Bert Williams 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. He was born in the Bahamas in November of 1874.
His parents emigrated when he was 11 years old. He graduated from Riverside High School and attended Stanford with plans to become a civil engineer. He had to abandon his studies to help his family and began to work for Martin and Selig’s Mastodon Minstrels. He met George Walker who would be a lifelong friend for a dynamic comedy team.
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 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.
Williams & Walker had their greatest success 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 the black community.
In September 1902, Williams & Walker debuted their next show, In Dahomey, a full-length musical written, directed and performed by an all-black cast. It was an even bigger hit.
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.
They were one of the most successful teams in their era, performing in the US and abroad, even delivering a command performance in England for King Goerge in 1903.
The two performed together until Walker was too sick to perform in 1909. He died in 1911. Williams would strike out on his own and it would change everything.
In 1910 Williams joined Flo Ziegfeld as a featured performer in an all-white show. In the beginning the some of the white performers refused to work with Williams. He also faced prejudice from the writers, which made him have to write his own material. But that turned out to be a good thing because when the show opened, he was a sensation.
Williams is credited as being the first Black man to have the leading role in a film: Darktown Jubilee in 1914. And he also signed an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
Known as one of the highest paid African American performers in history, Williams worked in many productions including the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 with WC Fields, Fannie Brice, Eddie Cantor and more. He worked for the Follies until 1919.
In 1922 during a performance of Under the Bamboo Tree, Williams collapsed on stage during a performance in Detroit, Michigan. He returned to New York and died at his home in March at the age of 47.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Williams
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