Bert Williams
Bert Williams, a founding genius of Black American comedy, was born in the Bahamas in 1874. He grew up in Riverside, Calif. and started in the vaudeville business in San Francisco. There, he connected with George Walker. Together, they became Williams & Walker, vaudeville headliners for the next 16 years.
Their string of hits and historical ‘firsts’ included four musicals – “Sons of Ham,” “Bandannana Land,” “Abyssinia” and “In Dahomey.”
“In Dahomey,” in 1902 the first-ever, full-length musical written, directed and performed by an all-Black cast with music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It ran for four years including a tour in England with a command performance at Buckingham Palace.
Williams & Walker played their comedy, sang their songs and danced an extravagant cakewalk, all in blackface. They billed themselves Two Real Coons, to distinguish themselves from white minstrels in blackface who expropriated Black music and entertainment for white audiences.
Blackface minstrelsy was very popular, but not with everyone. Leading Black newspapers mounted campaigns against demeaning stereotypes such as the word “coon.” Unlike other blackface minstrels who played for laughs at the expense of Black American culture, Williams based his comedy on universal human predicaments.
As a top-selling recording artist, Williams sang some very sad songs.
“Nobody,” a lonely, mournful tune from “Abyssinia,” became his signature theme. Published in 1905, “Nobody” sold upwards of 150,000 copies and has been covered by singers including Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.
“The Jonah Man,” from “In Dahomey,” also reflected the forlorn character Williams frequently played: a slow-talking, deep-thinking victim of life’s misfortunes.
The prevailing misfortunes in Williams’ life consisted of persistent racism and dismissive abuse by white critics. White vaudevillians frequently refused to appear on the same bills with Williams & Walker.
An organized group of white supremacists in vaudeville actively worked to intimidate theater owners into restricting stage time and opportunities for Black performers.
Williams & Walker’s run ended when George Walker died in 1911.
Despite concerted racist efforts to intimidate everyone, Flo Ziegfeld hired Williams to headline his famous Follies. As the Follies’ sole Black star for many years, Williams worked alongside famous white comedians including Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields.
Williams recorded songs from the Follies for Columbia Records. Later, as Elder Eatmore, Williams recorded Prohibition-era songs including a big hit, “The Moon Shines on the Moonshine.” Ads for William’s songs took up full pages in Columbia’s catalog, his reputation and paychecks equal to the blackface white minstrel Al Jolson.
And he starred in movies: the first Black male lead in a movie, “Darktown Jubilee” 1914 and two years later, “Natural Born Gambler” which featured his classic poker-face pantomime.
Williams collapsed on stage while touring and died 47 years old in 1922. Crowds, Black and white, turned out for his funeral.
Of Bert Williams, W.C. Fields said he was “the funniest man I ever saw – and the saddest man I ever knew.”
