Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story

Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America's First Black Star

According to critics of his time, Bert Williams was Â“the Greatest Comedian on the American Stage.â€ A black Bahamian immigrant, Williams made his start as a barker advertising the rough-and-tumble Â“medicine showsâ€ that dotted the Wild West at the end of the nineteenth century. Not long after joining a minstrel troupe and donning the burnt- cork makeup of blackface, he teamed up with African American George Walker in a sixteen-year partnership that would take them from rural western mining towns to the bright lights of Broadway.
In Introducing Bert Williams, historian Camille Forbes reveals a fascinating figure, initiating the reader into the vivid world of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century popular entertainment. Williamsâ€™s long and varied career is a whirlwind of drama, glamour, and ambitionÂ—nothing less than the birth of American show business.
Country USA
Manufacturer Civitas Books
Binding Paperback
EANs 9780465018116
ReleaseDate 2010-03-23

Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America's First Black Star