Kicha's photos with the keyword: Entertainers

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

1. Bessie Vaughn 2. Ida Day 3. 'Tiny' Jones 4. Charles Moore 5. Kate Jones 6. ? 7. Jessie Ellis 8. Maggie Davis 9. Hattie Hopkins 10.Bert Williams 11.? Harris 12.George Walker 13.Hattie McIntosh 14.? 15.Renie Norris 16.? 17.Daisy Tapley 18.Lottie Williams (Bert Williams' wife) 19.? Tuck 20.Aida Overton Walker (George Walker's wife) 21.Ella Anderson 22.Lizzie Avery 23.Lavina Rogers 24.Jim Vaughn 25.William C. Elkins 26.Walter Richardson 27.Richard Conners 28.? Barker 29.Will Accoe 30.George Catlin 31.Chip Ruff? 32.Jimmie ? 33.John Lubrie Hill 34.Henri Green Tapley (Daisy Tapley's husband) 35.Henry Troy 36.Marshall Craig 37.Theodore Pankey 38.Harry Stafford 39.Charles L. Saulsbury? 40.Alex C. Rogers In Dahomey was the first full-length musical written and played by an entirely Black cast to be performed on Broadway. The play was based on a libretto by Jesse A. Shipp, with music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alex Rogers. Cook’s music would become to be considered by many as the ‘turning point for African American representation’. Source: Robert Kimball Archives More information can be found here: www.africansinyorkshireproject.com/in-dahomey.html

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

Zenora “Nora” Moore, Jimi’s paternal grandmother, was born on November 19, 1883 in Georgia to Fanny Moore, originally from Ohio, and Robert Moore Sr., a Georgia native. Fanny Moore was half Cherokee and half African American. Robert Moore Sr. was a freed slave. Together they worked to make a life for their family, relocating to Tennessee, where Nora was raised. By the beginning of the 20th Century, Nora, now a teenager, noticed the growing popularity of touring vaudeville acts and immediately took an interest in this form of entertainment. She thoroughly enjoyed the music, dancing, comedy routines and the excitement of the stage. By her early twenties she began performing. Along with her sister, whose stage name was Belle Lamar, Nora joined a traveling vaudeville group as a chorus girl/dancer. For the next several years, Nora and Belle toured the country as part of this lively body of entertainers who quickly became known for their extravagant costumes. Nora Moore and Bertram Philander Ross Hendrix met on the road. The two found themselves traveling around the country together as part of the same Dixieland vaudeville troupe. Their troupe included six band members plus a cast of seventeen actors, comedians, and dancers as well as stagehands such as Ross Hendrix. As Nora performed her act onstage, a bond was developing offstage between the entertainer and the stage hand. As the tour began to concentrate in the Pacific Northwest with the entertainers often traveling between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, both Nora and Ross began to view the area as a permanent home. Financial difficulties brought the tour to an end in Seattle in 1912, but that end proved to be the beginning of a new life for Ross and Nora as they decided to marry in that city. Non-stage work, however, soon proved difficult to obtain in Seattle. On the advice of an acquaintance known only as Mr. Cohen, Ross and Nora Hendrix moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where he would find work. Cohen recommended Ross to a friend who was affiliated with The American Club in Vancouver. Ross obtained employment there. With employment, Ross and Nora started a new family and a new life. All four of their children were born in Canada. Nora gave birth to the couple’s first son, Leon Marshall Hendrix, on April 12, 1912 (he passed away in March 1932). A daughter, Patricia Rose Hendrix, was born on May 3, 1914 and a few years later, two more sons, Frank Hendrix on October 3, 1917 and James Allen Ross Hendrix on June 10, 1919, were born. James Allen (“Al”) Ross Hendrix would later become the father of Jimi Hendrix who was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942. A fifth child, Orville Ronald Hendrix, was born on January 25, 1926, but passed away two months later on March 31, 1926. Finding Vancouver to be a comfortable place to work and raise their four children, Ross petitioned the Canadian Government to become a Canadian citizen. On November 28, 1922, Ross and Nora Hendrix were officially naturalized and became Canadian citizens. Ross also became very active in Vancouver’s Fountain Chapel, the local African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Being a “people person,” he enjoyed his work as a steward in some of Vancouver’s most prestigious clubs including the American Club and the Transportation Club of Vancouver. In 1925 he accepted the position of first porter at the newly opened Quilchena Golf & Country Club which was located in one of the most posh neighborhoods on the outskirts of Vancouver. Ross held this position at Quilchena until March 21, 1934, when he passed away because of a ruptured aorta. Following the death of their father, the Hendrix children went in separate directions. James “Al” Hendrix, the youngest child, performed several odd jobs in Vancouver and in Victoria on neighboring Vancouver Island. Al also became a fierce competitor in the boxing ring, even participating in a Golden Gloves boxing event in Seattle in 1936. In addition to the fights, Al shared his parents’ love of music and dancing and regularly participated in some of the city’s jitterbugging contests. Ambition would eventually drive him to permanently relocate in Seattle, Washington for work in 1940. His mother, Nora Hendrix, remained in Vancouver for several decades, moving to Seattle in the 1980s with her son Al Hendrix and family. She later returned to Canada where she lived until her passing due to cancer on July 24, 1984 at the age of 100. Jimi Hendrix’s career was clearly influenced by his grandparents and particularly his grandmother, Nora. Although Nora and Jimi performed in vastly different musical eras, they were united by their love of entertainment, their penchant for flamboyant costumes, their desire to perfect their talents, and their dedication to their audiences despite the trials of performing on the road. The roots of Jimi Hendrix’s enormous success lie in the blood of his paternal vaudevillian grandparents, Nora and Ross Hendrix. Independent Historian Janie L Hendrix (Jimi's Half Sister)

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

Wedding portrait of John Hartford Armstrong and his wife Lille Belle Armstrong. Photographed circa 1900 in Lynchburg, Virginia at Corbitt's Cute Studio. Source: South Carolina Digital Archives