Sepia Starshine

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.

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 ...