A profile of Bert Williams follows the pioneering black performer from late nineteenth-century California, through his career with the minstrel and medicine shows that traveled the West, to his sucess in New York vaudeville and to Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies, examining the controversy he faced and his legacy in terms of breaking down theatrical color barriers.

This newly designed, typeset, and updated edition of Donald Bogle’s classic study and celebration of America’s “dark divas” now takes readers up to the present. Originally published in 1980, Brown Sugar was also the basis for the four-hour, four-part, documentary that appeared on PBS as well as on German Education Television, all also written by Bogle. Lavishly illustrated, Brown Sugar is a pioneering book.

Traces the iconic entertainer's entry into the vaudeville circuit at the age of six, his survival of the Depression, his nightclub appearances in the 1930s, and his achievements on Broadway, in Hollywood, and in Las Vegas in the face of pre-Civil Rights race tensions. Reprint.

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Product Description: At age 6, Eugene Jackson was tap dancing for nickels and dimes on the streets of Los Angeles. Soon after, Jackson landed the role of Pineapple in Hal Roachs enduring 1924 comedy series Our Gang. Jackson broke away from the other little rascals for a solo career that saw him become the first African American child star in talkies, appearing in 1929s Hearts in Dixie...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Explores the lives, careers, private thoughts, and public images of legendary Black singers and actresses whose talent and beauty won acclaim

Product Description: This theatre history work is an appraisal of the artistic and political impact of the Federal Theatre of The Great Depression on the careers of representative black actors. These include Canada Lee, Rex Ingram and Dooley Wilson. As an icebreaker, the Federal Theatre made it possible for black actors and audiences to enjoy benefits unknown previously: union protection, a theatre for the masses, a reduction of the stereotype, visibility that led to Broadway and to Hollywood, and an ensemble spirit...read more

Traces the history of comic stereotype of the Black performer and explains how it was finally eradicated