McKinney as she appeared in the film Reckless (1935)

As she appeared in costume in the 1952 film Affair in Trinidad. Juanita Moore, a groundbreaking actress and an Academy Award nominee for her role as Lana Turner’s friend in the classic “Imitation of Life,” died on the first day of the New Year of 2014. Born in Los Angeles, Ms. Moore got her start in show business as a chorus girl at New York’s Cotton Club, then joined the Ebony theater. She was the fifth black performer to be nominated for an Oscar, receiving the nod for the film that became a big hit and later gained a cult following. The 1959 tear-jerker, based on a Fannie Hurst novel and a remake of a 1934 film, tells the story of a struggling white actress’s rise to stardom, her friendship with a black woman and how they team up to raise their daughters as single mothers. It brought supporting actress nominations for both Ms. Moore and Susan Kohner, who played Ms. Moore’s daughter as a young adult attempting to pass as a white woman. Kohner’s background is Czech and Mexican. By the end, Turner’s character is a star and her friend is essentially a servant. The death of Ms. Moore’s character sets up the sentimental ending. “The Oscar prestige was fine, but I worked more before I was nominated,” Ms. Moore told the Los Angeles Times in 1967. “Casting directors think an Oscar nominee is suddenly in another category. They couldn’t possibly ask you to do one or two days’ work. You wouldn’t accept it. And I’m sure I would.” Ms. Moore also had an active career in the theater, starting at Los Angeles’s Ebony Showcase Theatre in the early 1950s, a leading black-run theater. She also was a member of the celebrated Cambridge Players, with other performers including Esther Rolle and Helen Martin. Her grandson, actor Kirk Kellykhan is currently president and chief executive of the Cambridge group. She appeared on Broadway in 1965 in James Baldwin’s play “The Amen Corner” and in London in a production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” “The creative arts put a person on another level,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s why we need to bring our youngsters into the theater.” Her first film appearance was as a nurse in the 1949 film “Pinky.” As with other black actresses, many of Ms. Moore’s early roles were as maids. She told the Times that “real parts, not just in-and-out jobs,” were opening up for black performers. Source: Washington Post

Minnie Brown was a stage actress, singer and vaudevillian. Also, in 1920 she served as vice president for the National Association of Negro Musicians. The Broad Ax Newspaper (Salt Lake City Utah), June 22, 1912 Young Woman of Rare Talent, Concert and Stage Work of Miss Minnie Brown , Brief account of the notable career of a western girl who has won a national reputation as a vocal instructor in the Musical Settlement School. New York, one of the most accomplished and highly gifted singers of the race, who has made a national reputation in the art, is Miss Minnie Brown, the leading soprano soloist at St Mark's M. E. church, in this city. Miss Brown has a remarkably clear and sweet voice of wonderful range and under perfect control. So wonderful is the sweetness and control of her voice that she has earned the sobriquet of the human mocking bird. Miss Brown has had a notable musical career. She has toured the country in concert work. For six years she was a member of the Williams & Walker company and for one year was a member of the "Load of Koal" company, put on the road by Bert Williams. During her long career in concert work and on the stage she made a national reputation as one of the most thoroughly accomplished singers of the race. Miss Brown hails from the west and was born In Spokane, Washington. Her parents were pioneers of the west and represented the sturdy type of western settlers of years ago. At an early age she showed a leaning toward a musical career, and her parents encouraged every effort in that direction. She graduated from the Spokane high school. After graduation she took up the study of voice culture under Mrs. Ethel Child Waltron. Miss Brown attributes a great deal of her success in her musical career to the interest of her teacher. She began her career as a concert singer in her native home. Her tour through British Columbia and adjoining cities was very successful and opened up the way for the larger possibilities which awaited her. On coming east she joined the Williams & Walker company. For six years she remained with the company and won a place among the foremost of the talented aggregation. It was while with Williams & Walker that Miss Brown won her national reputation in featuring the song the "Red Rose," then the most popular ballad of the day, which she sang with decided success. Miss Brown will be remembered all over the country by the large number of patrons of this famous company. Her tour with "Load of Koal" ended her stage career. Since taking up her residence In New York, Miss Brown has been a force in the musical life of the city. She is one of the teachers in the Musical School Settlement for colored children in New York. She stands high in the musical circles of the country and in New York is constantly in demand as a singer. Miss Brown is a young woman of remarkable strength of character and is a splendid example to the young women of the race. With all of her culture and charm of personality Miss Brown remains the same modest and unassuming young woman which she was before winning her laurels in the musical world. She is ever ready to assist in any good movement for the advancement of the race. She has a large circle of friends in the religious, social and educational life of the city. Sources: Luther S White, Photographer; African American Vernacular Photography; Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection

Elizabeth Boyer who started in the screen game as a leading lady. She is an engaging little heroine in the Reol Production Company's release of Paul Laurence Dunbar's story, "The Sport of Gods." Elizabeth Boyer was born on June 16, 1902 in Jacksonville, Florida. She was an actress, known for starring in The Sport of the Gods (1921). She was married to Bob Sawyer, an actor, singer and musician. He was best known as the leader of the Bobby Sawyer Trio which appeared at the Cotton Club in Harlem during the 1930s. Ms. Boyer was the older sister of actress and dancer, Anise Boyer. Ms. Boyer sadly committed suicide by jumping eleven stories from the bathroom window of her Harlem apartment on Christmas Day in 1946. On July 16, 2008 the US Postal Service issued a series of commemorative stamps celebrating vintage black cinema. One of the stamps featured the poster from the silent film, The Sport of the Gods with Ms. Boyer and actor Edward R. Abrams illustrated on the cover. Sources: IMD; The Competitor, vol. 2 - 3, 1921

Siren Navarro was born on August 4, 1887 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her mom was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and her father was born in Italy. She was an early black entertainer who gained her biggest success when she teamed with dancer Tom Brown in an act called, "Brown and Navarro." They became a well known act touring the vaudeville circuit. Her former partner, Tom Brown was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1868. He was with McCabe and Young's Minstrels then with Richard and Pringel's Minstrels and the Lafayette Players. He died on June 20, 1919 of stomach cancer. Miss Navarro (sometimes spelled Nevarro), later re-invented herself (circa 1920) in an act with her husband (the couple married in 1919), Fred Byron and his brothers. They became known as the Byron Brothers Saxophone Band or the Byron Brothers Saxophone Quintet. After Siren joined the group it became known as the Byron Brothers Sextette. The elder Byron was known for inventing an instrument called the 'byrondolin.' In the 1930 census it lists her as being a housewife --- also appears she didn't have children. Siren Navarro Byron died on August 28, 1943 and is buried in Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. She was 56. Source: White Studio, Daniel Cowin Collection (circa 1910)

Madam Desseria Plato stands foremost as a dramatic soprano. Born in New York City, she has studied with several of the prominent teachers there. As a lyric actress she has no equal among the other prima-donnas. Her voice is of astonishing compass and beauty; she sings with ease G below the staff to E above high C. Madam Plato recently made a concert tour through the West with great success. She is a most deserving artist, having gone through many hardships to maintain the high position which she now holds. Her last appearance in New York was last May, when she sang the part of Carmen in Bizet's opera with wonderful success, considering that it was the first time she had ever appeared opera, and the part is one of the most trying. The details concerning Desseria Plato's career are not known. However, when she attracted attention she did so on a grand scale. During the last decade of the 19th century Plato was making a name for herself as a concert singer. In Signor A Farini's Grand Creole and Colored Opera and Concert Company she was billed as a "prima donna mezzo-soprano." With Farini's company she sang the role of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Union Square Theatre in New York. As a substitute for Sissieretta Joyner Jones (Black Patti), at a concert given on Colored American Day (August 23, 1893) at the Chicago World's Fair, she again gained much attention. In 1896 Plato joined John Isham's Oriental American Company. She died in 1907. Sources: Colored American Magazine (1902 issue); Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, by Eileen Southern

Aida Overton Walker is a name that should be more familiar to vaudeville and theater lovers than it is for she was the foremost African-American star of her generation which comprised the early years of the 20th century. Her national and even international fame was such that she was a living legend of black show business and in fact her vision of a world with dignified and respected black show business artists who did not have to demean themselves onstage was years ahead of reality. Her work helping young black artists and especially black women to become super-achievers and her own remarkable talents as singer, dancer, actress, comedienne and choreographer caused her to be one of the most admired and respected black women in America. Aida was born in 1880 in New York City and became known quickly for her talent as a dancer and singer as well as her great natural beauty. By 1895 she was a member of the famous black touring company disparagingly known as John Isham’s Octoroons and then joined the Black Patti Troubadours. This famous group was headed by Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, who became a famous soprano. She was called the “Black Patti” after the famous white soprano Adelina Patti, who was one of the foremost superstars of opera of her time. Her troupe, the Troubadours, consisted of a whole show that entertained black and sometimes also white audiences throughout the country. The show had some 40 performers but Adelina emerged as one of its leading stars. In 1898 she joined the rapidly rising comedy team of Bert Williams and George Walker, being featured in all of their landmark black performances including The Policy Players (1899), The Sons of Ham (1900), the very famous In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1905) and Bandanna Land (1907). Walker and Overton married soon after they began performing together. Her performance of Miss Hannah from Savannah in Sons of Ham caused a national sensation and furthermore Aida did the choreography for all of these big shows and emerged as the glue or catalyst that made the Walker-Williams shows work so well, as she worked behind the scenes with her husband supplying the themes and basic ideas for the shows, which then featured the great humor of Bert Williams. Although forgotten today, whereas Williams and Walker are more remembered, the three of them formed the most popular trio of “colored” entertainers in the world in the early years of the 20th century. Aida was also in demand as a choreographer for other shows such as Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson’s The Red Moon (1909). In these shows, although she performed in blackface, Aida refused to play black plantation stereotypes and an essential part of her political activism was to make the black woman stand tall and be an object of dignity and respect, even though she would attempt to make this statement through comedy and song. She became a huge hit in England from 1902 to 1904 with In Dahomey and was frequently hired for major society parties because she became known as the Queen of the Cakewalk from her dancing in the show and the British wanted to learn this remarkable dance so-named because originally those black dancers who did it well might receive a cake for a prize. In 1903 she played a command performance at Buckingham Palace for King Edward VII which added to her international reputation. In the midst of this success her husband allegedly contracted syphilis through affairs with other women and he collapsed during the run of Bandanna Land in 1908. She was able to fill in for her ailing husband, performing his part in drag and managing to save the company, but eventually he grew more ill and died in 1911 as the disease, which had symptoms of stuttering and memory loss was incurable at this time. Bert Williams went on to solo success with the Ziegfeld Follies and Aida was forced to develop into a solo artist as well, leading to her work as choreographer and featured star in Red Moon and she joined the famous African-American Smart Set Company in 1910 while her husband was still gravely ill. What she must have thought of her husband’s behavior is not recorded but her indomitable will to survive and continue her art and her work even despite his situation is clear. Ten days after her husband’s death she signed a contract to star with S. H. Dudley in an all-black traveling show. Walker was buried in his home town of Lawrence, Kansas, one of many black superstars of the time to die of syphilis which almost reached epidemic proportions in the black theatrical community around this time. Her post-Walker career was also distinctive as she emerged as a female superstar and was often invited to prominent white social gatherings to demonstrate the latest dances suitable for such events. Only Bert Williams among other black performers was able to do this and to work with white performers. For example she played the lead in Oscar Hammerstein’s 1912 revival of Salome at the Victoria Theater in New York, a role she had essayed in the black theater since the initial Salome craze of the early years of the century. Aida was also an activist for black causes years and years before this was something that was popularly accepted. She raised significant funds for the Industrial Home for Colored Working Girls and worked to promote opportunities for young black women in the entertainment business through her connections. She hoped to promote a new generation of refined and elegant black performers free of the hamstringing stereotypes of the previous decades. To this end in 1913 and 1914 she promoted the Porto Rico Girls and the Happy Girls and produced shows for these troupes to show black women as original creative talent. This she did despite suffering from a number of disabling illnesses that beset her after the death of her husband. In the 1910s she was described by critics as “the best Negro comedienne today” and “the most fascinating and vivacious female comedy actress the Negro race has ever produced”. Her ability to mesmerize an audience and her standard numbers performed in drag which she perfected while filling in for her ailing husband were legendary. Indeed each of her performances in shows or in vaudeville featured one of her famous drag numbers. And then just as suddenly it was all over. Just 34 years of age, Aida died quickly on October 1, 1914 from kidney failure and hundreds of people came to her house to honor her and to grieve. A true legend of black vaudeville and theater had passed. Every black female entertainer of note in this world owes a great debt to this pioneering entertainer who envisioned a world which honored and respected black talent and who died at the height of her fame. Sources: The American Vaudeville Museum & UA Collection; James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Aida Overton Walker is a name that should be more familiar to vaudeville and theater lovers than it is for she was the foremost African-American star of her generation which comprised the early years of the 20th century. Her national and even international fame was such that she was a living legend of black show business and in fact her vision of a world with dignified and respected black show business artists who did not have to demean themselves onstage was years ahead of reality. Her work helping young black artists and especially black women to become super-achievers and her own remarkable talents as singer, dancer, actress, comedienne and choreographer caused her to be one of the most admired and respected black women in America. Aida was born in 1880 in New York City and became known quickly for her talent as a dancer and singer as well as her great natural beauty. By 1895 she was a member of the famous black touring company disparagingly known as John Isham’s Octoroons and then joined the Black Patti Troubadours. This famous group was headed by Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, who became a famous soprano. She was called the “Black Patti” after the famous white soprano Adelina Patti, who was one of the foremost superstars of opera of her time. Her troupe, the Troubadours, consisted of a whole show that entertained black and sometimes also white audiences throughout the country. The show had some 40 performers but Adelina emerged as one of its leading stars. In 1898 she joined the rapidly rising comedy team of Bert Williams and George Walker, being featured in all of their landmark black performances including The Policy Players (1899), The Sons of Ham (1900), the very famous In Dahomey (1902), Abyssinia (1905) and Bandanna Land (1907). Walker and Overton married soon after they began performing together. Her performance of Miss Hannah from Savannah in Sons of Ham caused a national sensation and furthermore Aida did the choreography for all of these big shows and emerged as the glue or catalyst that made the Walker-Williams shows work so well, as she worked behind the scenes with her husband supplying the themes and basic ideas for the shows, which then featured the great humor of Bert Williams. Although forgotten today, whereas Williams and Walker are more remembered, the three of them formed the most popular trio of “colored” entertainers in the world in the early years of the 20th century. Aida was also in demand as a choreographer for other shows such as Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson’s The Red Moon (1909). In these shows, although she performed in blackface, Aida refused to play black plantation stereotypes and an essential part of her political activism was to make the black woman stand tall and be an object of dignity and respect, even though she would attempt to make this statement through comedy and song. She became a huge hit in England from 1902 to 1904 with In Dahomey and was frequently hired for major society parties because she became known as the Queen of the Cakewalk from her dancing in the show and the British wanted to learn this remarkable dance so-named because originally those black dancers who did it well might receive a cake for a prize. In 1903 she played a command performance at Buckingham Palace for King Edward VII which added to her international reputation. In the midst of this success her husband allegedly contracted syphilis through affairs with other women and he collapsed during the run of Bandanna Land in 1908. She was able to fill in for her ailing husband, performing his part in drag and managing to save the company, but eventually he grew more ill and died in 1911 as the disease, which had symptoms of stuttering and memory loss was incurable at this time. Bert Williams went on to solo success with the Ziegfeld Follies and Aida was forced to develop into a solo artist as well, leading to her work as choreographer and featured star in Red Moon and she joined the famous African-American Smart Set Company in 1910 while her husband was still gravely ill. What she must have thought of her husband’s behavior is not recorded but her indomitable will to survive and continue her art and her work even despite his situation is clear. Ten days after her husband’s death she signed a contract to star with S. H. Dudley in an all-black traveling show. Walker was buried in his home town of Lawrence, Kansas, one of many black superstars of the time to die of syphilis which almost reached epidemic proportions in the black theatrical community around this time. Her post-Walker career was also distinctive as she emerged as a female superstar and was often invited to prominent white social gatherings to demonstrate the latest dances suitable for such events. Only Bert Williams among other black performers was able to do this and to work with white performers. For example she played the lead in Oscar Hammerstein’s 1912 revival of Salome at the Victoria Theater in New York, a role she had essayed in the black theater since the initial Salome craze of the early years of the century. Aida was also an activist for black causes years and years before this was something that was popularly accepted. She raised significant funds for the Industrial Home for Colored Working Girls and worked to promote opportunities for young black women in the entertainment business through her connections. She hoped to promote a new generation of refined and elegant black performers free of the hamstringing stereotypes of the previous decades. To this end in 1913 and 1914 she promoted the Porto Rico Girls and the Happy Girls and produced shows for these troupes to show black women as original creative talent. This she did despite suffering from a number of disabling illnesses that beset her after the death of her husband. In the 1910s she was described by critics as “the best Negro comedienne today” and “the most fascinating and vivacious female comedy actress the Negro race has ever produced”. Her ability to mesmerize an audience and her standard numbers performed in drag which she perfected while filling in for her ailing husband were legendary. Indeed each of her performances in shows or in vaudeville featured one of her famous drag numbers. And then just as suddenly it was all over. Just 34 years of age, Aida died quickly on October 1, 1914 from kidney failure and hundreds of people came to her house to honor her and to grieve. A true legend of black vaudeville and theater had passed. Every black female entertainer of note in this world owes a great debt to this pioneering entertainer who envisioned a world which honored and respected black talent and who died at the height of her fame. Sources: James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; Kansas City Museum Collection; Hall Studio (NY) , circa 1909

The great La Baker during a skit at Casino de Paris, circa 1932.