Sepia Starshine

The revue at Harlem's Apollo Theater introduced by Master of Ceremonies Ralph Cooper during the week of May 14, 1934 included Clarence Robinson's ostrich feather-attired chorus, the Jack Storm company of acrobats, torch/blues singer Myra Johnson, tap dancers The Four Bobs, dancer "Jazz Lips" Richardson, Lindy Hop contest-winners Leroy and Edith, comedians Johnny Lee Long and Pigmeat Markham and the film Blonde Crazy starring Jimmy Cagney -- all for the ticket price of 15 cents.

Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge was born February 26, 1933 in New York City to British Guiana émigré parents. Young Godfrey lived in Nova Scotia with his grandparents where he attended grammar school. GodfreyCambridge made his Broadway debut in Nature’sWay in 1956. He also appeared in both stage and screen versions of the Ossie Davis -penned Purlie Victorious, released in 1963 as Gone Are the Days!    For his work in The Blacks , Cambridge won an Obie in 1961 for Most Distinguished Off-Broadway Performance. Godfrey Cambridge also lent his considerable talent to Hollywood’s silver screen starring as Harlem-based Detective Gravedigger Jones opposite Raymond St. Jacques as Detective Coffin Ed Smith in Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and its sequel Come Back Charleston Blue (1972).  Although he was a very competent dramatic actor, Godfrey Cambridge was better known for his work as a stand-up comedian . His material was often drawn from racial conditions in contempor...

Called the "dean of black American actors," Charles S. Gilpin had a career in Vaudeville spanning 20 years. For Gilpin , like for many actors then and since, there may be long stretches of unemployment between gigs. When he was not on stage, Gilpin worked as a printer, an elevator operator, a prize-fight trainer and a porter.             C harles S. Gilpin (1876-1930) Gilpin organized the Lafayette Theatre Company in 1916 as one of New York's earliest black stock companies. In 1920, Gilpin began a four-year run on stage as The Emperor Jones . The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) in 1921 awarded Charles Gilpin its prestigious Spingarn Medal for his contribution to the theatre.

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930 to politically-active parents Carl, a real estate broker, and Nannie, a schoolteacher. When she was in third grade, Lorraine and her family were forced to move from the all white neighborhood they had moved into on Chicago's South Side after taunting, harassment and a lower court ruling that upheld restrictive housing covenants in Chicago which barred blacks from moving into white areas.  Carl Hansberry challenged the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in his favor and struck down restrictive housing covenants. ( Hansberry v. Lee, 1940 ) In addition to her interest in theater, Hansberry also dabbled in art and studied painting at several schools, including the Art Institute of Chicago . Later, while a student at New York's New School for Social Research , Hansberry met Paul Robeson and began working first as a reporter and later as an associate editor for Freedom , Robeso...

Art recreates art  T he comedy team of Bert Williams and George Walker billed themselves as "Two Real Coons" as a genuine alternative to white comedians who performed in blackface. The duo, who met and teamed up in San Francisco, moved to New York in 1896.   When discussing the popularity in 1906 of white comedians in blackface billing them selves as "coons" with New York's Theatre Magazine, Walker explained the duo's rhyme and reason:  "Bert and I watched the white "coons" and were much amused at seeing white men with black cork on their faces trying to imitate black folks. We thought that as there seemed to be a great demand for black faces on the stage, we would do all we could to get what we felt belonged to us by the laws of nature."     Bert Williams and George Walker wrote, produced and acted in their own musical revues, filling theatre seats with New Yorkers, both black and white in productions named Sons of Ham ...

Billie Holiday c. 1933 From An Accident Comes a Legend Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Baltimore on April 7, 1915, the illegitimate child of Sadie Fagan, a domestic and Clarence Holiday, a musician who abandoned Sadie and the young Eleanora for the grind and glory of the road. It is said that he referred to his adoring daughter as an “accident” and “something I stole when I was fifteen.” Young Eleanora stayed with relatives in Baltimore while her mother labored as a domestic in New York City.  The girl spent a good portion of her time at a neighborhood brothel where she would spend hours listening to the music of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on its Victrola . After almost being raped at the tender age of 10, Eleanora was sent away to an institution ran by Catholic nuns as punishment for allegedly enticing the man who almost stole what little innocence she had. 'Lady Day' c. late 1930s An Extraordinary Career Begins When she was 18 in ...