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87-603: The Old Nick Company , established in 1948, is one of the longest standing theatre companies in Tasmania. It stages the popular annual Uni revue and student 'Summer School' among other smaller productions. Past members include actor Essie Davis , Charles Wooley from the Australian 60 Minutes , journalist Helene Chung Martin , and theatre director Roger Hodgman . This article about an organisation in Australia

174-604: A Key to My Cellar", "Save a Little Dram for Me", "Ten Little Bottles", and the smash hit, " The Moon Shines on the Moonshine ". By this point, Williams' records were taking up a full page in Columbia's catalog, and they were among the strongest-selling songs of the age. At a time when 10,000 sales was considered a very successful major label release, Williams had four songs that shipped between 180,000 and 250,000 copies in 1920 alone. Williams, along with Al Jolson and Nora Bayes ,

261-516: A Negro theatrical organization that had been founded in 1908 by George Walker. For many of his Black fans, this was the first time to see Williams onstage since before he joined the Follies . Following the Frogs tour, Williams set out again on the vaudeville circuit, where he was the highest-paid Black performer in history. Back in the Follies fold for 1914, Williams was reunited with Leon Errol for

348-557: A competing revue to the undergraduates, called variably Revue and Integration or Revue and Imitation. The Moira Stuart Cup is competed for annually at the United Hospitals Comedy Revue, by all five of the University of London Medical Schools . It has been won by all medical schools at least once, with RUMS (UCL Medical School) and St George's Hospital Medical School achieving the most victories, winning

435-652: A continued embrace of a unifying authorial presence in this seemingly scattershot genre, much as was earlier the case with Ziegfeld, Carrol, et al . With different artistic emphases, the revue genre is today above all upheld at traditional variety theatres such as the Le Lido , Moulin Rouge and Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, as well as in shows in Las Vegas. It is a current and fairly longstanding tradition of medical, dental, engineering, legal and veterinary schools within

522-512: A dance before an east side audience. They gave us a hand, and I called out to them, 'Some day we'll do this dance on Broadway!' Then they gave us the laugh. Just the same we gave Broadway that same dance." In Dahomey traveled to London , where it was enthusiastically received. A command performance was given at Buckingham Palace in June 1903. The show's British tour continued through June 1904. In May, Williams and Walker were both initiated into

609-465: A face for minutes at a time, seemingly, and when he alters it, bring[s] a laugh by the least movement." In late 1896, the pair were added to The Gold Bug , a struggling musical. The show did not survive, but Williams & Walker got good reviews, and were able to secure higher profile bookings. They headlined the Koster and Bial's vaudeville house for 36 weeks in 1896–97, where their spirited version of

696-565: A fork in his hand and no spoon in sight." However, Williams and Walker were ebullient about their Broadway breakthrough, which came years after they had established themselves as profitable stage stars. Williams wrote, "We'd get near enough to hear the Broadway audiences applaud sometimes, but it was some one else they were applauding. I used to be tempted to beg for a $ 15 job in a chorus just for one week so as to be able to say I'd been on Broadway once." Walker recalled, "Some years ago we were doing

783-506: A great improvement upon the 'grand opera' type, for which they are not suited either by temperament or by education." The Chicago Tribune remarked, disapprovingly, "there is hardly a trace of negroism in the play." George Walker was unbowed, telling the Toledo Bee : "It's all rot, this slapstick bandanna handkerchief bladder in the face act, with which negro acting is associated. It ought to die out and we are trying to kill it." Though

870-584: A high salary, but the White Rats of America , an organization of vaudevillians opposed to encroachments from Blacks and women, intimidated the theater managers into reducing Williams' billing. The brash Walker would have resisted such an insult to his star status, but the more reserved Williams did not protest. Allies were few; big-time vaudeville managers were fearful of attracting a disproportionate number of Black audience members and thus allowed only one Black act per bill. Due to his ethnicity, Williams typically

957-429: A more absurd version of their girder sketch, this time set on the 1,313th floor of a skyscraper. But as the annual production became more lavish, more crowded with talent, and more devoted to the parade of "Ziegfeld Girls," Williams and other performers were given less stage time, and less attention from the show's writers. This trend continued in the 1915 edition. W. C. Fields made his Follies debut in 1915, and endured

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1044-477: A nervous suitor. While the show was praised, many white critics were uncomfortable or uncertain about its cast's ambitions. One critic declared that audiences "do not care to see their own ways copied when they can have the real thing better done by white people," while the New York Evening Post thought the score "is at times too elaborate for them and a return to the plantation melodies would be

1131-440: A performance and parted ways. Williams headed off in a fortunate direction, but Walker was yanked from a streetcar by a white mob and was beaten. The following month, Williams & Walker had their greatest success to date with Sons of Ham , a broad farce that did not include any of the extreme "darkie" stereotypes that were then common. One of the show's songs, "Miss Hannah from Savannah," even touched upon class divisions within

1218-410: A reporter, "They say it is a matter of race prejudice. But if it were prejudice a baby would have it, and you will never find it in a baby... I have notice that this "race prejudice" is not to be found in people who are sure enough of their position to defy it." In a letter to a friend, Williams described some of the segregation and abuse he'd experienced, adding, "When ultimate changes come... I wonder if

1305-415: A rich array of talent, including Williams, W. C. Fields, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers (who had debuted in 1916), and newcomer Eddie Cantor . Williams and Cantor did scenes together, and struck up a close friendship. In 1918, Williams went on a hiatus from the Follies , citing the show's difficulty in providing him with quality parts and sketches. Within a month, he was performing in another Ziegfeld production,

1392-531: A singer with whom he had worked professionally, in a very private ceremony. Lottie was a widow eight years Bert's senior. Thus, the match seemed odd to some who knew the gregarious and constantly traveling Williams, but all who knew them considered them a uniquely happy couple, and the union lasted until his death. The Williamses never had children biologically, but they adopted and reared three of Lottie's nieces. They also frequently sheltered orphans and foster children in their homes. Williams & Walker appeared in

1479-413: A single entertainment. Minstrelsy 's olio section provided a structural map of popular variety presentation, while literary travesties highlighted an audience hunger for satire. Theatrical extravaganzas , in particular, moving panoramas, demonstrated a vocabulary of the spectacular. Burlesque , itself a bawdy hybrid of various theatrical forms, lent to classic revue an open interest in female sexuality and

1566-407: A single two-word line of dialogue. Williams also reprised his poker routine, and popularized a song called "Woodman, Spare That Tree". The team of Williams with the white Leon Errol was a groundbreaking pairing that had never been seen before on the Broadway stage. Also notable was the relative equality of the duo in their sketches, with Williams delivering most of the punchlines and generally getting

1653-471: A slick conniver, while Walker played the "dumb coon" victim of Williams' schemes. They discovered that they got a better reaction by switching roles and subverting expectations. The sharp-featured and slender Walker eventually developed a persona as a strutting dandy, while the stocky Williams played the languorous oaf. Despite his thickset physique, Williams was a master of body language and physical "stage business." A New York Times reviewer wrote: "He holds

1740-536: A substantial hit. Few stage performers were recording regularly in 1910, in some cases because their onstage styles did not translate to the limited technical media. But Williams' low-key natural delivery was ideal for discs of the time, and his personality was warm and funny. Williams returned for the 1911 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies , teaming up in some sketches with the comedian Leon Errol to ecstatic effect. The best-received sketch featured Errol as

1827-497: A succession of shows, including A Senegambian Carnival , A Lucky Coon , and The Policy Players . Their stars were on the ascent, but they still faced vivid reminders of the limits placed on them by white society. In August 1900, in New York City, hysterical rumors of a white detective having been shot by a Black man erupted into an uncontained riot. Unaware of the street violence, Williams & Walker left their theater after

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1914-448: A tourist, and Williams as a porter using a mountaineer's rope to lead him across dangerously high girders in the then-unfinished Grand Central Station . Errol's fast-talking persona and frenetic physical comedy gave Williams his first effective onstage foil since Walker's retirement. Williams and Errol wrote the sketch themselves, turning it into a 20-minute centerpiece of the show after the Follies writers had originally given Williams but

2001-412: A traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan , that took place in late 1975 and early 1976. Towards the end of the 20th century, a subgenre of revue largely dispensed with the sketches, founding narrative structure within a song cycle in which the material is culled from varied works. This type of revue may or may not have identifiable characters and a rudimentary storyline but, even when it does,

2088-476: A wig full of kinky hair to help conceal his wavy hair. Terry Waldo noted the layered irony in their cakewalk routine, which presented them as mainstream Blacks performing a dance in a way that lampooned whites who had mocked a Black dance that originally satirized plantation whites' ostentatiously fussy mannerisms. The pair also made sure to present themselves as immaculately groomed and classily dressed in their publicity photos, which were used for advertising and on

2175-527: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Revue Owing to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and the occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned more and felt even less restricted by middle-class social norms than their contemporaries in vaudeville . Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though

2262-409: Is now sometimes (incorrectly) employed as an analog for "revue," though the term was proprietary to Ziegfeld until his death in 1932. Other popular proprietary revue names included George White's "Scandals," Earl Carroll 's "Vanities" and John Murray Anderson 's Greenwich Village Follies . Revues are most properly understood as having amalgamated several theatrical traditions within the corpus of

2349-588: Is perfectly complemented by Williams' intimate, half-spoken singing style. When life seems full of clouds and rain, And I am filled with naught but pain, Who soothes my thumping, bumping brain? [pause] Nobody. When winter comes with snow and sleet, And me with hunger and cold feet, Who says, "Here's two bits, go and eat"? [pause] Nobody. I ain't never done nothin' to Nobody. I ain't never got nothin' from Nobody, no time. And, until I get somethin' from somebody sometime, I don't intend to do nothin' for Nobody, no time. Williams became so identified with

2436-571: Is the best-known footage of Williams available. Part of an abandoned Williams comedy film, Lime Kiln Field Day , was found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and restored for its first screening in October 2014. The film featured an all-Black cast, and the recovered footage included cast and crew interactions between scenes. Williams did not appear in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 , instead taking part in an all-Black revue of The Frogs ,

2523-658: The New York Dramatic Mirror called Williams "one of the great comedians of the world." Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American entertainment. In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace, he became the first Black person to take a lead role on the Broadway stage, and did much to push back racial barriers during his three-decade-long career. Fellow vaudevillian W. C. Fields , who appeared in productions with Williams, described him as "the funniest man I ever saw—and

2610-698: The Edinburgh Lodge of the Freemasons ; the Scottish Masons did not racially discriminate as the United States chapters did, including those of the northern states.| The duo's international success established them as the most visible Black performers in the world. They hoped to parlay this renown into a new, more elaborate and costly stage production, to be shown in the top-flight theaters. Williams and Walker's management team balked at

2697-580: The Follies charged $ 5.00 for an opening night ticket ($ 130 in 2020 dollars); at that time, many cinema houses charged from $ 0.10 to 0.25, while low-priced vaudeville seats were $ 0.15. Among the many popular producers of revues, Florenz Ziegfeld played the greatest role in developing the classical revue through his glorification of a new theatrical "type", "the American girl". Famed for his often bizarre publicity schemes and continual debt, Ziegfeld joined Earl Carroll , George White , John Murray Anderson , and

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2784-701: The Marx Brothers and the Fairbanks Twins found great success on the revue stage. One of Cole Porter 's early shows was Raymond Hitchcock 's revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919 . Composers or lyricists such as Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart , Irving Berlin , and George M. Cohan also enjoyed a tremendous reception on the part of audiences. Sometimes, an appearance in a revue provided a key early entry into entertainment. Largely due to their centralization in New York City and their adroit use of publicity, revues proved particularly adept at introducing new talents to

2871-545: The Metropolitan Opera House , their only appearance at that theater. While playing off the "coon" formula, Williams & Walker's act and demeanor subtly undermined it as well. Camille Forbes wrote, "They called into question the possible realness of blackface performers who only emphasized their artificiality by recourse to burnt cork; after all, Williams did not really need the burnt cork to be Black," despite his lighter skin complexion. He would pull on

2958-624: The Shubert Brothers as the leading producing figure of the American revue's golden age. Revues also had a presence in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, with films such as "Frau meiner Träume" being made. Revues took advantage of their high revenue stream to lure away performers from other media, often offering exorbitant weekly salaries without the unremitting travel demanded by other entertainments. Performers such as Eddie Cantor , Anna Held , W. C. Fields , Bert Williams , Ed Wynn ,

3045-512: The World Film Company 's Uncle Tom's Cabin . Ebony stated that " Darktown Follies was the first attempt of an independent film company to star a black actor in a movie", and credited the work as beginning a period in independent American cinema that explored "black themes" within works made for African-American audiences by independent producers. Williams was by far the best-selling Black recording artist before 1920. In 1918,

3132-405: The cakewalk helped popularize the dance. The pair performed in burnt-cork blackface , as was customary at the time, billing themselves as "Two Real Coons" to distinguish their act from the many white minstrels also performing in blackface. Williams also made his first recordings in 1896, but none are known to survive. They participated in a "Benefit for New York's Poor" held on February 9, 1897, at

3219-404: The 1930s, and the musicologist Tim Brooks estimates that it sold between 100,000 and 150,000 copies, a phenomenally high number for the era. Williams' languorous, drawling delivery would become the primary selling point of several similarly structured Williams recordings, such as "Constantly" and "I'm Neutral". Williams even recorded two compositions entitled "Somebody" and "Everybody". His style

3306-567: The American theatre. Rodgers and Hart , one of the great composer/lyricist teams of the American musical theatre , followed up their early Columbia University student revues with the successful Garrick Gaieties (1925). Comedian Fanny Brice , following a brief period in burlesque and amateur variety, bowed to revue audiences in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910 . Specialist writers and composers of revues have included Sandy Wilson , Noël Coward , John Stromberg, George Gershwin , Earl Carroll , and

3393-491: The Black community, and they received both extensive press coverage and frequent admonitions to properly "represent the race." Leading Black newspapers mounted campaigns against demeaning stereotypes such as the word "coon." Williams & Walker were sympathetic, but also had their careers to consider, where they performed before many white audiences. The balancing act between their audience's expectations and their artistic impulses

3480-565: The Black community. The pair had already begun to transition away from racial minstrel conventions to a fuller human style of comedy. In 1901, they recorded 13 discs for the Victor Talking Machine Company . Some of these, such as " The Phrenologist Coon ", were standard blackface material, but the financial lament "When It's All Going Out and Nothing Coming In" was race-blind, and became one of Williams's best-known songs. Another Williams composition, "Good Morning Carrie",

3567-615: The British team Flanders and Swann . In Britain predominantly, Tom Arnold also specialized in promoting series of revues and his acts extended to the European continent and South Africa. With the introduction of talking pictures, in 1927, studios immediately began filming acts from the stage. Such film shorts gradually replaced the live entertainment that had often accompanied cinema exhibition. By 1928, studios began planning to film feature-length versions of popular musicals and revues from

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3654-647: The Festival, with St. George's Medics Revue having been performing annually at the Fringe for 18 years and have sold-out their show for the last nine years. The BSMS Medic Revue has performed sellout shows in the Brighton Fringe Festival since 2008. The MDs Comedy Revue performed at the Fringe for the first time in 2015, to a sell-out audience, repeating this feat their second show in 2016 and their third in 2018. The Cambridge clinical school also now run

3741-482: The Metropolitan Tower. If he can only grab that little gold knob on top... uh... um... he muffed it." After Williams' death a decade later, Errol was the only white pallbearer at his funeral. Williams continued as the featured star of the Follies , signing a three-year contract that paid him an annual salary of $ 62,400, equivalent to $ 1.5 million today. By his third stint, Williams' status was such that he

3828-670: The UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to put on revues each year, combining comedy sketches, songs, parodies, films and sound-bites. One of the most notable and funniest is the Australian National University's "Arts Revue". As well as performing at their respective universities, shows will often be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe . The Cambridge Medics Revue, St George's Medics Revue, and Birmingham Medics Revues have all performed at

3915-427: The acts joined Kelly's boycott. Bandanna Land continued the duo's series of hits and introduced a tour de force sketch that soon Williams made famous: his pantomime poker game. In total silence, Williams acted out a hand of poker, with only his facial expressions and body language conveying the dealer's up-and-down emotions as he considered his hand, reacted to the unseen actions of his invisible opponents, and weighed

4002-638: The age of 47. Few knew he was sick, and news of his death came as a public shock. More than 5,000 fans filed past his casket, and thousands more were turned away. A private service was held at the Masonic Lodge in Manhattan, where Williams broke his last barrier. He was the first Black American to be so honored by the all-white Grand Lodge. When the Masons opened their doors for a public service, nearly 2,000 mourners of both races were admitted. Williams

4089-443: The bandwagon and produced expensive revues such as Harmony Heaven ( British International Pictures , 1929), Elstree Calling (BIP, 1930), and The Musical Revue Of 1959 (BI P, 1960). Revues are often common today as student entertainment (with strong traditions in many universities in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark). These use pastiche , in which contemporary songs are re-written in order to comment on

4176-423: The better of Errol. At the conclusion of their Grand Central Station routine, Errol offered Williams a mere five-cent tip, to which the aggrieved Williams deliberately loosened Errol's supporting rope, sending him plunging from the high girder. Then, a construction explosion below sent Errol shooting into the sky, unseen by the audience, while Williams laconically described his trajectory: "There he goes. Now he's near

4263-406: The businessman and public spokesman for the duo. His absence left Williams professionally adrift. After 16 years as half of a duo, Williams needed to reestablish himself as a solo act. In May 1909, he returned to Hammerstein's Victoria Theater and the high-class vaudeville circuit. His new act consisted of several songs, comic monologues in dialect, and a concluding dance. He received top billing and

4350-469: The college or courses in a humorous nature. While most comic songs will only be heard within the revue they were written for, sometimes they become more widely known—such as "A Transport of Delight", about the big red London bus, by Flanders and Swann , who first made their name in a revue titled At the Drop of a Hat . The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour in the mid-1970s consisting of

4437-451: The covers of sheet music promoting their songs. Thus, they drew a contrast between their real-life comportment and the comical characters they portrayed onstage. This aspect of their act was ambiguous enough that some Black newspapers criticized the duo for failing to uplift the dignity of their race. In 1899, Williams surprised his partner George Walker and his family when he announced he had recently married Charlotte ("Lottie") Thompson ,

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4524-523: The expense of this project, then sued the pair to prevent them from securing outside investors or representation. Filings in the suit revealed that each member of the team had earned approximately $ 120,000 from 1902 to 1904, or $ 4.2 million apiece in 2023 dollars. The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and Williams and Walker accepted an offer from Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre , the premiere vaudeville house in New York. A white Southern monologist objected to

4611-440: The flashier Walker rarely had qualms about opposing the racial prejudice and limitations of the day, the more introspective and brooding Williams internalized his feelings. Williams committed many of Abyssinia ' s songs to disc and cylinder. One of them, " Nobody " (1905), became his signature theme, and the song he is best remembered for today. It is a doleful and ironic composition, replete with his dry observational wit, and

4698-665: The front of the theater whenever his turn to perform came up. After Mr. Lode skidded to a halt, Williams accepted an unprecedented offer to join Flo Ziegfeld 's Follies . The idea of a Black-featured performer amid an otherwise all-white show was a shock in 1910. Williams' initial reception was cool, and several cast members delivered an ultimatum to Ziegfeld that Williams be fired. Ziegfeld held firm, saying, "I can replace every one of you, except [Williams]." The show's writers were slow to devise material for him to perform, forcing Williams to repeat much of his vaudeville act. But by

4785-492: The integrated bill, but the show went ahead with Williams and Walker and without the objector. In February 1906, Abyssinia , with a score co-written by Williams, premiered at the Majestic Theater . The show, which included live camels, was another smash. Aspects of the production continued the duo's cagey steps toward greater creative pride and freedom for Black performers. The nation of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia )

4872-612: The masculine gaze. Revues enjoyed great success on Broadway from the World War I years until the Great Depression , when the stock market crash forced many revues from cavernous Broadway houses into smaller venues. (The shows did, however, continue to infrequently appear in large theatres well into the 1950s.) The high ticket prices of many revues helped ensure audiences distinct from other live popular entertainments during their height of popularity (late 1910s–1940s). In 1914,

4959-533: The new human beings will believe such persons as I am writing you about actually lived?" Even so, in 1914, a perceptive critic for the Chicago Defender wrote: "Every time I see Mr. Bert Williams, the 'distinguished colored comedian', I wonder if he is not the patient repository of a secret sadness... Sorrow concealed, 'like an oven stopped', must burn his heart to cinders." Williams' stage career lagged after his final Follies appearance in 1919. His name

5046-453: The primary attraction was found in the frank display of the female body. Revue comes from the French word for "review," as in a "show presenting a review of current events." George Lederer 's The Passing Show (1894) is usually held to be the first successful American "review." The English spelling was used until 1907 when Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. popularized the French spelling. "Follies"

5133-427: The production, with music by composer Will Marion Cook , book by Shipp, and lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar , moved to New York City . Part of the inspiration for the show was Williams' copy of a 1670 book, Africa , in which author John Ogilby traced the history of the continent's tribes and peoples. "With this volume, I could prove that every Pullman porter is the descendant of a king," said Williams. This

5220-485: The pros and cons of raising or calling the bet. It later became a standard routine in his solo stage act, and was recorded on film by Biograph Studios in 1916. Walker was in ill health by this point due to syphilis , which was then incurable. In January 1909, he suffered a stroke onstage while singing, and was forced to drop out of Bandanna Land the following month. The famous pair never performed in public again, and Walker died less than two years later. Walker had been

5307-680: The racial politics of the era, and did not feel fully accepted. He experienced almost chronic depression in his later years, coupled with alcoholism and insomnia. On February 27, 1922, Williams collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan , which the audience initially thought was a comic bit. Helped to his dressing room, Williams quipped: "That's a nice way to die. They was laughing when I made my last exit." He returned to New York, but his health worsened. He died at his home, 2309 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan , New York City, on March 4, 1922, at

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5394-929: The saddest man I ever knew." Williams was born in Nassau , The Bahamas , on November 12, 1874, to Frederick Williams Jr. and his wife Julia. At the age of either 2 or 3, Williams permanently emigrated with his parents to the US. Their names all appear in the 1880 United States Federal Census. They are shown as residents of New York City, and Bert (“Egbert”) is listed as 5 years old at the time. Having made his way to California by his late teens, he joined different West Coast minstrel shows, including Martin and Selig's Mastodon Minstrels in 1893 San Francisco , where he first met his future professional partner, George Walker . Williams and Walker performed song-and-dance numbers, comic dialogues and skits and humorous songs. They fell into stereotypical vaudevillian roles: originally Williams portrayed

5481-422: The same treatment when the writers cut his scene down rather than enhancing it. Eventually, left alone on an empty stage with a pool table, the comedian responded by creating his famed "pool shark" routine. In 1916, the writers gave Williams a takeoff of Othello to play, but by most accounts neither the material nor his performance was up to his usual standard. The 1917 installment of Ziegfeld's Follies featured

5568-475: The secondary Midnight Frolic . By all accounts, Williams thrived in the smaller setting, in which he had the stage time he needed for his routines. He returned to the Follies of 1919 , but once again was saddled with sub-par material, including a supporting part in a minstrel show segment. Between 1918 and 1921, he recorded several records in the guise of "Elder Eatmore", an unscrupulous preacher, as well as songs dealing with Prohibition , such as "Everybody Wants

5655-409: The show's faults, praising Williams' continued persistence and prominence as much if not more than his actual performance; an Indianapolis reviewer thought the play was evidence that "we are nearing the day of better things." Despite the good if loaded notices, Mr. Lode of Koal played a secondary string of theaters and was a box office flop. Following the show's abbreviated run, Williams returned to

5742-484: The show's songs. His elevated status was signaled not just by the generous terms of the contract, but by the tenor of Columbia's promotion, which dropped much of the previous "coon harmony"-type sales patter and began touting Williams' "inimitable art" and "direct appeal to the intelligence." Brooks wrote that "Williams had become a star who transcended race, to the extent that was possible in 1910." All four songs sold well, and one of them, "Play That Barbershop Chord", became

5829-409: The song that he was obliged to sing it in almost every appearance for the rest of his life. He considered its success both blessing and curse: "Before I got through with 'Nobody,' I could have wished that both the author of the words and the assembler of the tune had been strangled or drowned.... 'Nobody' was a particularly hard song to replace." "Nobody" remained active in Columbia's sales catalogue into

5916-508: The songs remain the focus of the show (for example, Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire ). This type of revue usually showcases songs written by a particular composer or songs made famous by a particular performer. Examples of the former are Side By Side By Sondheim (music/lyrics Stephen Sondheim ), Eubie! ( Eubie Blake ) Tom Foolery ( Tom Lehrer ), and Five Guys Named Moe (songs made popular by Louis Jordan ). The eponymous nature of these later revues suggest

6003-785: The stage. The lavish films, noted by many for a sustained opulence unrivaled in Hollywood until the 1950s epics, reached a breadth of audience never found by the stage revue, all while significantly underpricing the now-faltering theatrical shows. A number of revues were released by the studios, many of which were filmed entirely (or partly) in color. The most notable examples of these are The Show of Shows ( Warner Brothers , 1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929 ( Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , 1929), Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 ( Fox Film Corporation , 1929), Paramount on Parade ( Paramount , 1930), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (Fox, 1930), and King of Jazz ( Universal , 1930). Even Britain jumped on

6090-501: The time the show finally debuted in June, Williams was a sensation. In addition to his usual material, Williams appeared in a boxing sketch playing off the racially charged "Great White Hope" heavyweight bout that had just taken place between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries . Reviews were uniformly positive for Williams, and also for Fanny Brice , who was making her Broadway debut. Following his success, Williams signed an exclusive contract with Columbia Records , and recorded four of

6177-496: The trophy six times each. The cup is not officially endorsed by Moira Stuart herself. a. In 2019, the judges ironically declared Imperial College School of Medicine the winners, because they could not decide which of The MDs Comedy Revue or The Zebraphiles were the funnier. b. The 2002 UH Revue was a showcase of each Medical School's Revue societies, with the competition element brought in from 2003. Bert Williams Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922)

6264-512: The vaudeville circuit, and The White Rats renewed their opposition to his featured status. The Victoria Theater responded by cutting Williams to secondary billing, but putting his name on the marquee in lettering twice as large as that of the nominal headliner. Newspapers took note of the disingenuous manner in which the White Rats' demands had been met, as well as the way in which many of those performers who were impeding his career would rush to

6351-526: The white reviewers praised Williams' "apparent spontaneous", "unpremeditated" humor, as if he were a guileless simpleton in no control of his own performance. A Chicago critic wrote, "They are racial, those hands and feet," while a Boston reviewer felt that the show's flimsiness and lack of structure were actually attributes because "when we succumb to the surreptitious desire for the broad tang of "nigger" humor, we want no disturbing atom of intelligence busy-bodying about." Meanwhile, many Black reviewers ignored

6438-410: Was a Bahamian -born American entertainer , one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. While some sources have credited him as being the first Black man to have a leading role in a film with Darktown Jubilee in 1914, other sources have credited actor Sam Lucas with this same distinction for a different 1914 film,

6525-488: Was a landmark event, as it was the first such musical to be produced at a major Broadway theater. Seating inside the theater was segregated. One of the musical's songs, "I'm a Jonah Man", helped codify Williams' hard-luck persona and tales of woe. It helped to establish the character which Williams played most frequently in his career: the slow-talking, deep-thinking victim of life's misfortunes. "Even if it rained soup," Williams later explained, "[my character] would be found with

6612-621: Was allowed to be onstage at the same time as white women—a significant concession in 1912—and started to interact with more of the show's principals. In January 1913, he recorded several more sides for Columbia, including a new version of "Nobody", the 1906 copies having long since become scarce. All of the releases remained in Columbia's catalog for years. He continued to make several more recording dates for Columbia, though he stopped writing his own songs by 1915. He also began making film appearances, though most have been lost. One of them, A Natural Born Gambler , shows his pantomime poker sketch, and

6699-495: Was anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient ... in America. In 1908, while starring in the successful Broadway production Bandanna Land , Williams and Walker were asked to appear at a charity benefit by George M. Cohan . Walter C. Kelly , a prominent monologist , protested and encouraged the other acts to withdraw from the show rather than appear alongside Black performers; only two of

6786-551: Was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx , New York City. In 1910, Booker T. Washington wrote of Williams: "He has done more for our race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts; I have been obliged to fight my way." Gene Buck , who had discovered W. C. Fields in vaudeville and hired him for the Follies , wrote to a friend on the occasion of Fields' death: "Next to Bert Williams, Bill [Fields]

6873-399: Was covered by many artists, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1901. These discs existed only in pressings of fewer than 1,000, and were not heard by many listeners. Sons of Ham ran for two years. In September 1902, Williams & Walker debuted their next vehicle, In Dahomey , a full-length musical written, directed and performed by an all-Black cast. It was an even bigger hit. In 1903

6960-476: Was enough to open a show, but they had shorter, less profitable runs. In December 1921, Under the Bamboo Tree opened, to middling results. Williams still got good reviews, but the show did not. Williams developed pneumonia , but did not want to miss performances, knowing that he was the only thing keeping an otherwise moribund musical alive at the box office. However, Williams also emotionally suffered from

7047-534: Was forced to travel, eat and lodge separately from the rest of his fellow performers, increasing his sense of isolation following the loss of Walker. Williams next starred as Mr. Lode of Koal , a farce about a kidnapped king that was well received by critics as a star vehicle, although it did not have a fully realized storyline. Camille Forbes in Introducing Bert Williams collects several reviews that express competing race-based agendas. Many of

7134-405: Was in a better position to deal with it. On one occasion, when he attempted to buy a drink at the bar of New York's elegant Hotel Astor , the white bartender tried to chase Williams away by telling him that he would be charged $ 50. Williams' response was to produce a thick roll of hundred dollar bills out of his pocket; placing the wad on the bar, he ordered a round for everyone in the room. He told

7221-487: Was inimitable. In an era when the most popular songs were simultaneously promoted by several artists (for example, " Over There " was a top-10 hit for six different acts in 1917–18), Williams' repertoire was left comparatively untouched by competing singers. Describing his character's style and the appeal it had with audiences, he said: "When he talks to you it is as if he has a secret to confide that concerns just you two." Williams and Walker were prominent success stories for

7308-568: Was one of the three most highly paid recording artists in the world. Despite continuous success, Williams' position was tenuous in other ways. When Actors Equity went on strike in August 1919 , the entire Follies cast walked out, except for Williams, who showed up to work to find an empty theater; he had not been told about the strike. "I don't belong to either side," he told W. C. Fields. "Nobody wants me." Williams continued to face institutional racism , but due to his success and popularity, he

7395-515: Was the greatest comic that ever lived." Phil Harris recorded "Nobody" and "Woodman, Woodman, Spare That Tree"—both big hits of Williams—in late 1936 and early 1937. In 1940, Duke Ellington composed and recorded "A Portrait of Bert Williams", a subtly crafted tribute. In 1978, in a memorable turn on a Boston Pops TV special, Ben Vereen performed a tribute to Williams, complete with makeup and attire. He reprised Williams' high-kick dance steps, to such classic vaudeville standards as " Waitin' for

7482-402: Was the only African nation to remain sovereign during European colonization, repelling Italy's attempts at control in 1896. The show also included inklings of a love story, something that had never been tolerated in a Black stage production before. Walker played a Kansas tourist while his wife, Aida, portrayed an Abyssinian princess. A scene between the two of them, while comic, presented Walker as

7569-470: Was tricky. In his only known essay, Williams wrote: People sometimes ask me if I would not give anything to be white. I answer ... most emphatically, "No." How do I know what I might be if I were a white man? I might be a sandhog, burrowing away and losing my health for $ 8 a day. I might be a streetcar conductor at $ 12 or $ 15 a week. There is many a white man less fortunate and less well-equipped than I am. In fact, I have never been able to discover that there

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