Louise Brooks and famous Black entertainers of the 1920s

To mark Black History Month, I thought to put together a blog noting some of the African American entertainers who Louise Brooks met in the 1920s, or whose careers intersected with Brooks in some way. So here goes. . . . To begin in the past, I have written about Edgar "Blue" Washington, the only African American actor to have appeared in one of Brooks films, namely Beggars of Life. He had an interesting life and career, and my earlier blog about Washington appeared in 2018 and can be found HERE.

Black Mose, played by Edgar Washington, carries an injured hobo in Beggars of Life

One of the most famous African American entertainers of the inter-war period was Josephine Baker (1906-1975). She was a singer, recording artist, dancer, and actress. In Lulu in Hollywood, Brooks reminiscences about her time in Berlin and her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box, writing, "Collective lust roared unashamed at the theatre. . . . In the revue Chocolate Kiddies, when Josephine Baker appeared naked excerpt for a girdle of bananas, it was precisely as Lulu's stage entrance was described by Wedekind." Seemingly, Brooks suggest she saw Baker perform in Chocolate Kiddies, or did she? She doesn't actually say so. . . .  It is known that Baker and the Chocolate Kiddies revue performed in Berlin in 1925, and Baker herself returned there without the revue in 1928 or 1929. And of course, Baker performed, most famously, in Paris, another city where Brooks resided for a short time. But still, we don't know for sure whether Brooks actually saw Baker perform and conflated that performance with Baker's best known stage show, or whether Brooks was simply making a comparison based on something she had read about or been told about. I think it likely that Brooks did see Baker perform as some time, perhaps even in her banana girdle. In his biography, Jean-Claude Baker writes about Josephine's time in Berlin in 1928, and even references Brooks and the quotation above. However, he does not state that Brooks and Baker ever encountered one another.

I thought to write this particular blog because just the other day I was looking through a database of African American newspapers when I came across a mention of Brooks! The mention occurred in the Inter-State Tattler, an African American newspaper based in Harlem. In the June 14, 1929 issue, columnist Lady Nicotine penned a piece titled "Alberta Hunter Returns" in which she states that the famed African-American jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter (1895-1984) had met many celebrities in Europe, including Alice Terry, Ramon Novarro, Cole Porter, and Louise Brooks. Beyond that, we know nothing else. I would only guess that their meeting took place in Paris sometime in May, where Brooks spent most of the month.

A bobbed Alberta Hunter

Brooks' name has popped up in other African American newspapers, but usually in relation to one of her films showing in a particular city or town. For instance, in Baltimore in February of 1927, the Royal Theater was screening Love Em and Leave Em, and performing at that same theater was great Clara Smith (c. 1894 – 1935), an African America blues singer billed as the "Queen of the Moaners."

The Royal Theater was one of Baltimore's finest theaters, and one of a circuit of five such theaters which featured Black entertainment. (Its sister theaters were the Apollo in Harlem, the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Regal Theatre in Chicago, and the Earl Theater in Philadelphia.) Over the years, the biggest stars in jazz and blues performed at the Royal. Another instance of a Brooks film showing along with a performance by a significant African American singer was when Valaida Snow (1904 - 1956) was on the bill along with A Social Celebrity. The occasion was a showing at the famed Carlton Theatre in Shanghai, China in September, 1928.

In what was billed as an "extraordinary attraction," Snow and "5 Red Hot Masters of Syncopation" performed live on stage, followed by A Social Celebrity on the screen. Snow, a female jazz trumpeter, became so famous that she was nicknamed "Little Louis" after Louis Armstrong, who called her the world's second best jazz trumpet player. Snow played concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. From 1926 to 1929, she toured with Jack Carter's Serenaders, performing not only in Shanghai but also in Singapore, Calcutta, and Jakarta. 

There are other instances of a Black entertainer performing on stage ahead of a Louise Brooks film, including, once, the nearly blind pianist Art Tatum (1909 - 1956). But let's get back to closer encounters of the personal kind, in this case the acclaimed concert artist and stage and film actor Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976). 

Paul Robeson, by Carl van Vechten

 

Brooks and Robeson first encountered one another sometime around April 21, 1925, when the two met at a party at the apartment of writer & photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880 - 1964). Brooks, then just a Ziegfeld showgirl, is not known to have ever mentioned having met Robeson, then an emerging star who just finished appearing in a revival of The Emperor Jones, by Eugene O'Neil. Robeson, however, recalled meeting the 18 year old Brooks, who he noted in his journals was "very conceited and impossible."

Brooks and Robeson came close to another encounter in March of 1932. On the 19th, syndicated columnist Maurice Dancer noted Brooks was among the many celebrities who had visited the Yeah Man jazz club in Harlem within the last week. Among the other celebrities mentioned by Dancer were famed jazz musicians Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines, and Paul Robeson.